May My Favorite

Oh May! My favorite time of the year here. Finally the flowers bloom and the plants start their fast and furious reproductive sprints. I find myself walking circles around the house over and over again, checking and double checking every plant possible for signs of sudden growth. What an exhilirating time of year!

Yesterday it struck me, though, that besides the inherent beauty of a lush landscape, every effort I make, every plant discovery that excites me, every future dream I build - all of that somehow revolves around my passion for food. Good food. Real food. Not the kind of stale produce we can pluck from the grocery store, certainly not the ubiquitous nausea of corn syrup or obscure frankensteinian corn additives, not even the tasty treat of a tired day restaurant dinner. Nope, I'm talking the kind of food that bursts in your mouth in an explosion of colorful flavors, the kind of food that only can come from lovingly tended soil, the kind that withers within minutes of disturbing. Oh, food, glorious food. There is something almost magical about growing or making one's own food. Knowing the cycles of life and nutrients that produced whatever amazing chemical reactions that might briefly caress the tongue. Knowing the honest cost of the bite. Perhaps its the knowing that really instills the savoring. Regardless, taking a snip of spring terragon here and a tip of new garlic green there, something inspiring transpires: the quest for flavor drives all the labor and time and thought and makes it all worthwhile.

Parmesan Ice Cream

Finally we have our raw cow's milk. Fresh cream... ohhh nothing better! Above is pictured one of my favorite uses for cream - Parmesan (actually Asiago in this case) "Ice Cream" with snipped fresh rosemary and garlic. Smooth as butter and absolutely addicting! Here's a recipe:

Parmesan Ice Cream

Ingredients: 2:1 ratio of high quality block parmesan cheese to cream.

garlic, thinly sliced, to taste

a sprinkle of nutmeg

freshly ground black pepper to taste

sprigs of fresh rosemary

Warm cream, garlic slices and nutmeg til boiling. Meanwhile, grate cheese. Turn cream mix to very low. Add cheese and stir continuously until smooth. Mix in cracked pepper and rosemary if desired. Temper at room temperature then refridgerate. Spread on fresh bread.

This can be scooped with an ice cream scoop to resemble french vanilla ice cream. Try drizzling with a reduced balsamic and everyone will swear its vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Its a good trick to play on an unsuspecting dinner guest. :)

"comb cling"

Now... the bees. They arrived 8 days ago in fantastic condition from an overnight plane trip from California. I allowed them to accustom themselves to their very new queen for another 24 hours before hiving them. Hiving went well enough - the weather was far more cooperative than last year, and everyone settled in quickly and calmly. I placed both organic sugar water and the package feeding can within the hive, then checked feed levels once during the following week. They did not eat much. I think the later hiving time (May rather than April like last year) probably gave them more opportunities to gather wild nectar and pollen.

Today was my first real hive check. I did not observe the queen, but was surprised to find a fairly large comb with nectar and EGGS already constructed. Unfortunately, it was hanging diagonally off the still attached queen cage. Obviously the queen is there somewhere, and becoming prolific at that, but the comb had to be detached and the queen cage removed. I placed the comb at the bottom of the hive in the hope the bees will know what to do with it and will start building comb in the appropriate places - off the topbars! They did have good "comb clings" hanging off multiple bars, so I suspect next week there will be more order - well, human order - to the hive.

The serviceberries are once again in full bloom... the entire hillside is smothered in their white blooms... there is no other sight quite like it.

Evening Diversions

There is an odd feel to the air tonight, to last night. A moon rose veiled by a smokey-thin red cloud cover - no fire, no smoke in sight. The wind howled lowly, constantly through the fir boughs and cottonwood branches, bending the birches across the river into one uniform, uncomfortable southwest angle. There is a jitter in the air, like the energizing O3 increase before a thunderstorm, but I don't sense that kind of storm. Typically my half amputated middle toe lets me know when a storm is coming... its true what they say... "I can feel it in my bones", in my case, my toe bone that's no longer there... but not tonight. Tonight its something different... and I like it.

New Comb

I checked the hive again yesterday. Not a lot new to muse over this week. The seventh bar has been built upon - new translucent pale-cream comb, so different from the brilliant yellow dandelion comb of the early spring. Still beautiful, just in a new way, a more peaceful, angelic way. I am noticing one anomaly that may prove difficult in the future: the bees built a double comb on the sixth topbar, knocking off the spacing ease of the first five. I almost destroyed comb between the sixth and seventh bar before I noticed that the seventh bar also has two combs... hmmmm... at least its straight comb, not wavily attached to multiple bars. I should still be able to remove and access future topbars... I hope.

Good Brood Capping The old combs are darkening from yellow to gold to swarthy sunflower to dazzling dirt. They are FULL of larva, capped brood, drone cells and new eggs. One thing is certain, Flower knows how to reproduce!



The final object of writing interest this evening: Garden salads. Yes, those greens I longed for for months, dreamed of during the long whiteness of winter, thought of which I would never tire... those greens. They are just beginning to overwhelm me. We have been eating salads every day since that first exhilirating salad last week, and the salad keeps on coming. I've given several bags of greens away, but they're reproducing like rabbits, or, well, bees. Tomorrow I am harvesting spinach and possibly turnip greens to freeze, then probably will be compelled to eat yet another salad for dinner. So many salads, so few salad permutations. Tonight I got creative with what was hiding in my kitchen... here's a blanket recipe for tonight's salad - a little different, a little more exciting:

Tonight's Thai Shrimp Salad

1 can coconut milk (though I think ideally coconut cream)
a couple Tblsp brown sugar
quartered button mushrooms
fish sauce to taste
Curry paste or a garlicky seasoning to taste

Bring to low boil, cook mushrooms. Add
Shrimp
Cook until shrimp are pink and add juice of
one lime
and a handful of bean thread noodles or rice noodles

Add to Salad:
Garden greens
thinly sliced Green Onion
thinly sliced onion or shallots
thinly sliced hot pepper (serrano in my case)
thinly sliced lemon grass (if you have it on hand)
peanuts or cashews
about one inch finely grated ginger
fresh mint leaves
fresh cilantro
water chestnuts

Basically anything in your kitchen that sounds good... :) Enjoy!