May : In Season

Eating seasonally and prioritizing locally grown produce and ingredients : context for full spring

• Spring is all around…pollen clouds and all.

Mid Spring

• In May, the seeds started in cozy greenhouses begin to take root under the sun, and the seedlings now rely on spring showers to practice resilience and growth. Similar to April, May welcomes the fresh green growth and delicate blooms more that comes before the fruiting abundance of summer.
• Seek out asparagus, artichokes, sweet peas and snap peas, pea shoots, beets, spinach and other lettuce leaf, cilantro, fava beans, radishes, rhubarb, and fennel.
• Spring mushrooms are notable additions to a meal as well, including oyster, morel, hen of the woods, shaggy manes, puffballs, newly grown turkey tail, porcini, wood ear, alpine jelly cone, witches butter. (If you’re foraging, make sure you are 110% certain of your identification of the organism before eating it!)
• For alliums, don’t pass up ramps, spring garlic, spring onions, and leeks.
• Fruits like cherries, strawberries, and blueberries are just starting to shine too!

Strawberry Appreciation

Strawberries, when ripened perfectly and warm from the sunshine, are one of my absolute favorite experiences as an animal on this Earth. In homage to my love for the charming fruit, here are some facts about strawberries!

1. Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
2. Strawberries contain high amounts vitamin C (even more than an orange), helping fight plaque and whiten teeth.
3. Strawberries do not contiue ripening once picked, so they must be picked at the short window between red-all-over and the first signs of decomposition for optimum flavor.
4. Strawberries average about 200 seeds per fruit.
5. The strawberry plant is a member of the rose family, along with the raspberry, blackberry, pear, apple, quince, almond, cherry, plum, loquat, peach, apricot, and of course, rose!
6. There are 103 species of strawberry, many of them wild.
7. Room temperature strawberries are sweeter than cold.
8. Cherokee nation lore tells us that the strawberry is a symbol of peace and good luck.
9. In Asia, strawberry leaves have been used as a detox and anti-aging tea.
10. In Ancient Rome, strawberry was used to assist bad breath and to encourage healthy digestion.
11. Viking lore tells us that when a baby dies, their form becomes a strawberry and is ascended to the heavens, each seed representing a baby.
12. European folklore tells us that if you split a double strawberry in half and share it with someone else, you will soon fall in love with each other.