# What is your favorite spring food?



## corazon (Mar 24, 2006)

What is your favorite spring food? Spring being a fairly loose term...


----------



## Michelemarie (Mar 24, 2006)

I voted for asparagus, cherries and artichokes!


----------



## amber (Mar 24, 2006)

Most of these things are not spring items here.  So I voted for asparagus and rhubarb. Cherries and strawberries are more of a summer fruit here, typically in June. Is there a season for lamb, ham, and what the heck is mache?  I dont know the season for artichokes either, but it's not a common veggie here. As for easter eggs, they come in chocolate or we dye them


----------



## urmaniac13 (Mar 24, 2006)

Strawberries, Asparaguses and Artichokes!!  It is still a bit early for Asparaguses and Artichokes but they will be filling the market stalls very shortly... right now I am practically living on strawberries... it is in the height of the season and the season never last long enough... gotta enjoy while they last!!


----------



## corazon (Mar 24, 2006)

amber said:
			
		

> Most of these things are not spring items here. So I voted for asparagus and rhubarb. Cherries and strawberries are more of a summer fruit here, typically in June. Is there a season for lamb, ham, and what the heck is mache? I dont know the season for artichokes either, but it's not a common veggie here. As for easter eggs, they come in chocolate or we dye them


this is why I said loosely spring.  Lamb & ham are just easter dinner type foods that we always had.  asparagus, artichokes & rhubarb are all in season for us right now.  cherries and strawberries are kind of a late spring thing here.  And mache is like salad greens, very tender.  easter eggs, when else do you dye them?  I suppose it really depends where you are and your climate.


----------



## Essie (Mar 25, 2006)

Asparagus is my favorite!!!!!


----------



## Poppinfresh (Mar 25, 2006)

Well, since strawberries, cherries and rhubarb are the only three things on that list not readily available year round (at least where I am)...and since cherries are more of a summer fruit...I'm gonna go with strawberries.


----------



## auntdot (Mar 25, 2006)

Will probably go with mache. It has such a lovely flavor.

Used to be able to get fiddlehead ferns which are great,  It was available to us only during a few week period during the spring.  Have not been able to get them recently where we live, unfortunately.

Course there is nothing better than fresh asparagus.


----------



## ironchef (Mar 25, 2006)

I voted for other, other being Kumamoto Oysters. Oysters usually are not at their best during the Spring months, but many Kumamoto's can hit their peak starting in March, then really peaking in April and May.


----------



## licia (Mar 25, 2006)

I voted asparagus, strawberries and ham.  We do have strawberries in the spring and ham is such an Easter favorite. When I was in Germany the white asparagus was just in and I ate so much of that.  Everywhere we went if they had it, that was what I got. I have never seen white asparagus here.


----------



## buckytom (Mar 25, 2006)

i chose the same as mm, asparagrass, cherries, and arty-chokes.

licia, i've grown white asparagus, but it is very hard to find in stores, and expensivissimo. being a cold weather veggie, i would think it even more rare in sunny florida.
and yes, it is delicious. it is regular asparagus, but before the spears break the ground, a box is put over the crown area to deprive the spears of light, therefore no chlorophyll forms and it stays pale white, and nuittily delicious.  

before a mc-mansion was built next to my house, my old neighbor had a beautiful white cherry tree. sadly, it was cut down to make room for a deck.
 i used to go over, and like a spring bird bound for northern roosts, i would engorge myself on the cherries, and fill a bucket to bring into the house.

and for artichokes, "if it choked artie, it sure ain't gonna choke stymie!"


----------



## SizzlininIN (Mar 25, 2006)

I vote Asparagus but should of voted other also for mushrooms.  Its almost time for mushroom hunting here and I can't wait.  I haven't been able to go in years and truely look forward to it.  Asparagus has to be one of my all time favorite veggies.  A neighboring town where I grew up used to grow fields and fields of it....I think there was a packing plant.  Anyway, we used to go when I was young and stop along the roadside and it just grows wild.   I can't recall exactly where the spots were to go but my oldest brother does and he's coming down for Easter and I plan on having him take me there and I'm going to keep going back.


----------



## BreezyCooking (Mar 27, 2006)

I voted "Other", since my favorite spring foods are the first fresh local outdoor produce of the season - Ramps & Fiddleheads.  Ramps should be showing up at the local organic market in the next week or so, with Fiddleheads following a few weeks thereafter.


----------



## kimbaby (Mar 27, 2006)

without a doubt aspargus wins hands down  
great poll by the way!


----------



## college_cook (Mar 28, 2006)

I really doubt this qualifies as spring food, mine would be steaks on the grill.  It's something I really really miss during winter, and whenever I have the first steak of the season i swear its all i'll ever eat for the rest of my life.


----------



## middie (Mar 28, 2006)

I went with Cherries and Ham. Actually... put the cherries ON the ham please thank you very much.


----------



## RMS (Mar 28, 2006)

Asparagus and Strawberries!


----------



## SierraCook (Mar 28, 2006)

BreezyCooking said:
			
		

> I voted "Other", since my favorite spring foods are the first fresh local outdoor produce of the season - Ramps & Fiddleheads. Ramps should be showing up at the local organic market in the next week or so, with Fiddleheads following a few weeks thereafter.


 
I know what fiddleheads are, but what are ramps?  

I voted for 3 or 4 things, but my favorites are asparagus and artichokes.


----------



## BreezyCooking (Mar 29, 2006)

Ramps are a type of wild leek with a strong onion/garlic flavor.  Some folks claim that eating them forces their scent/flavor right out of your pores, & there are entire festivals based on their consumption throughout the Appalachian areas.

Physically they don't look like a member of the onion family at all, having harrow stems, wide single leaves, & no real bulb to speak of.  Here's a farm that sells them online & has some pics & further info:

http://www.rampfarm.com/


----------



## bethzaring (Apr 2, 2006)

Morel mushrooms, can't wait!!!!


----------



## Banana Brain (Apr 30, 2006)

Strawberries! Its an emotional-food thing, because when I think of spring I think of being young and my mother making shortcakes and letting my siblings and I top them with strawberries and a ten-second spray of whipped-cream.


----------



## cloudybutnice (May 20, 2006)

Definitely asparagus, closely followed by rhubarb. I particularly like asparagus cooked in the normal way then popped under the grill with cheese on top for a couple of minutes. I love rhubarb cooked with ginger and dark muscavado sugar. Done that way it doesn't make your teeth sing like the bright pink stuff we used to get at school!


----------



## bright (May 20, 2006)

Fiddleheads (but I can't find them here), blood oranges, and of course mushrooms.


----------



## BreezyCooking (May 20, 2006)

Bright - this company, "Earthly Delights", carries fresh fiddleheads in season & frozen fiddleheads out of season (which I'm dying to try to see how they are!!).  While I haven't ordered fiddleheads from them before, I have ordered other things & they're a nice company to deal with.  Very good customer service.

http://earthy.com/?EDI=d482fbb92446181293d648b0d4068fad


----------



## Ishbel (May 20, 2006)

In most of mainland Europe, white asparagus is the favoured way of raising the veg.  It is a bit like 'forcing' rhubarb - it is kep 'earthed up' and that makes the stems stay white.  Got to say, I much prefer green, even if it does make one's urine go an interesting colour....


----------



## auntdot (May 21, 2006)

OK, will go along with asparagus.

But the item we most look forwared to in the local farm stand is raw peanuts.

We boil them, of course, with a toss of salt.

Nothing is better.

OK, OK, a lot of things are better, but it is really a treat.  And it tells us that Spring is really here.

Take care and God bless.


----------

