The spring season ushers in fresher ingredients
Spring-like air excites the senses and can translate into newfound inspiration in the kitchen.
Spring-like air excites the senses and can translate into newfound inspiration in the kitchen. Citrus is one of the ingredientsof-the-moment in Mickey Bedell’s kitchen at her home in North Coventry, Chester County. The foodie and aspiring nutritionist enjoys cooking in her spare time.
“That’s my big activity to unwind,” Bedell says.
She gets to keep her eye on what’s coming in each season through her job as the produce department manager at Kimberton Whole Foods in Douglassville, where she gets to select what they carry, much of which comes from Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative.
A recent expansion doubled the store, and now the produce department takes center stage upon entrance. Right now it’s citrus season so Bedell finds herself using a lot of citrus as the focus of her home cooking.
“My favorites are Meyer lemons,” she said, adding her fondness for using them to dress dishes, such as salads. “I like to do a citrus salad with all of the citrus we offer.”
That includes mandarins, kumquats, grapefruits, blood orange oranges and Cara Cara oranges.
“It’s a lightly dressed salad with fennel and arugula,” Bedell said. “I like the sweetness of the oranges and the tartness of the grapefruit.”
To make a simple dressing, she cuts her citrus on a plate and then adds a drizzle of olive oil to the juices along with cracked pepper.
“My pepper grinder is my trusty kitchen tool,” she says.
Bedell enjoys trying new things, particularly those grown locally, and telling her customers about them. Most recently she has been excited about cooking with trumpet mushrooms.
“They are a dupe for scallops,” she said. “I have been telling people to saute them with white wine, vegetable broth or water, and then add either butter or vegan butter, and lemon and cracked pepper — it’s amazing.”
Another favorite dish Bedell has been making as of late is a warm salad with roasted root vegetables. She includes purple sweet potatoes, rainbow carrots
and golden beets.
“I quarter them and toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper,” she said.
Next, she tosses the cooked vegetables with some fresh spinach, tosses again to wilt the greens a bit and then adds goat cheese.
“It’s a warming dish,” she said. “You gotta love a sheet pan dinner.”
Bedell’s love of food has her appreciate her position with Kimberton Whole Foods at a time when she is studying to become a nutritionist.
“I enjoy turning people onto locality and how it maintains the nutrition because of how close it was to the harvester,” she said.
Natalie Bischof, of Douglassville, is a customer at Kimberton Whole Foods in Douglassville who also frequents Frecon Farms in Boyertown to shop because like Bedell, she prioritizes food that’s grown locally. She also has a subscription to Misfits Market where she gets a large portion of her produce delivered directly to her doorstep.
She has been making a lot of vegetable-based soups and crockpot meals as of late and enjoys switching things up based on what she gets in her Misfits box. But she has her sights set on the changing of the seasons that will soon be upon us and the vegetables that come along with that.
“I’m really looking forward to asparagus — that is the big spring thing that I’m looking forward to, and strawberries and rhubarb,” Bischof said. “I can get rhubarb at Kimberton Whole Foods and know it’s a local product.”
As for the preparation of her asparagus, she likes to keep it easy. As a mom of two children, she tends to stick to what her entire family will enjoy eating.
“I keep it really simple with olive, oil, salt and pepper in a 400-degree oven for 10 minutes,” she said. “I’m looking forward to roasting that.”
She tends to get inspired to make certain meals by a combination of what’s in her pantry and what needs to get used up in the refrigerator.
“I make a corn and potato chowder,” she said. “I also made a lentil soup with sausage and kale — I had some kale to use up.”
Bischof has found the pandemic to be trying on her ability to get creative with gusto in the kitchen as often as needed to feed her family.
“I’m exhausted trying to figure out what we’re having on a regular basis,” she said.
Right now, she’s trying to determine what to do for summer produce, between growing some of her own and the possibility of joining a CSA. Last summer she grew several things at her home garden that she has enjoyed eating all winter long.
“I canned pickles, tomato sauce and salsas,” she said. “I was overrun with tomatoes and my neighbor with jalapenos, so I made salsa and shared it with them.”