THE TENDER MERCIES OF SPRING
Early vegetable crops are arriving. Here are five to take advantage of, writes Susan Semenak.
As a chef committed to cooking and eating local, Étienne Huot is feeling practically giddy right about now.
All winter long, he and his partners in the local-organic restaurant La Récolte Espace Local, in Villeray, have been serving root vegetables from the cellar and fruits and veggies they froze last fall and summer, along with lettuce and herbs grown in nearby greenhouses. It is their mission to buy and cook and serve dishes made with local, organic ingredients; only the coffee, sugar, wine and chocolate come from elsewhere.
So when Huot spotted this spring’s first wild green fiddleheads at Jean-Talon Market a couple of weeks ago, his heart skipped a beat. There’s not much local produce available quite yet — the danger of overnight frost prevents farmers from planting until the end of May or early June in this northern climate. But already a few cold-hardy crops like asparagus and rhubarb and green onion have made their appearance at the market.
Soon they will be joined by peas and spinach, lettuce and other greens. By mid June, there will be baby carrots, beets and turnips, too. And if the weather co-operates, the first strawberries.
“This time of year feels like rebirth. Finally it’s nice out and freshness is returning to our plates,” said Huot, who opened La Récolte two years ago along with Lyssa Barrera and Denis Vukmirovic.
‘There’s such a difference in how the early vegetables taste. In springtime, the flavours are more delicate.”
Huot says the best way to prepare the first veggies is to do as little as possible and “let them speak for themselves.”
Eat them raw, when possible, or lightly steamed or sautéed and drizzled with just a little salt or sugar or a light, bright vinaigrette.
To celebrate the start of a new growing season, here are a few ideas for five of the earliest spring veggies turning up at local farmer’s markets, along with a few ideas for making them shine.