Green Snow

Snow in April. The week before the snow hit, I was looking out my back window into the woods and saw something I couldn’t believe. It was a deciduous tree with a full coat of green.

Every morning, I bring Little Miss Fussy to the bus stop, and we’ve been slowly watching buds form at the end of long dormant branches. And we’ve been observing those buds slowly opening. We check the tree canopy for other colors and signs of spring.

But what a shocker to see this little tree totally covered with green leaves. Looking deeper into the woods, I realized there was a second one too. But most of the other trees were still in their early budding phase.

And then of course, the snow came. I am so glad that I don’t garden, much less farm. It has to be crazy making. Speaking of farmers, yesterday, I went to the Schenectady Greenmarket to visit some of my favorite ones in the region. Where else can you brave the snow for a taste of spring.

When does late winter end and spring begin? I say it’s when life springs out of the ground.

I’ve seen pictures of the first fiddleheads. But I haven’t seen any in person. But at the farmers’ market, Cornell Farm had bundles of green things for sale. It was green garlic for $2 a bunch. Full of excitement for the new crops, I bought two bunches.

Bringing them home, I turned one into a garlic, pine nut, and olive oil paste. I’m going to spread it on everything I can. I hear that garlic is supposed to be good for my new stupid diet. The other bunch was turned into a spring white bean dip. It’s a glorious shade of light green. I took the lazy way out and used canned cannellini beans. But I didn’t take any shortcuts on the freshly squeezed lemon juice. There’s no substitution for the real thing.

So just know that if you happen to bump into me before, during, or after the All Over Albany party on Wednesday, I might be a little pungent.

In the meantime, I’m hoping to take advantage of this cooler weather to cook one last batch of chicken stock, so I can put even more away for the spring and summer. It’s really so much easier when I can put a strained batch out in the garage to cool. The spring and fall alternative is surrounding a pot with ice packs in the fridge and hoping for the best.

At the market I also picked up a bone in pork shoulder. Young Master Fussy is going to be tickled pink because I think he’s going to get another batch of pulled pork from the joint. I kind of wanted carnitas. But that would require a run down to the Mexican market for dried peppers. The pulled pork ingredients, on the other hand, are already stocked at home.

Well, those should help to keep the house warm and smelling great. Whether or not that will be enough to compensate for all my green-garlic-breath will be up for time to tell.