What I like about preserving is knowing something delicious will be there for me later. More, I like knowing that it keeps a memory of the season.
This spring season has been full kapha: grounding and feeling a bit heavy. I had to tug at roots like carrots, onion, and garlic, and lighten with asparagus and cucumber. Perfect for a pickling evening:
Canning and pickling are a bit solitary, but Jesse and I shared the chopping, cleaning, and boiling so that there was some kind of collaboration happening. That’s been important lately–as we’ve taken to some isolating situations being in a new place where we still don’t have a sense of community. We’ve needed to make the most simple activities something to share.
I can’t tell you how beautiful asparagus are here. I remember a school field trip where we intended to strawberry pick, to put berries in our hats. Everyone brought a straw hat and we were excited to get sugary, to think about pies and tarts. The trip buckled–something about the rain or the crop, something we didn’t understand as kids. We picked asparagus instead and it tasted different–to kids who “didn’t like” vegetables–to eat asparagus right from the ground. It always tastes different to get things from the source.
The pickles will be ready when we get back from Portland and I have some time to catch up on things. Luckily, they’ll last and we’ll have even more time to make a nice cheese and keep this spring a bit longer.
