A Spring Lunch

We came home with many treasures from the market today:  Sweet Gallberry honey from bees pollinating around the Green Swamp, a warm loaf of sourdough bread with a crust so crisp you can hear it crackle when you press it by your ear, fingerling potatoes (what child can resist?), a bag of dried red tea leaves, and a container of creamy butternut squash soup that would become the basis of a playful Spring lunch.

As the soup warmed, Will grabbed our bamboo bowl and we went outside to pick salad greens from the garden.  We gathered a surprising bounty of roots, shoots and leaves including arugula, mizuna, buttercrunch, romaine, kale, green onions, and cherry belle radishes.  I tossed it all in the smallest splash of olive oil, lemon juice, and sprinkling of Himalayan sea salt.  I couldn’t help but think of Jamie Oliver’s method for “tickling” salads as I lifted the leaves into the air and let them tumble away from my fingers.

We ladled the orange soup into shallow bowls and topped them with borage blossoms from the garden.  Piper nibbled on radishes, and we took our bread with honey.

Butternut squash soup, fingerling potatoes, Gallberry honey, Jen’s sourdough bread (thank you!), dried tea leaves, and Piper’s bird feeder.

Radishes, borage blossoms, mizuna, arugula, buttercrunch, kale, romaine, etc.

Butternut squash soup with borage blossoms

On another note, I know that I have been quiet lately.  I am busy mulling over three books that I received a few weeks ago:  Rosewater and Soda  Bread by Marsha Mehran, The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Goethe, and Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice.  They are all so thoughtful and different, but I hope to share some words about them with you soon.