Sunburned & Content

A good Sunday. Worked a few hours this morning, and then went out to the Winter Cache Farm in Cumberland. I worked for several hours planting potatoes (eyes to the sky, friends!) and then cabbages, and weeding. I'll be eating those cabbages and potatoes all winter. My reward for all that work was a big bag of garlic scapes and lettuce, a little pink on my cheeks, and dirty toes. I love it.

Garlic scapes are one of those special once-a-year treats (like fiddleheads, strawberries**, and tomatoes**) that you have to stuff yourself with when they're around, so you can remember them later. They're in season here right now, and I plotted last fall to plant some garlic just so we could have the scapes.

They are actually the garlic flower, but they grow in fantastical, curly shapes, and are a much more mild garlic flavor than the cloves (which are the root). Scapes sort of have the texture of a green bean minus the seeds and that string. Or like a thick, badass chive. I stir fry them or slice them thin for potato salad, and I had them pickled once and just about died of pleasure.

After that fun (could there be more? Yes, there could!) I got a surprise invitation to a pizza party at J & S's house (they are two of my favorite people ever), and found more of my favorite people there, plus a strawberry margarita with blue sugar on the glass. Sigh. Dreamy.

**I know there are strawberries and tomatoes available all year round. I just ignore them. I really do try to buy mostly locally and in-season. I froze a bunch of strawberries last summer and am just finishing them up now, and I'll buy canned tomatoes if I absolutely need them. I might can my own this year. I know I still eat all kinds of food that doesn't grow in this area (I heart avocados), but I have to draw the line somewhere, and strawberries and tomatoes are it.