Jammy Chicken

Wreath Flowers, Western Australia.

Wreath flowers are a rare and beautiful Western Australia wildflower. They grow in expanding circles, and the outermost edges of the succulent plant bloom a vivid deep pink and white, forming a perfect living wreath. Flower fanatics come from all over Australia, and all over the world, to catch a glimpse of these beauties. The plants fluorish on disturbed ground, making recently graded roadsides a prime location to spot them. It's pretty difficult to see a small, ground-hugging flower while zipping by at 60 miles an hour, but given the complete lack of traffic on the highway we certainly noticed the 5 cars parked up ahead (that was more cars than we'd seen all day). Being gawkers, and nosy, we pulled off to see what all the fuss was about, and found a forest of wreath flowers on the ground. It looked like a flock of springtime nymphs had scattered their head wear across the dusty red soil. Difficult to grow from seed or transplant, the only way you are going to see these delicate flower circles is if you too stumble onto them in the Australian outback.

Quick pickled asparagus.

I teach people how to map rocks, and I think we all agree that it's almost impossible to do that without some actual rocks, like outside and stuff.

Small hurdle: Iowa has little in the way of diverse outside rocks that are useful for learning to map.

So we go to the rocks. Montana - the rocks, they are spectacular, don't get me wrong, but they are also 22 hours' drive away. In a convoy with 8 suburbans and lots of college students.

The other problem with going to the rocks is that it happens to coincide with the first joyous explosion of fresh and local produce, notably the ephemeral asparagus season. Fat and stumpy, thin and willowy, dark green or purple-shot spears, when the asparagus arrives it is everywhere.

Everywhere, that is, except in my garden. My own asparagus patch, now going on year two, looks a lot like someone dropped a couple green toothpicks that stuck in the ground. Apparently, growing asparagus is only for those people with the patience of a saint. That most definitely wasn't in the catalogue description.

I do my best to eat as much asparagus as possible while I am at home, before the long drive out and 3 weeks of dormitory food. University of Montana Western - which is, for dorm food, pretty darned good, really, especially the all-you-can-eat, soft-serve ice cream bar. That guarantees I come home a few pounds heavier than I start every year. Though I like to think it's all muscle, I suspect the marshmallow and fudge sauces and crumbled oreos on vanilla soft serve may have a little impact. I swear, they must put crack in that marshmallow sauce, it's so good in a hate-to-love-it way.

Though the main avalanche of asparagus season is past, I've returned in time to just catch the tail edge, and I've found some beautiful, lance-like sturdy spears with their tight budded tips. Store them in the refrigerator like flowers, with the cut end in water, until ready to use.

My starting point was Paul Virant's recipe for pickled asparagus from The Preservation Kitchen. (I have some of his strawberry jams lined up for making over the next few days, and am very excited about them.) I have modified the recipe to be a quick refrigerator pickle, and also to be on  jar-by-jar basis.

So, if you want one jar, you can make one jar. If you can lay your hands on a windfall of asparagus this late in the game and want 10 jars, just scale up. I used a 12 ounce jar to maximize the length of the asparagus spears, which I trimmed to 4 inches long (10 cm) so that the tip of every spear was roughly one inch below the rim of the jar. Coincidentally, this is the perfect length to serve as a swizzle stick in a Bloody Mary - how about a Bacon Vodka Bloody Mary with a pickled asparagus swizzle stick?

Promises, promises.

And what exactly is a flower if not a promise?

A promise of good things to come, with some patience and a little luck.

The Ozark Beauty strawberries are growing like gangbusters - so pretty as groundcover and with a berry bonus, if we can beat the chipmunks and birds to them.

 

Cucumber - bush pickle - is a new one for me this year. The furry little spines covering the leaves and tendrils are quite endearing.

Tomatillo plants are another first this year and have also started flowering - these will be purple rather than the more standard green.

Early Bird Garden peas - experimental variety - sound ominous but were freebies with my seed order. I'll be pinching off some of the tender shoots to add to salads - for a remarkable pea-like flavor - and to encourage the plants to grow more robustly. I tried these last year, but a combination of neglect and shadow from the tomato plants did them in.

It's hard to imagine this glossy green nub will become a nectarine - Hardired dwarf variety. 

And my pride this year rests in this fuzzy beauty, one of the few frost survivors on the Goldcot Apricot tree. It may not be more than a nibble or two, but it will be worth the wait.