Cooking with seasonal ingredients helps me feel like I’m getting the most out of what the Earth has to offer, and cooking with invasive ingredients helps me feel like I’m doing some good to balance the scales. After a few years of talking about it, I tried my first garlic mustard recipe, which I enjoyed while pairing with some other flavors of May.
Once we removed my tree, Christian was able to rebuild the retaining wall in our driveway. I learned a lot about the process, which will be useful as more of our walls need assistance. I’m also trying to figure out what to put in the hole left by my tree, but there are a lot of factors to consider for wall and plant health.
After a long, cold, lonely winter, I was more than ready to get back out in the garden and enjoy the warmth and the flowers. With some inspiration from my friends, I made and canned syrups made from my violets and honeysuckle, and I have been drinking them in cocktails as I sit and watch the world come back to life.