Honeysuckle, Fiddleheads, Rhubarb

Spring Things

Hello,

Giving away a piano is not an easy task. We posted a notice in a church bulletin and on Craig’s List, ran ads on websites that list free pianos, and posted flyers around town. Several factors make it difficult. Taking piano lessons is not a thing like when I was growing up, they are expensive to move and tune, and they take up a lot of space. As so often happens, a personal connection finally got the job done. Walking in the park, a year or so ago, my husband John noticed a mom trying to help her daughter hit a softball. John offered to give her some pointers and suggested that her bat was perhaps too large. He was certain that some of our son’s smaller bats were still in the attic and after introductions all around, Lillian gave John her address so he could drop off a couple of bats. We continued to run into Lillian and her two children in the park and would always stop and chat for a minute. Finally, it occurred to us that maybe Lillian would like the piano.

Now that someone wanted the piano and things were on a roll John was determined to orchestrate the move. Even though there is only about six miles between the two houses movers all gave quotes of about $450 and a wait time of perhaps several weeks. That was not good enough for John. He rented a piano dolly for $42.50 and when I returned from a trip to the grocery store and opened the door to the kitchen the piano was sitting in front of me having been single-handedly moved across the downstairs of the house. That night Lillian’s husband drove over and they loaded the piano onto the back of a neighbor’s trailer and off they went. Success!

This was my first time meeting Lillian’s husband who is from Tanzania, teaches science in Newark, and did not seem to have any qualms about moving a heavy piano or driving in his stocking feet. Standing in our yard he wondered if the sweet scent he detected with every breeze was jasmine which is prevalent in his country and is the source of stories for children involving genies that appear at night. I told him that it was honeysuckle that I had come to take for granted as it is so prevalent. The next day I picked two large handfuls of the flowers, placed them in a glass pitcher, covered the flowers with water, and let them steep in the sun for three hours. Poured over ice, the honeysuckle tea tasted like cantaloupe.

I have heard that fiddlehead ferns grow in our area of New Jersey, but I have never come across them in the wild. It took a visit to a grocery store in New York State to discover them in the produce department. Luckily, their distinctive shape made them easily identifiable because neither the employee re-stocking in the produce department nor the cashier seemed to know what they were. The fiddlehead ferns and honeysuckle remind of plants that might grow in an Arthur Rackham illustration. After rinsing them in cold water I boiled them for ten minutes, discarded the water that they were cooked in, and sauteed them in oil with garlic. I served them with a squeeze of lemon.

Rhubarb is like a spring tonic and is best picked when the stalks are slim. I was lucky to find some this year at a farm stand. My mom always made delicious strawberry rhubarb pie, but since I am challenged when it comes to pie crust I made a crisp. I used equal amounts of rhubarb and strawberries to balance out the tartness of the rhubarb.

Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp

Ingredients for Filling

2 cups chopped rhubarb stalks

2 cups sliced strawberries

1 T. maple syrup

Ingredients for Topping

3 Tablespoons butter

1 T. maple syrup

2/3 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

pinch salt

Directions

Toss the fruit with the maple syrup in a 9-inch pie plate. For the topping: Place butter that has been brought to room temperature into a small mixing bowl. Add the oats, maple syrup, walnuts, and salt. Blend with the butter using a fork. Spread the topping over the fruit.

Bake at 350 degrees until the fruit begins to bubble and the oats brown at the edges. Serve warm or cold with vanilla ice cream.

Thanks for reading!

Vicki