{"id":5611,"date":"2015-05-08T06:14:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T12:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=5611"},"modified":"2015-10-24T18:17:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-25T00:17:16","slug":"gratitude-and-three-dishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=5611","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude and Three Dishes"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>

If you aren’t already in the know, spring is possibly the most glorious event here in the Driftless region.\u00a0 Nothing compares to the jewel green of the hills just before sunset.\u00a0\u00a0I’ve seen cows jogging\u00a0in the pastures and no longer needing to\u00a0be side by side to keep warm.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0sheep are out naked, freshly sheared from their winter coat.\u00a0 The flowers have been like a display of fireworks starting\u00a0with the crocus, then the daffodils, tulips, violets, lilacs, and the lilies of the valley.\u00a0 Mineral Point is heady with the scent of daffodils, lilacs, and lilies of the valley.\u00a0 Even more spectacular was being at the Tippy Top Orchard<\/a> with over three hundred fifty pear and apple trees in peak bloom.\u00a0 Bazile proudly showed me their latest addition, a hive of bees and Mike planted comfrey around\u00a0the garden to fertilize the soil.\u00a0 He exclaimed, “I think this just might be the best year yet at the orchard!”<\/p>\n

Tippy Top Orchard<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"AppleBlossomsTippyTop\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We never go home emty handed from a Tippy Top visit.\u00a0 Below is one of the prize foods of the season, fresh asparagus.\u00a0 Keith and I simply roasted it in a cast iron pan and finished it with a bit of sea salt and good Wisconsin butter.\u00a0\u00a0 Eating asparagus this way and cooking it just half and hour from being picked is simply one of the most delicious things on earth!<\/p>\n

Freshly Picked Asparagus<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"asparagus\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here the asparagus stalks sit in a bowl made by Diana Johnston.\u00a0 I bought it from the recent Clay in May<\/a>\u00a0weekend along with some cups that will be perfect for a tea party or two this season.\u00a0 Another event that we always look forward to is the Windy Ridge Pottery<\/a> spring kiln firing<\/a>.\u00a0 The event was the weekend before Clay in May.\u00a0 I bought this pretty spectacular bowl<\/a> made by Joe Cole.<\/p>\n

Johnston Pottery + Asparagus<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"roastedasparagus\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The other day, I visited with Jean and Ayla at the Silver Star Inn<\/a>.\u00a0 Ayla and I looked for morels on the property.\u00a0 After about two hours, we came up with some fiddleheads, pheasant back polypores, and each of us found one morel!<\/p>\n

Woodland Treats<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"woodlandedibles\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were a bit disappointed to have found only two morels but took our woodland treats and made a fine salad.\u00a0 Quinoa topped with garlicky and butter mushrooms, fiddleheads, and peas.<\/p>\n

Spring Salad<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"mushroomsalad\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This morning I planted some daisies and dahlias then I harvested the first stalks of rhubarb from the garden. After gardening, I thought it would be nice to make rhubarb crisp. Because the dandelions had just freshly opened, I infused the rhubarb and sugar mixture with the flower petals.<\/p>\n

\"rhubarbanddandelions\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a wonderful combo! Thank goodness for spring and for the many more beautiful things to come. Cheers and happy weekend!<\/p>\n

\"rhubarbcrisp\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you aren’t already in the know, spring is possibly the most glorious event here in the Driftless region.\u00a0 Nothing compares to the jewel green of the hills just before sunset.\u00a0\u00a0I’ve seen cows jogging\u00a0in the pastures and no longer needing to\u00a0be side by side to keep warm.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0sheep are out naked, freshly sheared from their winter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farms","has-featured-image"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5611"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5714,"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5611\/revisions\/5714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}