Spring's Bounty: What to Sow, Plant, Prune, Harvest, and Eat
From tender broad beans and cheek-puckering rhubarb to nutty new potatoes, spring offers a vibrant array of seasonal delights. This guide explores how to maximize the season's best in both the kitchen and garden, providing practical tips for enjoying fresh produce and cultivating your own.
In the Kitchen: Seasonal Treats to Savor
Elderflower: Pick elderflowers on the sunniest May days when their scent is heady and sweet, perfect for infusing into cordial. For a truly special tipple, pour a litre of gin into a large, shallow dish and stand as many elderflower heads, florets down, as fit for two hours. Drain, bottle, and enjoy with tonic and ice on a warm evening.
Rhubarb: The world's finest rhubarb comes from a few square miles of Yorkshire, thanks to a unique combination of climate, soil, and culture. For a delicious treat with the freshest stalks, dip raw rhubarb in the syrup from a jar of stem ginger and nibble.
Asparagus: Whether you barely steam the spears for a few minutes or roast them in the hottest oven until charred and nutty, aim to get the freshest asparagus possible. Every few hours from the field affects the fullness of its flavor.
Radishes: To enjoy radishes and their leaves at their best, eat them alongside excellent softened butter and a small pile of sea salt, such as Blackthorn. If the radishes are mild, adding a little white pepper to the salt works wonders.
New Potatoes: The small, nutty, waxy potatoes of spring are a favorite for many. The most famous, Jersey Royals, also known as International Kidney, are grown on the sunny, traditionally seaweed-fertilized slopes of the island, known as côtils.
Pea Shoots: With none of the elbows-out confrontation of rocket, pea shoots carry a sweet, nutty, pea flavor that sings of spring. Try them simply dressed in good olive oil and a little salt.
Broad Beans: Broad beans are best enjoyed as they are served in Italy: raw, the size of a little fingernail, just plucked from their downy pods, with a wedge of good pecorino, some olive oil, and a scant squeeze of lemon.
In the Garden: Essential Tasks for Spring
Sowing: Sow tomatoes and chillies undercover by mid-March, and plant courgettes, cucumbers, squash, sweetcorn, basil, and French beans in modules. Outside, sow broad beans, salad leaves, carrots, peas, beetroot, spinach, and chard, with French beans and sweetcorn from May.
Planting: Plant early potatoes in March and main crop potatoes from April. This ensures a steady harvest throughout the season.
Harvesting: Harvest early rhubarb with a firm, twisting tug to preserve the plant. Prune stone fruit such as plums and cherries from late April, after flowering, to promote healthy growth.
Maintenance: Earth up potatoes to protect them from sunlight and encourage tuber development. Cut back soft-leaved perennial herbs, such as lovage and chives, to invigorate them for the growing season.
By following these tips, you can fully embrace spring's bounty, whether you're cooking up seasonal dishes or tending to your garden. The combination of fresh ingredients and hands-on gardening makes this season a time of renewal and flavor.
