Many a year I have been fooled with a snowstorm on April Fool's Day. One year even Mother's Day. I don't anticipate that being the case in 2024, however, don't switch your spring menus to asparagus and fiddleheads till May please, that's true foolishness!
Early April is a waiting season, we are antsy for warmth and take our morning coffee outside in shivering optimism. Your menu and offerings can use this anticipation wisely - sure, bring in the glory of fruit from Florida after the tasteless truck food of winter. Sure, put a peach on the salad and try to imagine how good it will be in August.
But if you really want to evoke the season of fools in April in Maine, look to the sea. It's the season of spring tides and seaweed. Harvest begins in early April, weather permitting. It's the season to enjoy the last of Maine Sea Salt in clever ways. We don't sell seafood, but it's a great time to eat it, while the ocean is at its clearest and coldest.
From the farms, this is a good time to appreciate large greenhouse operations like Backyard Farms and Springworks. For all the nuances of commercial greenhousing (I'll save that for another post), here's the deal - they have LOTS of sunshine right now. The houses are in a warmer reality and the plants are the happiest they will be all year. Enjoy their existence in our landscape of options...the hour will come for a luscious field-ripe heirloom...but that is not today!
