58 animal, vegetable, miracleBut on a brisk April day when the tranquils are up and Jack Frost
might still come out of retirement on short notice, hot weather is a dream.
This is the emerald season of spinach, kale, endive, and baby lettuces.
The chard comes up as red and orange as last fall’s leaves went out. We
lumber out of hibernation and stuff our mouths with leaves, like deer, or
tree sloths. Like the earth- enraptured primates we once were, and could
learn to be all over again. In April I’m happiest with mud on the knees of
my jeans, sitting down to the year’s most intoxicating lunch: a plate of
greens both crisp and still sun- warmed from the garden, with a handful of
walnuts and some crumbly goat cheese. This is the opening act of real
live food.
By the time the lettuce starts to go flowery and embittered, who cares?
We’ll have fresh broccoli by then. When you see stuffed bunnies dangling
from the crab apple trees, the good- time months have started to roll.