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IMG_5404Finally.

Spring has sprung in my part of Appalachia. The flowering trees all over town and in my yard are filled out with their milky white and pink tinged flowers. The mountainsides have taken on a rusty amber glow; evidence of tree buds lining branches. Soon the amber will turn a hazy green, beginning at the base of every mountain, working its way to the top, till all around me will be mounds of limey green.

It is one of my favorite nature things to witness.

Spring’s arrival is not just the look of life taking over what has been winter brown and gray. Walking in my neighborhood the other day I was drawn through by new birdsong and smells of warm, wet soil. It reminded me that soon, our farmer’s markets will be alive with fresh lettuces and asparagus, then strawberries, peaches, radishes, snap peas, tomatoes, blueberries…

Soon, it will be my favorite time to be in the kitchen.

The growing season is my favorite kitchen season for lots of reasons. If I’m being honest I’d have to confess that close to the top of my list for reasons is my own laziness. I love my food to taste great with as little of my intervention as possible. In truth, my intervention is as likely to mask flavor—or at least cause imbalance of flavors—as much as enhance them. So, I truly count on nature’s natural combinations to make my palate sing.

Laziness isn’t at the tippy-top of my list. My top reason, however, is practically as self-indulgent. Working in my kitchen during the growing season is my favorite because of the sheer abundance I am gifted to work with. It’s just plain fun! Traipsing down my back deck steps to cut lettuce leaves for a salad. Visiting the local markets on the weekends, filling my basket with every color, shape, and smell I find. Or, taking recipes from my friend, Christina’s, website and newsletter to the market with me. Her beautiful recipes for local foods in season always inspire. All of it makes me excited to be in my kitchen. That is a gift for sure.

Ah, but there’s more! Growing season kitchen time is resurrection time. It’s a reminder I live each day in the power of Easter’s gift.

New Life.

Hope-filled abundance.

And this: the irony of death’s necessity for such new life, hope-filled abundance to exist.

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This is the truth spring points me toward. The emergence of new life from death and decay. The old has gone. The new has come. Death no longer has its hold. Resurrection power has overcome. Is overcoming still.

Here’s to the power of Easter. May your kitchens—and your hearts—be full of Resurrection abundance this growing season.

Happy Easter!

 

Copyright 2018 by Shari Dragovich