Oh, Sweet Honey

Winnie the Pooh knew best to eat honey from his local 100 Acre Woods. Eating local honey is one of the best immune boosters you can give your body. Honey contains pieces of pollen that are specific to the area where it is produced. This minimal exposure helps your immune system develop defenses against these particular irritants you are likely to be exposed to in your area and protect your nose all season long. These positive effects have been studied by the National Institutes of Health, “we have found it was an effective substitute for expensive and potentially dangerous allergy shots. However, like all natural remedies, honey is subtle and it takes a commitment to use it over time to reap the benefits.”

Now that we know honey is good for us, let’s talk about how delightful it tastes! I could eat spoonfuls of honey for days on end. I like to add it to my tea, drizzle it on parmesan chunks or homemade ricotta, and sweeten my morning yogurt. You can use it as a glaze for chicken, mix it with maple syrup for a delicious sweet potato fry dipping sauce, or make classic baklava with walnuts. Honey is pretty much my go-to condiment. The Sickles kitchen also adds honey to many of our prepared foods such as the balsamic salad dressing, butternut squash with cranberries, and black bean salsa. It is a wonderfully versatile ingredient that can be used year ‘round.

At Sickles Market, we carry a variety of honey from Tinton Falls, N.J. to Savannah, Georgia. A few local favorites include Herbertsville Honey Co. from Point Pleasant, NJ and E&M Gold Pure Farm Honey from Tinton Falls. Another great line of Honey is The Savannah Bee Company from Georgia. They have wonderful Tupelo Honey that is the “gold standard” by which all honey is measured. We also sell Fage Yogurt which includes a small side of honey with its 2% all natural, low fat Greek strained yogurts.

The history of honey goes back to ancient times, when humans began collecting it over 10,000 years ago. Proof of this is shown in cave paintings on Mesolithic rocks in Valencia, Spain where two female honey-hunters are shown collecting honey from a honeycomb with bees surrounding. There is also evidence that honey was used to sweeten foods such as biscuits and cakes in Ancient Egypt and in the Middle East honey was used to embalm the dead and possibly as a currency. The word honey is also used around the world as endearment in many English speaking countries.

Let Sickles Market Be Your Local Honey Bee!

 

We hope you’ll stop in Sickles Market in the next two weeks for some great honey demos and for all you Gourmet Club Members out there, you will receive 15% off Fage Yogurt with Honey, Herbertsville Honey, E&M Honey, Bee Raw Honey, and Savannah Bee Company Honey.

Honey Recipes:

Date and Walnut Phyllo Rolls with Greek Yogurt and Honey

Miso Honey Glazed Fish

A Toast to Sherry…

First it was France. And then Italy. And now it’s Spain, whose culinary traditions and innovations we’re eager to explore. Just witness all the tapas bars popping up in New York City. There’s even a boutique wine shop in the East Village that’s devoted solely to the wines of Spain, Tinto Fino. If you don’t want to venture into the city, you can use the internet to buy a paella pan and all the ingredients necessary to make this classic rice-based dish at home.  Of course there’s no need to go any farther than Sickles Market, which offers a gourmet assortment of Spanish delights: buttery olive oil, an impressive range of cheeses, rich and satisfying marcona almonds, spicy chorizo, fleshy piquillo peppers, and orange slices covered in dark chocolate. We’re finally getting to know––and love––Spanish cuisine.

One classic component of Iberian foodways, however, remains mysterious to us––Sherry. We simply don’t drink it. Perhaps you have an old bottle of it kicking around in the pantry for cooking (it’s excellent for cream sauces with sautéed mushrooms), but chances are you haven’t drunk a glass of it alone in ages, if ever. It’s not a hip tipple like cava (Spanish sparkling wine) or Rioja (Spain’s famed wine region); in fact sherry’s stereotyped as an aperitif for little old English ladies, like my grandmother. At her nursing home on the Welsh border, all the residents are offered a glass of Sherry before their bland Sunday lunch.

After attending a recent tasting of authentic Sherry, organized by the Culinary Historians of New York at the International Wine Center, I must now implore you to get that image out of your head and pour yourself a glass. But leave that old bottle in the pantry, especially if it’s a fino or manzanilla. These types are best drunk fresh, like a carton of orange juice.

What’s so great about Sherry? For starters, no other wine in the world comes in a greater variety of styles and flavors. They can be bone dry—and absolutely refreshing––like the Bodegas Hidalgo Manzanilla ‘La Gitana,’ which we sampled first, or sweet and viscous, like the Williams & Humbert ‘Don Guido’ 20 Year Old, which ended the evening. Whatever the style, it’s guaranteed to complement whatever’s on the menu. Sherry is extremely food friendly.
And no other wine in the world is such a bargain. Its low price does not signify an inferior product. On the contrary, Sherry’s an exceptional wine; it’s just that no one has “discovered” it yet and this keeps the cost down. Think of Sherry, just as the famous English wine critic Jancis Robbinson does, as a neglected wine treasure.

Before you open this Spanish treasure chest, I’ll share with you some basic facts about Sherry that I learned from Linda Lawry, an official Sherry educator and director of the International Wine Center. Made primarily from Palomino grapes, Sherry is a fortified wine, which means that a neutral spirit, such as white brandy, has been added to increase the alcohol level. To be considered authentic, Sherry must be produced in specific municipalities in the Jerez region of Andalusia in southern Spain (accept no substitutes!). There are two main styles: fino and oloroso. What distinguishes them is that with fino, which tends to be dry, the flor yeast is encouraged to grow on the wine’s surface while it ages in oak barrels, and with oloroso, which is darker, richer, and more alcoholic, the flor is prevented from developing and the wine, as a result, oxidizes. There are sweet versions of fino and oloroso (Harvey Bristol Cream anyone?), as well the naturally sweet Pedro Ximenez, which happens to be Bob Sickles’ favorite style and an excellent match for the Spanish blue cheese, Valdeon.

Be the first on your block to discover the treasure that is authentic Sherry, and enjoy it with the rich choice of Spanish foods now available to us.

Buen provecho!
Diana the Cheesemonger

Take Five!

I love to cook just as much as the next foodie, but sometimes the day gets away from me and dinner seems more like a burden than the “Joy of Cooking.” A few years ago, I started toying with the idea of writing a cookbook for folks like me who love good food and love to eat but are short on time. The cookbook would only include recipes with five ingredients or less. What a brilliant idea! I decided to call it Take Five and even started making up recipes and trying them out on my family. While surfing the web the other day, however, I discovered that Cooking Light had already cashed in on my time saving idea with two cookbooks devoted to five ingredient recipes, including the recent 2009 release, Fresh Food Fast. To top it off, I’ve recently heard a rumor that the Barefoot Contessa is onto this idea as well, and may be coming out with a five ingredient cookbook of her own. (I actually emailed her to ask about the theme of her new cookbook that is due to release in October 2010 so we’ll see if that rumor is true!)

So, my cookbook is on the shelf for now, but I am still having fun experimenting with the five ingredient thing. I pounded out some chicken breast fillets one night, spread a layer of my favorite Italian pesto from Sickles over each breast, added a slice of Fontina Val d’Aosta, and rolled each one up. I browned them in a little olive oil on the stove, topped them with freshly shredded Parmigiano Reggiano and popped them in the oven uncovered for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Five ingredients and the chicken won family approval hands down! I’ve also added a thin slice of Serrano ham for a more complex flavor. For a spicier version, the Tunisian Sweet Pepper Harissa Spread by Les Moulins Mahjoub is a lively substitute for the pesto.

I’ve also discovered The Ravioli Store, a line of frozen raviolis that are so fresh and delectable that you don’t have to do much to them to create a great first course or entrée. I love the Aged Goat Cheese Raviolis (they are stuffed with French Bucheron goat cheese) tossed with browned butter and fresh sage leaves, and finished with a drizzle of white truffle oil. For the mushroom lover, you can toss the Wild Mushroom Truffle Raviolis with sautéed shallots and your favorite exotic mushrooms. If you want to be really decadent, you can top them off with a dash of Porcini mushroom oil. Pass the freshly grated Pecorino Romano and there are your five ingredients!

Fish also lends itself well to five ingredient recipes. As a glaze for salmon, try blending equal parts lemon (or lime) juice and orange juice, then stir in a couple tablespoons of orange blossom honey and fresh tarragon. You can throw in some lemon and/or orange zest too if you want. Pour it over the salmon and let it sit for up to half an hour, then just grill or bake. The glaze starts to carmelize and gives the salmon a tangy sweetness.

The trick is to always have a good stock of versatile ingredients at home that you can turn to when you are short on time. I usually keep on hand a few flavored oils, an aged balsamic vinegar, fresh pesto, sundried tomatoes, panko crumbs, a nice grainy Dijon mustard, kalamata olives, non- pareil capers, white anchovies, candied ginger, dried bing cherries, preserved lemons to name a few. Then, I mix and match until I find a great combination. Cooking doesn’t always have to be complicated, as long as it is fresh and flavorful. Now I’m getting inspired! I may have to get my cookbook project off the shelf and dust it off!

Enjoy!
Cheri the Cheesemonger

The soil's the thing...

Garden Center Newsletter

March 2010

By Pat Dumas

“Don’t put a $50 plant in a 50-cent hole” is an old saying in gardening circles. Maybe that sounds like a bit of corny wisdom from old geezers, but, in the “old crowd” I trust-- and I've learned much from them in the past.

My grandpa, Sam Scheierman, was a young farmer from Romania when he emigrated here in the early 1900's. While his American dream unfortunately didn’t include a farm, he made his small backyard in Long Branch a gardening mecca. I remember luxurious grapevines, old -fashioned roses, lots of tomatoes, and crazy-looking blimp-like squash growing in the long garden next to his garage – which looked like a barn. I used to laugh when “Pop” took two sticks, connected by a string, and went down rows of tomatoes and peppers to ensure they were planted straight. It was no laughing matter to him, and he would yell at me and my brother to get it straight.

And what he mixed in those holes with the plant roots wasn’t modern soil food, but everything from potato peelings and kitchen garbage, to mulched leaves, coffee grounds and fish guts. I suspect that even a bit of his homemade wine went in that garden as well, for acidity. Today you don’t have to be like Sam and save fish heads, and waste perfectly good wine to make your plant “hole” better. Just add a little fir bark, forest humus, a little chicken manure, ground oyster shells, worm castings, bat guano, and kelp meal. Sounds like a witch's brew, right? But, never fear, you can buy it all in a prepackaged, stink-free mixture called "Bumper Crop.” Mix a few cups of this top-notch gourmet soil amendment with your dirt before backfilling the holes, and it will give your plants an entire summer’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.

And as simple as “Bumper Crop” is to use, even simpler is “Right Dress" – an organic, licorice bark shredded to perfection and easily spread over your plant beds. It will inhibit the growth of weeds and keep the ground cool for better water retention. As it disintegrates, it will provide soil aeration for better growth and drainage. Nothing looks better from afar than a rich dark cover over your plots of shrubs, annuals, and perennials. It brings the whole "look" together without a lot of labor.

The "look" of an early spring garden may be far from fabulous, but now is the time to get it together. You can plant pretty much everything except for the more delicate annuals and come May, it will have a head start. The air is cool, and the ground is inviting, and there are no bugs. Shrubs definitely get a head start when planted in the cool, thawed ground. Think first of the fabulous camellia. They're in stock here, and are smothered in buds. These glossy-leaved beauties love the shade and a bit of dappled sun in a moist, well-drained spot. Relatives of the rhododendron and azalea, the camellia will bloom in April and a bit in the fall if given a spot that is protected from harsh winds. Native to eastern and southern Asia, the camellia is a treasured shrub, and there isn't a wedding in Japan that doesn't have white camellias as a tribute to the purity and life of the bride. Ted and John in the nursery department have recently unloaded four truckloads of new shrubs, including camellias, pussy willows, forsythia and much more. John is a terrific, enthusiastic plantsman, and Ted is a wonderful walking encyclopedia on plants. There's nothing that stumps them.

If working in the cold at this time of year doesn't suit you, work on your indoor garden. Pots of spring flowers, like the mini Tête-à-Tête daffodil in our greenhouse are ready to take home. They put out long-lasting, sweet little yellow blooms for indoors or out. Don't throw that plant away though when it's done-- take it outside and plant it where you want them to pop up naturally next year. Although these little bulbs are forced in a greenhouse, they will recoup for another year of bloom outside next year. There are plenty of hot colors to spice up your indoors. Tropical cyclamen in crimson, pink, and fuchsia fill our greenhouse with a subtle, sweet fragrance you can enjoy inside for weeks.

Cyclamen comes in a hardy, perennial variety as well. They are perfect for that often ignored little dark corner of the garden suited for woodland plantings like ferns, mosses, and violets. We've gotten a rare little cyclamen in called "Something Magic" It’s full of dainty pink blooms above marbled green leaves, and does well in a shady, damp part of the garden. Early to rise in the spring, perennial cyclamens grow into sweet ground-covering colonies in woodsy areas where a change from the lowly crocus would be welcome.

Overlooked and under-utilized in the winter perennial garden is the hale and hearty hellebores. They bloom from December to March and you may even catch a brave one at Christmas. Sometimes called the Christmas Rose or Lenten Rose, they are among the toughest of the early perennials. They will survive in shade, but love it sunny, and will reward you with many flowers as they come up through the piles of dead leaves in early spring. Almost antique, and a little on the gothic side, hellebores remind me of something growing outside of Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania. In fact, they grow on craggy, steep hillsides, and in less than perfect conditions all over Europe--especially on the grounds of old monasteries and castles.

Pansies, and their close relative, violas, are already basking in the sun out in our perennial and annual yards. English violas differ from pansies in that they are true perennials, and are winter hardy from year to year. A gorgeous viola named "Etain" looks like Van Gogh painted it himself in one of his inspired frenzies. The soft blend of blue and yellow flowers last well into June, and if dead-headed, they'll carry on even longer. The scent is to die for-- truly. I stick my nose in them every chance I get. I can't get enough. Like the pansy, English violas happily emerge from the snow covered ground to last until early summer. If you haven't yet dived into the scent of a viola, there's no time to waste.

If you go out into your yard, and take a handful of dirt and squeeze it, and you leave the imprints of your fingers in it, you know it's time to plant. It feels squishy, cold and good. Squeeze in a little Bumper Crop-- bat guano and all-- and you just feel it in your heart that the time is right. Some anonymous street poet once said “digging in the dirt buries a lot of problems". It does, and it always will. Now aren't those dirty, wet hands of yours a beautiful thing?

A Classic Dish: Corned Beef and Cabbage

A classic Irish-American staple, Corned Beef and Cabbage has been a dish recreated over time in the United States. Although this was not a traditional dish in Ireland (more on that below), it was created by Irish settlers in America in the mid-1800’s and remains popular with all Americans on St. Patrick’s Day.
An Irish poet from the 12th century is the first to mention Corned Beef as a special meal for the King of Ireland. It was the king’s attempt to invoke or call upon “the demon of gluttony” out of his belly. This makes little sense to me until I began researching and find that beef was not a major part of the Irish diet until the last century. Cows were used for milk in Ireland rather than for its meat in poor times and beef was only a delicacy that was, as the poet states, fed to the kings and the upper elite. It was much more common to the people in Éire to serve ham, known as gammon or bacon joint, cured but un-smoked pieces of pork than beef with their cabbage and potatoes. When many Irish immigrants came over to America in the mid-1800’s, they were in search of their Irish roots and flavors, bacon joint being number one. They could not find it anywhere and therefore; sought an alternative- Jewish corned beef. This meat was very similar in texture and taste and the Irish Americans took it on as their own. This is one of the first great Irish-American traditions in the U.S.

The corn in corned beef refers to the grains of salt that surround the meat while curing. It also gives it a great  flavor that many people crave in their delicatessen sandwiches. Corned beef is a cut of beef that is cured or pickled in seasoned brine. At Sickles we have raw Corned Beef from Boar’s Head that is pre-seasoned and very easy to cook. We also have our own, homemade corned beef from Chef Larry, which is seasoned with mustard seeds, juniper berries, peppercorns and more! It is delicious and mouth-watering and is also available with delightful sides such as carrots, potatoes, and of course Cabbage. The corned beef tastes wonderful on its own sliced or in a sandwich with mustard and sauerkraut on rye.

Cabbage has been a staple vegetable in Ireland since 600 B.C. when the Celts brought cabbage to Europe from Asia. Cabbage grows extremely well in cool climates, stores well during the winter, and yields large harvests. It immediately became a major crop for Europeans. Cabbage was brought to America by French navigator, Jacques Cartier, who brought this healthy veggie to America in 1536. It is an excellent source of Vitamin C and contains significant amounts of amino acids and has anti-inflammatory properties. It is an excellent low calorie food. Although the cabbage you see in today’s food stores is a full bodied head, early cabbage was more loose-leaf and delicate.

Ending note by President Grover Cleveland:

President Grover Cleveland once noticed the smell of Corned beef and Cabbage coming from the servant’s quarters at the White House. He asked to trade his dinner for that of the servants. He commented that this was "the best dinner I had had for months..."

Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipes:
Corned Beef and Cabbage Strudel with Grain Mustard Sauce
Corned Beef and Carrots with Marmalade Whiskey Glaze
Braised Green Cabbage with Onion, Carrots, and a Poached Egg

Featured for this newsletter, Boar’s Head Corned Beef, Boar’s Head Corned Beef Deli Cold Cuts, and the Corned Beef Dinner Special will receive the 15% Gourmet Club discount from March 15 – 29, 2010. On St. Patrick’s Day, there will be a buy one get one free Corned Beef Sandwich special

Chatting about Cheddar...

I love all cheese. Give me a springy wedge of mushroom-y Brie de Meaux, a stinky slice of Hooligan from Connecticut, a firm chunk of floral and sheepy Zamorano from Spain, or a silky blob of decadent Burrata from Italy (all available in Sickles’ cheese department), and a smile of contentment comes over my face. Just call me an equal-opportunity cheese lover!
There is, however, one cheese in particular that lays claim to my heart. Cheddar.

This may come as a surprise. You wouldn’t think that a professional cheesemonger would name Cheddar as her favorite, out of all the fermented dairy delights available to her. After all, Cheddar isn’t exactly considered gourmet. In fact, I’ve heard it described as the cheese you buy when you don’t want to think about cheese.

I, however, think quite a bit about Cheddar. What is it about this seemingly banal cheese that gets the wheels turning in my head? First and foremost, it’s its success. No other cheese has conquered the globe like Cheddar; in fact, it’s the world’s most popular cheese type. You may believe, as many Americans do, that it originated in Vermont or Wisconsin, but its history goes back much further than that. Named for a village in Somerset, in the southwest of England, Cheddar first entered the historical record in 1170, when King Henry II placed a royal order for it. (By the way, England’s oldest-named cheese is Cheshire, and Sickles just received a clothbound wheel of it from across the Pond, from the great folks at Neal’s Yard Dairy in London. Come try some!) A widely enjoyed cheese, its production spread over time throughout England and up into Scotland. With English colonization, the recipe crossed the Atlantic to the United States and Canada and even ventured Down Under to Australia and New Zealand. In all these countries, Cheddar is fully embedded in local culinary traditions, so much so, that its English origins are mostly forgotten.

You might not have known that about Cheddar, but you certainly recognize its delicious versatility, which is one of the chief reasons for its worldwide success. At Sickles, you buy an orange square of it from Wisconsin to make nachos during March Madness, a firm block of “mature” Kilchurn Estate’s Krystal Pure Cave Aged Cheddar from England to make cheese and apple muffins, or a butter-cup yellow wedge of nutty and sweet Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, aged in the Cellars at Jasper Hill in Vermont, to place on a cheese platter and impress your guests. Cheddar can do all that.

This Sunday I won’t just be thinking about Cheddar; I’ll also be talking about it, live on the radio. From 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 14, I will be a guest on Anne Saxelby’s weekly program, “Cutting the Curd,” on Heritage Radio, an arm of Heritage Foods USA. You can listen to me live or at a more convenient time at http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/14-Cutting-the-Curd?page=1.

And I’m always happy to talk about Cheddar—or any other cheese—behind the cheese counter at Sickles.

Diana the Cheesemonger

Food Notes...

Cheese Department 

March 2010

By Cheri Scolari

I hit the road for California, ready for some R&R and a visit with my family after the busy holidays here at Sickles. Unfortunately, El Nino had the same idea and landed in the Sunshine State the same week.  With ten inches of rain, snowed-in mountain passes and soggy vineyards, I went in search of indoor entertainment.  I found a veritable food mecca in the hills of Oakland at Rockridge Market Hall, a collection of food specialty markets.  One gourmet store in particular, The Pasta Shop, was definitely worth dragging my relatives out in the deluge.  The Cheese Program Director, Juliana Uruburu, was a pleasure to meet and very knowledgeable about her cheeses.  Juliana and her colleagues treated my clan to some amazing cheeses, including the award winning Rogue River Blue from Oregon.  This delectable cheese, wrapped in grape leaves drenched in pear brandy was highlighted with slivers of dried fig. We were in for another treat when I spied a Jasper Hill cheese label that was unfamiliar to me. This washed rind raw cow’s milk cheese called Oma (the German word for “grandma” and named after the lady who started the farm 50 years ago!) is produced by the Von Trapp brothers and aged in Jasper Hill Cellars, Vermont.  The earthy, buttery cheese had just arrived at The Pasta Shop and had not even been priced yet. While waiting to purchase my exciting new discovery, I had a chance encounter with Jason Hinds, Sales Director of the legendary British cheese retailer, Neal’s Yard Dairy.  Jason, who had also stopped by to visit The Pasta Shop, was kind enough to give me an online tour of the NYD website, where you can find tons of information about these superlative cheeses from the British Isles.  We carry a variety of NYD products in our cheese department so please come try some!

My wonderful cheesy day ended in the town of American Graffiti fame, Petaluma, just north of San Francisco.  We stopped at Petaluma Market, a local family-owned establishment where Maria the resident cheese monger sold us some Truffle Tremor, Cypress Grove’s rich, truffle version of Humboldt Fog.  I was also thrilled to see one of my favorite brie-like cheeses, RocheBaron Montbriac, a creamy ash covered cheese from Auvergne, with delicate blue veining and mushroom overtones.  That night, our dinner consisted of wine and cheese, Spanish fig cake and Marcona almonds, and more wine and cheese. Hard to top that! So now I’m on a plane heading back to New Jersey (where it’s raining yet again) and I’m laughing at myself. I took a week off from work to get away from it all, and I spent my vacation visiting gourmet food shops and eating cheese! 

(Most of the cheeses mentioned in this article can be found at the Sickles Market cheese counter.)

Enjoy!

Cheri the Cheese monger

Moveable Feasts...

March, they say, comes in like a lion. No truer words were ever spoken on the Jersey Shore this winter where the February storms over the past few weeks have been roaring in one after another. Today (Feb. 24) as I write, we're in a lull, and our frozen earth is trying to crack open a bit and ooze out some mud and pop up some green. And while the birds are singing like its spring, I fear they're fooled-- because I hear another nor'easter is roaring up the coast. I didn't even need to turn on the Weather Channel to confirm this though, because when the Starlings started attacking my suet feeder- furiously flocking and loudly chattering, I knew some weather was definitely coming in. Call it a bird watcher's intuition.

Meanwhile, I'm always amazed at the fight the Pansies, and their relatives, the Violas, and Johnny Jump Ups put up as they struggle to kick the snow aside. Pansies are incredibly strong little plants. These cute, colorful and seemingly delicate flowers, which also bloom in Northern Europe above the Arctic Circle and in Siberia, have a constitution that enables them to hold on strong all winter in a dormant state - only to pop up happily through the ice when the slightest warmth comes in. They can survive in pots covered with snow, frozen with rain, and in iced-over flower boxes. Looking practically dead, they'll take on all sorts of insults. The over-wintered pansy from the previous fall will eventually pick itself up and last well into June. Pansies planted in the very early spring will give you months of color as well.

I've also been keeping an eye out for the first pussy willow buds. They are the first of the firsts-- a spring wake up call known to all from childhood. There are many types of pussy willow-- weeping, black, pink, and the common gray variety. They love moisture, and love to be pruned. The pussy willow is usually the first to bloom flowers in spring (those fuzzy buds), and the first to break open a leaf. They grow fast and furiously from a spring, summer or fall planting. The best way to get those long, thick, straight, and coveted stalks of fuzzy buds in the spring is to cut the branches back by a couple of feet in the spring after the plant turns green, so the next spring's stalks will be longer, fatter, and full of soft buds. By not pruning in the spring, they will bud too high up in the tree for easy picking in the spring. When I used to work in NYC, the flower vendors on 8th Ave. hawked their long, fat pussy willow branches all along the street in spring. I always wondered how they got them so big and fat! Now I know. The floral area here at the market has them tied up and ready to go into a decorative pot or vase in your home if you don't have that pussy willow tree yet in your yard.

The beginning of March is the perfect time to cut some forsythia branches to force in a warm room inside. My mother used to fill her arms with cut forsythia branches at the beginning of March and plop them on the dining room table in a vase. She was heartily proud of herself-- stealing a bit of spring before it was ready. They blossomed with a frantic fury all over the table-- dropping blossoms on the floor and tracking all over the house with riot of yellow and a little bit of spring. Moving branches from the outside to the inside pops out flowers and green leaves within days. Lots of flowering trees -- cherry, apple, and plum - are good for this as well. Experiment with any deciduous tree and see what pops out! You won't hurt the trees by lopping off a few branches now. They'll regroup, and bush out even better in April and May. Pruning is always a good thing-- like a good haircut. Think about planting your favorite fruit tree at this perfect time. It will give you a respectable bunch of fruit its first summer and establish quickly when planted in the cool earth.

Since the ground is a semi-frozen muckfest, I'll start by moving some pots around and putting some new ones in the backyard to satisfy the gardening urge. There are always a few pots to bring inside for some herbs and maybe a hot-colored fuchsia primrose. In our annual yard and greenhouse, there are some charming new pots from Burley Clay Products. Burley Pots have been around since the 1920s, and are produced in what is known as the "Midwest pottery belt" in Ohio. The pots produced here back in the pottery heyday of the early 20th century - those including "Roseville" and the "Zanesville" - have become some of the most desired antiques in all of pottery collecting. They still have that old fashioned look, yet are built to last. They're whimsical, and weather-tough-- full of sculpted birds and flowers in an art nouveau style. They're even available for your personal monogram by special order. Pots are not just for bedding flowers-- put in some dried flowers, loose green moss, pussy willow, twigs of forced flower buds, and big curly willow branches, and you have a striking pot for your inside hall or outside path. Leslie, our knowledgeable "pot lady" is on the move-- traveling near and far to find the most beautifully designed and painted pottery-- unpacking new pots every day from far away places.

There's always something to do in the garden-- you just have to play around a bit. For now, toy around with some new planting containers while it's still too cold to dig outside. Get your fingers out of the catalogs, and into the earth--even if they're just in a pot for now. Spring is a moveable feast-- you just have to imagine it where you want it.

PS: The birds at the feeder were right -- it snowed like crazy that night.