Seasonal eating, normally such a pleasure in the Somerset countryside, is proving a little disappointing this month. Hold on, that’s not entirely true. I think it is just a little disappointing as my head and heart are still weighted down and groaning with the feast of last summer’s bounty, and the lack is not actual, just comparative.

The fact that this summer seems to be a little hesitant about making an appearance and this last week we seem to have gone straight to late autumn has me a trifle anxious. Generally I love each season. The acid green newness of Spring, the lazy, bee-buzzing air of the kitchen garden laden with promise in mid-summer, the late summer apple harvest with fresh pressed apple juice martinis lubricating the long, light evenings, and the first chill rains of Autumn, giving me an excuse to slow cook one of the pot roasts or stews I love so much.

The anxiety comes from feeling that I have only just sat down to the summer course, I have barely tasted it and the overzealous waiter is whipping it away to replace it with early Autumn. Wait! I’m not done! My appetite is barely whetted, let alone sated. And when it comes to food I’m afraid I’m far too greedy to sit back calmly and politely pronounce that I’ve had an elegant sufficiency.

I want my summer course and I want all of it. In fact, I want seconds. So when I saw some asparagus at the market I pounced on it. No it was not local, but at least it was English. And Suffolk is not so VERY far away. I brought it home and made one of my favourite summer meals: Steamed asparagus on toasted olive sourdough, with poached egg and a fresh basil aioli.

The ‘happy eggs’ so dubbed by my daughter because they are double-yolkers from the free range chickens belonging to her schoolteacher’s in-laws. Still confused? Well the chickens must be happy to keep producing double yolks mom! It’s like a present for us. Happy eggs from happy chickens. And the little bit of sunshine that lit up my kitchen when we sat down to this meal certainly made me a happy woman. Or it may have been the sublime combo of garlic, basil, slightly crunchy asparagus and the perfectly poached egg yolk blanketing the whole…

For the recipe check here, and I hope you are getting a little summer sunshine wherever you are.

It seems the very air I breath is permeated with wild garlic this week. Wild garlic or ramsons is similar to ramps, or wild leeks, both belonging to the allium family. Like ramps they grow anywhere moist and shady, like damp woods, stream banks etc. They do have a bulb which is edible, but it is small and finicky to harvest, with the bulb only being ready after about 3 seasons. The flowers are also edible, but much stronger than the leaves, making a few flowers a pretty and flavourful addition to robust summer salads. It is the leaves though, which are most sought after. Easy to harvest and prepare, and absolutely delicious.

I have a feeling that I am going slightly overboard with my wild garlic obsession, as my mom has just told me about an email she received from my daughter yesterday, where Dakota writes: ‘… I’m taking it easy on the garlic, but mom, ohhh!!!!, she can’t keep her hands off it!!!!!’ Even as I admit this I am writing about last night’s dinner and planning something for today, incorporating, you guessed it, wild garlic. I only hope the season is not over before I get through all the dishes I want to make.

Last night I made a real locavore’s salad of freshly dug new season potatoes, steamed Somerset asparagus and freshly foraged wild garlic. A little shaved parmesan and some hot lemon butter to finish it off and I officially pronounced it – Fabulous Dah-ling!

And for those of you who don’t know what wild garlic looks like, where to find it, or what bits to pick, here is a pictorial aid.

…slightly chive like, with white flower heads and bright green spearhead shaped leaves

…moist woods, and other damp areas such as stream banks

…tear off the leaves just above the stem (for regrowth) or snap off at the stem.

And if these clues don’t help, just follow the smell, it will guide you.

For the recipe for my Bashed new potato and wilted ramson salad with new season asparagus and lemon butter please click here or check out the Vanielje Kitchen Cook Book (vkcb) in the sidebar.

This is my entry for Andrea’s Grow Your Own event. I checked with her and wild garlic comes under the Hunter / gatherer clause apparently, so my entry is legit. It’s good to be back cooking with homegrown seasonal produce, so thank you summer and than you Andrea for a great event.