I could hardly believe my eyes last Friday at my market fruit and veg stall: they had the first Jersey Royals! I am always taken aback by how early they turn up – it’s barely the beginning of March! Admittedly, £3 a pound so almost like gold dust – and so you'll ask if I coughed up.
Reader, I could not resist a tiny bag for a taster.
That means spring is officially on its way. There will be strawberries soon, new season carrots and lamb. Time to make salads instead of pies and grilled fish instead of casseroles.
How am I going to prepare my gold-dust Jerseys? Very simply: boiled and lightly crushed, with a frond of dill and maybe a slice of olive. Further in the season, when they don’t require re-mortgaging to buy a kilo, I’ll give the lemon and garlic new potato casserole a go – it is truly fantastic.
What will go with those beauties? I think grilled red mullet which has also turned up at the fishmonger, or Italian style sardines. Light, springlike and healthy too. I’m also looking forward to the real treat: spring new potato salad, to go with oven braised pork ribs.
Salads not pies – so I think I’ll make the corn, bacon and avocado salad, with frozen corn instead of fresh. Or spelt salad with courgette ribbons. Or both, on consecutive days.
For dessert, there will be rhubarb fool since I also grabbed a few stalks off the vegetable stall. And I might bake a batch of Breton butter biscuits to crunch alongside the fool, then use up leftover egg whites to make an army of flavoured meringues. Springlike! Light! Not so healthy but a little bit of the good thing is good for the soul.
And now we’ll start waiting for strawberries…