Spring's succulent shoots

With these lengthening days of spring, I long for the first fresh green foods from the garden and the ephemeral early gifts from streams and forests.

I've already been able to harvest a bit of hardy lettuce, mache, spinach, arugula and scallions - plants started last fall and kept cozy in a simple wood box with windows on top, called a cold frame.

Every week since early March, I've sowed a few rows of lettuces, escarole, kales, beets, carrots, peas and radishes outside. The result is a garden full of seedlings in various states of maturity. I can gather lettuce, sprouts and leaf greens from the beds this week, as well as garlic shoots from last season's left-behind cloves, and perennial herbs like chives, tarragon, thyme and sage ready for spring dishes.

With warmer days and worms and grass to peck at, my three hens are back to laying their luscious yellow yolked eggs - which I try to feature in cakes, salads and entrees as well as for breakfast.

For those without the time or space for hens or hoes, there are plenty of small and large farms in and around Philadelphia that are harvesting these first local heralds of spring.

Both Weaver's Way Farm in Germantown and Greensgrow Farm in Kensington create a microenvironment for plants under plastic hoops that allow several cool-weather crops an early start. They are selling lettuces, pea shoots, spinach and more from these outdoor garden beds.

The outdoor farmer's markets will be opening soon, but Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market, Weaver's Way Coop and most of the Whole Foods stores have some local spring crops for sale from farms just outside Philadelphia's metro area.

Microgreens - which are simply one- to two-week-old shoots of lettuces, greens, beets, and other vegetables - are especially vitamin- and nutrient-dense, and are best eaten raw to benefit fully from their vitality.

Pea shoots are most tender and sweet when young and are great in a sandwich or salad. As they get a bit older they are better lightly cooked - in a stir fry or tossed with hot roasted beets, topped with a few toasted walnuts. A little local goat cheese (or French feta), and you've got lunch.

If you don't have room for an outdoor garden, consider buying seeds to sprout your own on the windowsill in a jar or pot. Sprouted seeds and legumes grown in your kitchen are possibly the easiest and cheapest way to eat locally grown produce every day.

Asparagus will be poking its stalks out of the soil around the region within the next week or two. These spears are easy to prepare steamed, boiled or - my favorite - oven roasted. Asparagus is tasty topped with citrus vinaigrette, or toasted nuts and browned butter. Thicker stalks can be dipped into a green goddess-style creamy chive dressing or garnished with chopped hard-cooked eggs.

Another perennial favorite for spring is the tender stalks of rhubarb, also known as pie plant. Rhubarb's tartness needs sweetening for palatability, but makes a great sauce or filling for pie. A clump of rhubarb planted this year at the edge of a garden bed will provide filling for pies for years to come. Freeze some now to pair with June strawberries, and cook up some now as a sauce for cake or ice cream or filling for a spring crumb pie.

And don't forget spring's native plant foods - those wild gifts culled from the woods and fields - that will also be available to buy (or to harvest if you know where to look) soon. The most common are the tight unfurled fronds of the fiddlehead fern, and the member of the wild onion, garlic, and scallion family called ramps. Sauteed together, fiddleheads and ramps make a great spring green side dish that needs little more seasoning than a squeeze of lemon, salt, and pepper. Be sure to wash well to remove grit from these tastes of spring.

A sign of spring with serious Philadelphia provenance is the once-plentiful local fish, shad. The riverfront neighborhood of Fishtown was the center of the great shad fisheries of the Delaware River estuary in the 18th and 19th centuries. But pollution, overfishing, and a decline in access to spawning grounds have made shad almost unavailable locally. Commercial catches are now highly regulated on the East Coast as part of a serious effort to restore shad habitats and population.

The region's historic connection with the fish can still be celebrated at the Shadfest later this month in Fishtown or by simply cooking up some at home, though the shad at local fish markets will most likely be from Florida and the Carolinas.

The roe of the shad - sacs of hundreds of thousands of tiny eggs - are also a short-lived spring delicacy. Both shad and shad roe are best cooked simply - broiled or sauteed with few adornments to enjoy their fresh, delicious taste.

These cool, sunny days will soon give way to heat and humidity. Celebrate this glorious season of rebirth with a meal full of tasty first crops.

My adage for April: In like a salad and out like a strawberry-rhubarb pie!

Makes 4 servings

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2 to 3 tablespoons butter

1 to 2 shad fillets (boned), about 1 pound

Salt and pepper

1 lemon, cut in half (cut half into slices and reserve the other half for juice)

1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil or butter

1 to 2 cups pea shoots (baby arugula or young spinach is a fine substitute), rinsed and still damp

1 to 3 teaspoons minced chives    or parsley

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1. Preheat oven broiler.

2. Lightly butter baking dish or broiler pan. Place shad skin side down in pan. Season well with salt and freshly ground pepper and cover with small pieces of the butter. Broil close to the broiler for 7 to 10 minutes until fish is well browned and sizzling.

3. While the fish is broiling heat the oil (or butter, if using) in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the pea shoots or other greens and salt and pepper, cover, and remove from the heat.

4. Remove fish from broiler and squeeze the reserved half lemon over it. Serve alongside the wilted seasoned greens, garnished with lemon slices and a sprinkle of minced chives.

Per serving: 292 calories, 20 grams protein, 3 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram sugar, 23 grams fat, 100 milligrams cholesterol, 102 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.EndText

Makes 4 servings

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1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons good olive oil

3 garlic shoots, or 1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup sherry or good quality red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

3 to 4 slices bread (sandwich bread or baguette) cut into cubes. Trim crust as desired.

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

4 cups cleaned and washed young frisee (or tender escarole)

4 very fresh eggs

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1. Heat the 1/2 cup of oil in a small saucepan with the garlic until the oil is warm; do not let garlic brown. Whisk in the vinegar, salt and pepper and remove from heat.

2. Heat the remaining oil in a small saute pan, add the bread cubes, and cook, stirring often, until well browned and crisp. Add the cheese, and season lightly with salt and pepper.

3. Bring a small saucepan half filled with water and a large pinch of salt to a gentle simmer on the stove. Add a scant 1/2 teaspoon vinegar if your eggs are more than 1 week old.

4. Toss the frisee or escarole with the warm vinaigrette.

5. Crack the eggs gently into the simmering water and cover.

6. Divide the dressed frisee onto four plates and sprinkle each with a quarter of the croutons. Grind some fresh pepper onto each.

7. Remove the eggs from the water very carefully with a slotted spoon as soon as the top of the yolk is just set and place one gently in the center of each salad. Serve immediately.

Note: Very fresh eggs hold their shape quite well when poached, older eggs benefit from a small splash of vinegar in the poaching water to help tighten the whites and keep a nice shape.

Per serving: 478 calories, 10 grams protein, 12 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams sugar, 45 grams fat, 215 milligrams cholesterol, 262 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.EndText

Makes 6 to 8 servings

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1 cup sweet butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing baking pan

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Zest of one lemon or orange (optional)

1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup maple syrup

For the rhubarb sauce:

5-6 stalks rhubarb, washed and sliced thin

1/2-3/4 cup sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a loaf pan by greasing and flouring or lining with parchment paper.

2. Using a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until well blended and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until well mixed. Add the extract and zest (if using).

3. Mix the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add carefully to the butter-egg mixture until completely blended.

4. Bake 45-55 minutes until golden on top and a test toothpick remains clean when inserted into the cake's center. Cool on a rack about 10 minutes before removing from pan.

5. While cake is baking or beforehand, boil 1/3 cup maple syrup until it reduces by about half. Let cool. When cake is finished baking, brush cake all over with thickened maple syrup and let cool completely.

6. To prepare the rhubarb sauce, cook rhubarb and half the sugar in a small saucepan until the rhubarb is soft and the sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Taste after 8 minutes or so and add more sugar if needed.

7. Serve alongside cake. (Leftovers can be spooned into yogurt, served with whipped cream as a topping.)

Note: When made with free-range eggs this cake has a lovely golden hue to contrast with the red rhubarb sauce.

Per serving (based on 8): 536 calories, 7 grams protein, 68 grams carbohydrates, 45 grams sugar, 27 grams fat, 170 milligrams cholesterol, 138 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.EndText