in a fit of indecision about what to photograph today, i decided simply to move everything from my desk onto the floor and make the best of it.  i do the same thing in fall when i want to clear out my refrigerator. if it’s in the crisper, it goes in the pot. add chicken stock, simmer, blend.  sometimes the soup is spectacular, and sometimes it tastes a little like baby food. you will have to decide for yourself whether you’re currently looking at a velouté aux légumes, or gerber puréed peas and carrots.

assemblage of late-may and early-june finds

saint paul, minnesota

spruce tips are a bit of a culinary fad, which, like a lot of fads, culinary or otherwise, is really just a rediscovery of something already known for centuries. here in the midwest we’re suddenly fermenting sauerkraut and pickling vegetables as if we, and not our germano-scandinavian forbears, invented the idea. this year, we missed the spruce tip harvest season. they have burst their husks and started to lose their early season tenderness. so we’ll have to give this ancient native wild edible a try next spring, at which point i promise to report our experience with the breathless excitement of a totally new discovery.

annual growth tips on spruce and balsam

my yard, saint paul, minnesota

p.s. on a similar note, last week i bought myself a pair of trendy, 0f-the-moment birkenstock sandals. i tend to admire them without thinkng much about how in fashion they would have been a couple thousand years ago in downtown nazareth.

a graduate student in france recently approached me to participate in her dissertation research. she ended up asking a number of remarkably insightful questions, including a question about how i choose which subject to photograph each day. i answered that the day’s subject must be either beautiful or interesting. today, i need not explain, i give you interesting.

water lily rhizome

vadnais lake, saint paul, mn

p.s.  this particular rhizome was the size of my arm, and each of those brown patches about the size of a human eye. and the clusters of smaller dark circles are where the new growth sprouts. there were dozens of these rhizomes floating on the shore this spring. i am not sure what brought them up from the bottom of the lake.

it was the ruff of white down that caught my attention. our hens are molting, so i am guessing the geese might be too. i’ve decided that if each of the hairs on my body had a little ruff of white down around it, i would be better equipped for minnesota winters.

canada goose feather

sucker lake trail, saint paul, minnesota