Episode 220 - How to Enjoy the Best Spring Ingredients with Tessa

Eric: Hey everybody. Welcome to the Eat, Shop, Waste Not podcast. Um, today I'm here to interview Tessa, she is a blogger who runs the blog Sprig and Spoon, and we are here today to talk about spring recipes. Um, we just passed the first day of spring this week here. So people are getting excited to break out those special spring recipes here.

And Tesla's really into, um, seasonal eating and cooking. What's great and in season here. So I thought it'd be great to have her on today. So welcome to the podcast.

Tessa: Yeah, thanks, Eric. I'm really glad to be here.

Eric: Uh, so first I'd love for you just to kind of tell people about what your blog is all about.

Tessa: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I created Sprig and Spoon in, um, 2021. I kind of grew up gardening and eating a lot of, like, fresh garden produce, but I was living in an apartment during COVID and kind of like everyone, I just felt the itch to get out there and grow my own food. Um, so my parents graciously let me garden in their backyard.

And so, um, that kind of started the obsession with gardening. And, uh, from that, I just had to learn how to cook what was in season and get creative with what was in my garden versus just going to the store and buying exactly what I wanted. And so, um, I just had a lot of fun with that. And I started the blog to kind of share that experience and, um, help others grow their own food and then also preserve it and cook beautiful meals with what they have growing in their garden.

Eric: Yeah. I think that's really, important to people, you know, get to that next step, you know, they go and plant the garden and grow the food. But then we have to figure out like, Hey, what am I going to do with this? Or, you know, or when you have a bigger abundance , of things, you know, things do really well.

Um, you have a whole lot of something you need to figure out. Okay. What am I going to now do with this here? You know, if you're used to just buying, you know, maybe it'd be a pound of tomatoes or just like, you know, just one bag of green It's like, you know, what happens when you have tons of that here and how you can, you know, control that waste.

Um, which is great. And I'm glad you were able to kind of get started, um, using your parents house, cause I know when I got my gardening itch, I was also living in an apartment. And so it was hard to like, Oh, I don't have a space to stay. So one of the things that we moved out, uh, was to find a place where we could actually have a garden.

Um, it's because, it's fun to be able to grow your own food and for my kids to see the whole process too.

Tessa: Yeah, exactly. Um, we moved into our house a couple years ago and it's just been so great having to just like step outside to garden and I love it.

Eric: right. So yeah, so today we're here to talk about spring recipes. Uh, so I think what I want to kind of get started talking about is, um, ingredients here. So what do you think are the, um, most important ingredients to have on hand for like really good spring recipes? Like what, what ingredients get you excited?

Right now, or in the coming weeks and months here?

Tessa: I think like the top ingredient that I always want to have on hand during the spring, um, is fresh lemons. It's not like necessarily considered a spring ingredient, but it is in season during the spring and I just think that lemon like really brings that fresh, bright flavor that we're all looking for in the spring after like lots of warm comfort meals in the winter. Um, so I always have lemon on hand. And then I also just like to use a lot of fresh herbs and fresh greens. Um, chives are like a huge go to in the spring. You can add them to pretty much anything. Um, and I also love asparagus and, um, arugula. We'll add arugula to pretty much any meal. And it's just, delicious and great for you.

And it's in season during the spring and it actually tastes its best during then. So those are a few of them, but I really like to just use. Any spring vegetables that are growing and try and incorporate them, even into meals that I make throughout the year, um, kind of give them like a spring slant. So, um, snap peas, radishes, a lot of green onions, carrots, and, um, Cabbage is a huge one.

Definitely all good choices and especially asparagus, like I eat so much asparagus during this time of year because, you know, the rest of you know, it's one of those vegetables that we see as a year round thing that's always in the stores, but like most of the year it's coming from like Peru.

Tessa: Yeah.

Eric: And then you get a little bit of Mexico and just like, I prefer like the thicker stalks. I like the thicker stocks. And so usually like, and you're kind of the off season stuff, you're getting like these little thin, pathetic little spears, um, which aren't great at all. So yeah, I love, um, asparagus.

Do you have asparagus in your, in your garden yet?

Tessa: No, I don't. I, um, I've been thinking about growing it for years, but it's a big commitment. It takes about three years before you can harvest it. So maybe this will be my year.

Eric: So I had a situation where we moved in, it was a rental place. And we decided to plant the asparagus, not knowing how long we'd be there. And of course the year it was ready to harvest I had to move. I never got to really get from it here. And I saw it started to grow. It was cool seeing the first years come out of the ground, but like the first bit there, you have to just let it go. You have to let the plant just do its thing for a while.

Eric: But yeah, definitely like tons of asparagus. Arugula is a good one too. Yeah, that's one of those ones. Like I planted in my garden for the early kind of season. They have, um, one of those good kind of green things to go into.

Tessa: Not everyone loves it. It's got a very unique taste.

Spinach is a good one if you don't like arugula. It's like very similar without the strong taste.

Eric: Yes. Spinach or, or I did one spring, um, one spring time where I had like my spinach had overwintered.

Tessa: Oh, wow.

Eric: So it like, was really like sweet and it was really abundant. So like we, we had so much of it that I started making like a pesto

Tessa: Oh, yum.

Eric: took like the spinach and arugula and combined it, um, the other little peppery flavor here and do like a pesto.

And that was so good.

Tessa: Yeah, that sounds amazing. I've made pesto with carrot tops before. I actually have that on my blog, but I've never tried it with greens like that. I'll have to do that.

Eric: Yeah. It's something you can also do. Like I tell people, like, you know, if you, if you're the grocery store and you find like, Some spinach that's on like discount because it's going to go, it's getting close to its end of its life. Like that's a good opportunity to go buy that. Just make a batch of a batch of, uh, pesto and then, use it up.

Tessa: Yeah, I love that idea.

Eric: Uh, and you also mentioned lemons. I think lemons are, are, are a good thing to know. At the beginning of spring is kind of like the end of citrus season, but we're still in citrus season. I just went to a farmer's market last week in California. We were visiting and there was, you know, it was like, it was kind of the peak time now because like all the, uh, everything's now, you know, getting picked off the tree for the end of the year.

So you get the most writing and stuff. So I think definitely lemon really goes well with any of those green things. Like I shot lemon, like the spinach or, or put that on asparagus. Lemon asparagus. I think that's a really good one. Um, definitely have on hand. How do you like to use it? The use more of the juice too?

Or do you also like use the zest?

Tessa: I definitely always use the juice, but I have started adding the zest a lot to like salad dressings and even over vegetables. Like you said, It adds a lot more flavor. It doesn't change the flavor, but it adds a lot more. And then you're also using more of that lemon, less of it's going to waste. So yeah, I think both are very important and valuable in the kitchen.

Eric: I definitely agree. Um, and then another, and then we have some of the other, I don't know if you've been able to be able to try some of the more unique, like spring vegetables. What, what part of the country are you in?

Tessa: So I'm in Colorado, so we have pretty cold climate.

Eric: It's more grown in the East coast , but like, like wild ramps. If you haven't had a wild ramp before.

Tessa: No, you know, I've been wanting to plant them cause we don't have them growing wild here for a long time. Um, I think, yeah, the wild foraging, like on the East coast is just incredible in the spring.

Eric: Yeah. They get like the, the, the ramps. There's also these little fiddlehead ferns, little tender ferns. Um, morel mushrooms or those kinds of things are really, really big. Um, especially in the East coast. I went to a festival once in Ohio that was all dedicated to ramps.

Tessa: Oh, wow.

Eric: And for those who don't know what a ramp is, a ramp is kind of like, it has a little ball, there's a green leaf coming out of it, you kind of use each of it.

It has that kind of garlicky, oniony type flavor in that kind of family, um, which is good. But you also mentioned chives too, and so like, those, you know, I found those growing wild. All over the place. You can easily grow those. You'll have that as the kind of the first thing.

Tessa: Yeah, I love that about chives. It's like, I know spring is here when the chives come up and we just love adding them to everything we can because it's just so exciting to have something in the garden. Finally.

Eric: Yes. It would be cool to also throw the chives in that pesto I mentioned earlier too, they'll put a little bit of time there to that little onion flavor.

Tessa: Yeah, definitely.

Eric: Okay. So, um, yeah, there's some of the good ingredients to have on hand here. We talked about asparagus. Also, snap peas, radishes, all those kind of fun things. Um, so what are some recipes on your blog that, that you really love, want people to check out, um, for springtime?

Tessa: Yeah, my very favorite one. I think right now at least is my spring orzo pasta salad. Um, It has like a lot of the ingredients we just talked about. Um, so it has a lemon dressing which just adds so much flavor and brightness. Um, and then it also has like a lot of fresh, um, spring vegetables. So carrots, asparagus, um, I think it might have peas in it. And, um, it's just my favorite because I, I like taking recipes that I eat around. Like I said, so pasta salad is one we'll make in the summer with tomatoes and cucumbers. Um, but it's just so fun to figure out how to turn it into a spring recipe. And then it uses so many different spring ingredients that I feel like I really get to like, enjoy what's in season and spring by eating that pasta salad.

Um, and then one of my other go to's every single year is I make a huge batch of chive butter and that freezes really well. So we actually have chive butter year round after that. Um, that one's just delicious on like toast, avocado, toast, pasta, anything you would use butter in that's savory tastes so good. even better with chive butter. And then I really love, um, my newest recipe, which is a spring fruit salad. And, um, living in Colorado, we don't really have a lot of fruit growing in the spring, but there are a lot in season nearby. And so, um, this spring fruit salad kind of highlights some of those fruits and it's just a really good fresh and, um, flavorful side dish for really any meal. We've been eating it a lot.

Eric: Oh, that, yeah, that chive butter sounds good. That's a, that's a really good idea, you know, to kind of preserve those, different types of Herbs and things you get that time of year to preserve it that way. And I love those kind of like easy kind of like flavor bobs. You could like put out food too, especially with vegetables.

Like, like I like a lot of time when we're like planning out meal and stuff. You're like, it's like, Oh shoot. We need to add a vegetable. You know, we get so focused. We get the protein that we need to throw a vegetable in here. So it's really neat. You know, good. When you can have something like a chive butter on hand to just say, okay, well, I didn't, Well, he's thinking much about it here, but here's some green beans we have to eat up or here's some broccoli here and you know, We just do a quick steam of those things and throw the chive around now We got something that's you know Really good that we didn't have to do much effort with because we already kind of like prepared for it earlier.

Tessa: Yeah, exactly. I just love having those ingredients on hand that go with so many things. You don't really have to like work to use them up. They just easily incorporate and like you said they add so much flavor to the meal.

Eric: Have you ever used the flowers of the chives for anything?

Tessa: Yeah, I um, I make chive vinegar every year with them. Um, they also are delicious on salads because they're, you know, edible flowers and they just taste like a really mild version of a chive. Um, so yeah, I love using those. They're so fun and they're so pretty.

Eric: Oh yeah, I imagine that would make a really good vinegar. What type of vinegar do you like to, like, put in with the chive, the chive blossoms?

Tessa: My go to is white wine vinegar, but they also taste really good with sherry vinegar.

Eric: Oh, that's a good

Tessa: so yeah, you just infuse the flowers in the vinegar for a few days and you can make salad dressings and all kinds of different things with this infused vinegar.

Eric: Yeah, another great idea, another way you could have, you know, kind of that, that flavor, flavor pop, this kind of sauce, that's something, maybe a quick salad dressing, you have those kind of things on hand. I think that's, you know, especially springtime when you have, like, the, you know, if you're going to have your own garden, you're going to have, that's where you're going to have, like, the salad greens, the fresh salad greens.

So having those things kind of throw, throw them all together is. Oh, fantastic.

Tessa: Yeah, definitely.

Eric: So you shared with us a little bit here, your passion for gardening. So, I want to kind of get into asking you, what tips do you have for people that are wanting to start a garden? You know, that, you know, that maybe have started, like, you had to start an apartment here and work with that, but, like, what are some things that you suggest for people, um, especially for springtime?

Because I think, too, like, I've met a lot of people that just seem, like, They don't think you can guard it until like, it's like Memorial Day, like it's past all the frost and stuff here that you can't do any gardening at all. People just started that, but I'm like, you know, at that point, like, I have like, well, I've already had, like, I'm already harvesting things right now.

You're like, I'm going to have something here. And plus like, I always think like. It's a lot easier to me to like harvest vegetable stuff in like that kind of weather than opposed to like come July, August when it's like sweltering and humid to like be out there. Like it's kind of more fun to do it that way.

So like, what tips do you have for people?

Tessa: Yeah, spring might be my favorite season to garden in. Um, I just have like a lot of enthusiasm because I've been inside all winter and I'm just so excited to get out there. And there are a lot of things that you can grow in the spring that can handle like, Frost overnight, or even the occasional snow. Um, so I definitely say just, yeah, get started.

Like there's so much you can grow. Um, and it, it is very different depending on where you live. Um, so we just had over a foot of snow here last week, but, um, if you live in a warmer climate, you can even get started earlier, but, um, yeah, I would say my biggest tip would be, um, harvest the spring vegetables, And the herbs early and often. Um, I've learned the hard way many times that, um, once the heat of the summer comes, they're most likely not good anymore. Um, that's true for like a lot of the greens, radishes, um, cilantro, peas. Um, I'm like waiting for one big harvest and then, you know, we get like a lot of heat and they all bolt. So I would just say. Start harvesting as soon as you can and enjoy them as soon as you can. Um, and then also just grow what you like to eat. A really popular spring vegetable for gardeners, um, is radishes because they're ready in like 30 days and they're really fun to grow. And definitely grow those just because they're fun, but um, I've definitely made the mistake of growing. Way more than we can eat just because I feel like I should. Um, versus like, if I grew more snap peas, we're going to eat all of those. And so just think about what you like to eat regularly and what you find yourself buying from the store and grow more of that. Um, and also just get some perennials started.

Like I said, with the chives, it's just so exciting when they come up and they come up way before. You would think you should start planting things. Um, so planting like some asparagus, chives, artichokes, strawberries, um, depending on where you live, it can just be a really fun way to start the garden season because they come back year after year and they come back really early.

Eric: Yeah. I think that's a good tip too, you know, to watch and like jump into that here. Uh, and get those things planned. Like you need to get your asparagus, you need to get some asparagus, get that going. Right.

Tessa: I do. I

Eric: Uh, but yeah, so like, I think it's really cool to, you know, to have those things that kind of pop up each year.

Like herbs too. Like I, I mean, like one of my favorite herbs is tarragon. And that was always one of the first ones to kind of start popping up and start like growing again the following year. And it's something you can just kind of replant. You know, there's some herbs, you know, basil.

You're going to have to redo that every year. Rosemary, depending on where you live, you could, you know,my mother in law lives in California, you know, Rosemary grows like a bush there and never dies, you know? So it keeps going, you know, it would get huge. But if you're in more of a Northern place here, it's usually not going to make it through, through most winters if you're in a cloud like that.

So, but it's really good to have those kinds of like first things, like, I'll get excited about like those herbs yeah, so it's always fun to have those things that pop up first thing in the spring to get you kind of excited about, about that again and peas, like I can't go on. I can't go on and on. I can't go on and on all day about peas like, like there is nothing like peas straight from your garden. Like if you're going to grow anything in the spring, that's going to be like super unique and better than what it is.

It's kind of like the idea of if you're used to buying like pre ground pepper, and then you get your own pepper grinder, start grinding pepper. And that's kind of like what it is with peas, like fresh peas. They're just so much better, so much sweeter. I don't think a lot of people know that like The snap peas and snow peas you get in the grocery store are pretty much all from Guatemala.

Um, so, you know, you're shipping something that's no from from far away It's never going to have that sweetness because once it gets picked It's like corn and it starts converting from those it converts those sugars into starches So so it won't taste as sweet. So there's so like, you know, my kids would you know, probably Not be that excited when I serve up my frozen peas.

They don't hate them, but they don't get excited about that. But those fresh shelled peas from the garden, those, those can't make it in the house hardly ever. Because they will eat them, like, you know, you just eat them raw like candy. Because they're, they're so sweet like that. So I tell my people, like, that is an experience, you know, if you're gonna do anything whatsoever.

Um, with spring vegetables, like that one is the most drastic different than grocery stores. It sure. Like the, the rashes are, are better too, but like the peas are, it's so dramatically better.

Tessa: Yeah, no, I agree. I hadn't bought peas in a while and I just bought some, um, sweet or some snap peas recently and I could not believe the difference. Like I wholeheartedly agree. Grow your own peas. They are so good.

Eric: So amazingly good. And they have, like, I was doing this whole thing. I got really into it and I was finding in this kind of like all these different. Types of piece. So I have like yellow snow peas and purple and like, you know, wide one. That was like a different, like a green one that also had like red streaks on it.

So it's really fun to have those kind of like, and the flowers to like, like the different, the, the flowers, there was different color flowers, but in the, like the yellow one produced like a purple flower.

Tessa: Interesting.

Eric: So it's, yeah, so I made a kind of like ornamental, um, type thing too. So like, yeah, those things are super fun.

Um,

Tessa: Yeah. Have you ever harvested, like, the flowers and the pea tendrils for salad?

Eric: yes, yes. I didn't do that before. There is, uh, there was, I wanted to catalog. There was, there's a certain, um, like type of pea that they call, um, Hyper tendril varieties and those ones, um, produce more of those tendrils than, um, than leaves. So they have, they have a higher, which are really good to put like the, like the sound stuff here.

They're just like shooting out all these little tendrils and stuff here,

Tessa: Oh, wow.

Eric: really nice to put on, uh, sound greens, but those are absolutely yeah. Love for sure. Yes, definitely. I think those are good. And you said that, you know, if you like rashes too, like, like go to a seed catalog and it's like, wow, there's so many types of radishes that you don't even realize like how many like unique different shapes and colors and stuff.

It's, that's like really fun. If you're, if you're like, I know rashes aren't always everyone's like cup of tea either. Um,

Tessa: Right.

Eric: but, uh,

Tessa: yeah, that, that's such a fun thing about growing your own food is, like, you don't realize generally at the grocery store you're just getting the same variety of each type of vegetable. vegetable. And when you start growing it, there's so many, like, we always grow Easter egg radishes that have like a purple, a pink and a white one.

And it's just really fun to try them all. And they all have different flavors and all look different. It's really exciting when you're growing your own food.

Eric: know, this looks pretty on the plate. This looks more appetizing and as a food blogger to have those different colors out there, that's also an advantage. It makes our photos look better too.

Tessa: Yeah, definitely.

Eric: definitely great to have. Well, it's been great chatting with you today. Um, I hope, you know, fortunately, since I'm currently, uh, Not in a house.

Uh, well, we're, we're, we're, we're in an Airbnb and we, uh, we travel the country in our camper year round, so no gardening for me right now. So now it's, I'm like, now I'm kind of jealous, , um, so yeah, I definitely missed that part of it. Um, but yeah. So, , where can people, find your website and where are you on social media?

Tessa: Yeah, so my website is called sprigganspoon. com, um, and that's where you can find all my recipes and gardening tutorials. Um, and then on social media, I have Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

And, um, you can find me there just under Sprigganspoon.

Eric: Thank you so much. You guys, um, go ahead and look up her recipes here. I've been browsing your site here. She has some gorgeous photography on here and some really great recipes here. That Orzo thing sounds amazing. I definitely want to do that. Um, so thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate you being here today.

Tessa: Yeah, thank you. It was great chatting with you, Eric.