Grist for the Mill
They are coming. The feel of warm nights on bare skin. The aroma of tomato vine on your fingertips. The sounds of clinking glasses and laughter wafting from bistros and backyards. As the summer season approaches with the promise of fully-booked rental properties and fully-committed dinner services, let’s hope for more patience from patrons and far more help for the staffs of Cape Cod’s hospitality industry. With supply, shipping and labor issues, it can seem as though we take one step forward and two steps back in our return to a sense of normalcy, but onward we march.
This is our third spring as publishers, and Cori and I have sensed the feelings of fear become ones of hope and now of nervous anticipation of what’s to come for local businesses whose memories of last summer’s crowds and lack of available staff support are all too fresh. One restaurant that has deftly managed sizable crowds for years is the Lobster Trap in Bourne, where owner Dave Delancey and his executive chef brother Dan have built a culinary destination that far surpasses the humble term “clam shack”. We caught up with them to learn what their throngs of dedicated patrons already know: Go ahead and judge this book by its cover. You’ll be amazed by the tastes within.
A new voice to these pages, Carol Rizzoli, shares the story of Kathryn Kleekamp and her new book, Celebrating Cape Cod & the Islands: Traditions, Festivals, and Food. The Cape and islands are home to seemingly countless festivals throughout the year. Many had to cancel or alter events over the past two years. Kleekamp touches on over three dozen, many with accompanying recipes. This is a go-to resource for both the kitchen and the social calendar.
Recipes are an important part of edible CAPE COD, and we’ve got plenty of them for you in this issue. John Carafoli returns with “Awaken to Spring”, with recipes for a three-course spring menu featuring his new fascination, halibut cheeks. The dandelion greens salad brings with it memories of John’s grandmother, and a cast iron skillet lemon soufflé will bring your evening to a sweet end.
Jeff Avery anticipates another growing season and his inability to be patient in “The Salad Days”. He gets the jump on the garden by growing greens that’ll be replaced soon enough by other vegetables when the weather warms. Until then, he shares his process of making tasty vinaigrettes to go along with your right-out-of-the-garden salad.
Another early arrival in the growing season is asparagus. Karen Bento looks deeper into this favorite perennial, and just what it takes to establish a bed of your own that’ll reward you year after year. Among other things, it’ll take… patience (there’s that word again). She also has a couple of fun recipes featuring asparagus, including one that is a unique, and a bit healthier twist on an asparagus “risotto”.
As our cultivating energies are starting to flow, Michelle Koch introduces us to Jen Irving and her fascinating journey to become a surgical physician’s assistant and growing entrepreneur. This spring, Irving will throw open the doors once again to her operation, Jenny’s Edibles & Blooms, where she offers vegetable and flower starts to the public, cut flowers to area florists and serves up a unique “tea” as well.
With each impending spring, our level of impatience seems to grow for the arrival of the colors of the season. The excitement at the first glimpse of the yellow haze of flowering forsythia gives way to an eagerness to get digging, as buds turn to leaves. I always need to remind myself to enjoy the process at every stage, every step of the way. Don’t get caught up in wishing for future days. They’ll come soon enough.
Enjoy the day,
Larry
