Fish

Black drum is a terrific fish—meaty and satisfying but still delicate. It’s often compared to overfished grouper but is more flavorful and less tough, and its skin cooks up crisp and savory. If you can’t find drum, black cod (sablefish) from Alaska or wild striped bass is a good substitute.

Frying fish in peanut oil (like using lard for fried chicken) gives catfish the crispiest, least greasy coating imaginable.

The fact that our great-grandchildren may never eat a real seafood dinner gives those of us who still eat fish a responsibility not to put blue cheese on it. I like to serve this with pickled beets (page 142) and the potato salad that follows. This treatment would work for almost any flavorful, rich fish.

This was one of the coldest winters here anyone can remember and many producers harvested root vegetables from underneath a cover of snow. It was hard on the farmers but great for the carrots, which didn’t get prettier but definitely got sweeter while resting in the cold winter earth. Carrots aside, early spring is the time to eat raw vegetables, especially at Fickle Creek. Gather as many colors, textures, and flavors as you can, such as small fennel, carrots, and radishes but also sweet scallions, baby turnips, and hearts of butter lettuce. Good on their own, they are of course also delicious with homemade mayonnaise. If you have an immersion or stick blender, you can make your own mayonnaise in 2 minutes.

Not far from Joe’s Mountain Gardens in Celo is Canton, a mill town that is home to Sunburst Trout Farm (see Sources, page 264), where Sally Eason raises delicate pink trout in the pure water that rushes down Cold Mountain. If a campfire is not in your immediate future but you have some sparkling fresh trout, this works well on the stovetop, too. Serve it with wilted ramps (page 27) or other greens.

Delicate fresh broccoli and cauliflower from a garden or small farm don’t resemble the useful California sorts that are a fixture in our produce drawer the rest of the year, and so we enjoy them while we can. But because broccoli and cauliflower do travel and keep exceptionally well, I make these recipes year-round, just allowing for slightly longer cooking times when dealing with more mature vegetables.