It’s amazing how quickly things turn from feeling like winter will never end to suddenly realize that we’re in the heart of Spring and summer is around the corner.
There’s still some limited preserving this month (though lots of options including winter hold-overs) as Spring starts with delicate leafy things – awesome for the table, a little slow to jar. There will be lots of great local eating coming this month.
Here’s a partial list of what you can expect to preserve this month (along with some links to help):
- Asparagus. Pickled and pressure canned. Marisa from Food in Jars also pickles hers. Our friend Sean at Punk Domestics has a whole category of posts on asparagus. Last years killer can jam (by our friend Tigress) had a giant round-up of Asparagus preserves.
- Chard. Our friend Kaela from Local Kitchen made pickled chard stems.
- Dandelion Jelly. We made Dandelion Jelly (and described coffee and wine from the plant) as did Julia from What Julia Ate (she called hers dandelion honey which is a great description).
- Pickled Fiddleheads
- Mushrooms. We make powder from dehydrated ‘shrooms, Punk Domestics shares a link to pickled chanterelles and The National Center for Home Food preservation shares how to pressure can mushrooms)
- Shae from Hitchhiking to Heaven made Nasturtium Pesto.
- Rhubarb. We stew it, Food in Jars makes vanilla-rhubarb jam, rosemary-rhubarb jam and adds early strawberries to make strawberry-rhubarb butter). Kaela also did a rhubarb round-up. Tigress also did rhubarb in her may can jam.
- Radishes – Kaela made radish relish with them (the best preserve I ate this year was a black-radish relish made by a friend). Punk Domestics has a bunch of posts on radishes.
- Ramps/ Wild Leeks. we make pesto and dehydrate the roots which is one of my all-time favorite preserves. Make sure they are sustainably harvested – Kaela recently did an awesome round-up of ramp articles here and I know she is fond of her ramp-cilatro pesto.
Here are links that will work for May that also worked for April (i.e. we shared them – and more – last month):
- Pickled beets (this article contains a link to a recipe and a bit of background in addition to a humiliating story about me)
- Beet powder and celery salt (it’s a powder as well)
- Pickled Leeks (not ramps)
- Apple Produce – sauce, chips and a combination which is essentially apple turnover filling.
- Pickled Carrots
- Carrot cake jam
There’s a lot morre foraging going on this month too – pickled cattails are high on my list of want-to-learns. 
Any other ideas that we’re missing out there?
Come on over to our Facebook page – we’ll share more ideas through the month and learn from each other!
Love it! My rhubarb is just about ready to eat. All those rhubarb recipes make me swoon. You may also want to try this garlic mustard greens soup, which is easily foraged right now: http://whatjuliaate.blogspot.com/2011/04/garlic-mustard-soup.html
For those of us in warmer climates, if you grow grapes, right now is the perfect time to start pruning them and preserving the leaves for dolmas. I guess they can be pickled if you have a pressure canner, but we just blanched & froze them.
Please read & post about asparagus on my weekend “tribute to asparagus.” A good pickled asparagus recipe would be lovely. I love asparagus. Rock on, asparagus!
I found your post through Take Back Urban Homesteading on Facebook. I love the ideas. I never considered what I could preserve in the spring. I’ll share a link to your post on my Tumblr site where I bookmark posts to look at later.
Autumn into winter sees the Hawthorn berries ripen and the crabapples too – so lots of jelly made. I usually mix the two as hawthorns are prolific but sometimes a bit bland while crabapples are a good tart addition. Pear and ginger preserves about then too.
Cheers