A Beautiful Gift from Sidney

As many of you know, Kitty's father Sidney passed away recently. He had been ill for quite some time, but the end of great lives is always a sad occasion. He and Lynn had recently moved from a house in the country, out side of Drew, Mississippi, to a house in the big city of Cleveland, Mississippi. The new house was right next door to the library (where Lynn works) and right behind the Episcopal church. If they had a grocery store and a wine shop in the same block, they would have never needed a car, except to take the dogs to the vet. They kept the old place near Drew and today, Kitty, Lynn and I made the trip out there to pick up some furniture and other odds and ends. I managed to throw my back out lifting the first piece for furniture and luckily it was the only heavy one. JT, a big man in his 60's who had once worked for Sidney, did the rest of the heavy lifting and even managed to whip a nest of wasps into a real frenzy while removing a window unit a/c.

This was the first time Kitty and I had been out to the old house since they had moved. I felt a deep sense of regret that I hadn't had the opportunity to go back out there with Sidney and dig up a truckload of the native plants that were all around the place. While I was gingerly moving some sticks out of the way for the moving van, I spotted some wild garlic plants and asked Lynn if I could pull up a few. She told me to take all I wanted and I ignored the searing pain in my back as I pulled up about two dozen plants. They were still a little green and milky, but I figured I wouldn't have the opportunity to get back up there any time soon. We loaded them in the back of the moving van, next to the bed, the mattress, the dishwasher and the formerly wasp-filled window units and made one more walk around the old place. Kitty cut a few branches off of the big Bay Tree behind the shed and I spotted an anvil that I would seriously like to have in my workshop. Kitty got her bays home. I had to leave the anvil for another trip.

When we got home, Stuart, Kitty and I cut the bulbs and tops from the garlic and stuck them in some loose soil in the big planter on the porch. I know the bulbs will take root and I hope some of the tops will do the same. While separating the tops and the roots, I noticed that the lower half of the stalks were quite tender. I bit into one of them to check for bitterness and was delighted to find that they had bright, yet earthy taste like a cross between a ramp, a green onion and garlic. We were so tired from moving that we had discussed getting takeout for supper, but the taste of the wild garlic changed my mind. Instead of some protein-in-a-box nightmare, I got in to the kitchen and whipped up a hearty soup with the garlic stalks as the star.

As you can see, it turned out beautiful. Thanks Sidney.

Bon Appetit
~Tom