In the spring, our gardens produce so many varieties of baby greens. For our full moon supper, we were lucky enough to have wild leek leaves, fiddleheads, baby arugula, and radish and pea shoots. For your baby greens mix at home, use whatever is fresh and local—most markets carry fresh garden greens in the spring. Mix the greens with edible flowers, such as chive blossoms, dandelions or violets, or whatever edible flower you have on hand.
Mix of baby greens
Edible flowers
Hotter than Hades Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
Gently toss lettuces and flowers together. If you plate this course, it will keep all the distinguishing features versus placing all the ingredients in a large salad bowl. I place them on the plate and drizzle the vinaigrette overtop, preserving each variety of delicate green.
If using fiddleheads, prepare them by rinsing well in cold water, cut off any brown parts of the stem, boil in salted water for 10 minutes, drain and cool. Add in like you would any one of the greens.
Hotter than Hades Vinaigrette
Makes 1 cup
We call our vinaigrette by the name of our chili-infused honey, Hotter than Hades. If you don’t have some in your pantry, no worries; simply use regular honey with a pinch of cayenne pepper. You need only a small amount of the dressing with these tender greens.
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
Pinch cayenne, or more to taste
Add vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, mustard, honey and cayenne to jar with tight-fitting lid, shake well and keep refrigerated until needed.
I’m Danielle French, founder and owner of South Pond Farms. South Pond was founded in 2008 as a small food delivery business. I would grow food in my garden, make prepared meals and deliver them all over the GTA. Since then, the farm has been slowly restored and converted into a culinary destination, offering special events, weddings, workshops and corporate retreats all set in our restored century barn in the rolling hills of rural Ontario. My vision is to create a connection to the land, the food we grow and prepare in our kitchen to bringing people together.
