Redbud in a Bottle

As a transplant to the Midwest, I am still often skeptical that warmth will indeed arrive after so many months (in a row!) of cold weather and a landscape dominated by trendy neutrals (not unrelenting gray..:). But somehow, it always happens, and more often than not, quite abruptly. This week alone, we’ve gone from stripping the beds in order to use the sheets to cover and save the delicate flowers from a very rude dip into the 20s to a 14-day outlook with temperatures in the 80s. 

In the midst of all my ranting about it (go ahead, ask my quarantine buddy about how bad it’s been), the signature signs of spring and hope, the flowering trees, have steadfastly held their ground as architecturally audacious fountains of color in the cold, wet, whipping wind that is spring in Michigan. 

Among my favorites is the Redbud (Cercis canadensis), which sports its tiny, edible, hot pink flowers on its naked gray branches. I love them because they are pink, and because they give me something from the garden to use in the kitchen in April or May when there isn’t yet a whole lot to harvest. 

As hard as it is to pick the tiny little flowers, I always take a few to the kitchen to sprinkle on salads and to make pickles. They are like very pretty capers, and really jazz up a snack board!