The Little Red Hen and a Spring Sautee

       I am extremely thankful for the generosity of mountain people. Two weeks ago,  I pitched an article idea to a magazine about gathering spring foods (ramps, morels, asparagus) and they accepted it.  But, they asked me to provide a recipe and picture with all three foods cooked together, so that meant I had to find all three foods on the same day.  The weather here has been alternately hot and cool so things are growing out of season.  By yesterday, I was quite panicky.  Morels and ramps are just about through their season while the asparagus suffered a freeze setback this week.  How was I going to fulfill my promise to the editor?

     Neighbors and family to the rescue!  My friends Sandy, Hilda, Koressa and Linda all had a few asparagus spears that hadn’t been nipped by frost.  

   

My friends Lori and Caroline went mushroom hunting while I was on an afternoon field trip with the middle school.  

                        

                        My new friend Faye let me hike up to her ramp patch in the woods.

My friend Cheryl provided a recipe (okay Cheryl, you don’t live in the mountains, but you are a mountain girl at heart).  My friend Dr. Joe actually had goat cheese in his fridge for my new recipe. My son, Justin, let me have all the mushrooms and ramps he’d found ( a big sacrifice since they are his favorite food) and then helped me in the kitchen. My husband cooked breakfast for me while I spent two hours in the only sunlight I knew we would get today trying to get some pictures of the dish I cooked.

     "Who will help me make my dish?" I cried.
     "I will!" shouted  eleven people willing to go out of their way to help one panicked writer.  The Little Red Hen should have come to my mountain home when she decided to bake bread.