Spring at last! One doesn’t need the calendar to know that spring, glorious spring, is in the air. You can almost feel Mother Nature waking up, shaking off the vestiges of winter, and getting ready to rock and roll. In the perennial herb garden, my chives are always the first to answer the call. Only a few inches high, but what a burst of flavor rewards the early morning stroller, chewing on a stalk while inspecting the great outdoors. Even seeing that the neighborhood deer have cropped the new tulips trying to poke up can’t sour the mood, with new growth everywhere you look, and buds ready to burst in every tree.

So what shall we use that oh so fresh chive flavor for? I’d already planned to crock some Flemish Carbonades for dinner, since a traveling spouse requires a flexible dinnertime tonight, and crockpot cooking is all about flexible timing. Not much point in adding chives to a dish that is already mostly onions. Although I did see the oregano running a close second to the chives as the perennial herbs kick in, and oregano is always a welcome addition to any form of beef stew. So that will work. And I think I’ll showcase the chives in some muffins. Being so young and tender, a few handfuls of chive tossed into the batter won’t even need to be chopped. Let the season begin!