C'est la saison des asperges...

...et la journée du lapin. Asparagus is grown in the Sologne region, the southwestern edge of which is just over on the other side of the Cher river from Saint-Aignan. The soil over there is sandy and the land forms a flat plain that stretches from the Loire river, south of Orleans and Blois, all the way down to the Cher. It's perfect land for growing asparagus.

Notice how different les asperges look, compared to what you are probably used to. In most of France, it's the white variety that people grow and eat. The green variety is becoming more popular, but it's still not that easy to find locally. (It's actually the same variety, but grown differently.) A group of growers of green asparagus has been formed up around Chambord (the famous château), but I don't see the point of driving all the way up there to buy the green spears. I like the white ones, whether poached or grilled, served with melted butter, home-made mayonnaise, or vinaigrette dressing.

One of the biggest differences between white and green asparagus is that you have to peel the white spears. Starting about two inches from the top, use a vegetable peeler to remove the tough skin. It only takes a minute to two to do. Walt got the asparagus pictured here from a local grower (he also grows strawberries, another Sologne specialty) who sells his produce at the open-air market in Saint-Aignan on Saturday mornings. In season, of course, not year-round.

By the way, we have a very bright moon in our sky this morning. It was full yesterday, but the sky was cloudy. We had a couple of light thunderstorms over the course of the day.

I mentioned lapin above. That's French for rabbit. It's what Walt and I cook for Easter — that's today — every year. It all started in the spring of 1984. We were living in Washington DC, having rented a Capitol Hill apartment for ourselves in June 1983. What should we cook for our Easter dinner? That was the question we asked each other.

Getting on toward moonset

Easter, somehow, made me think of rabbit, which was something I had enjoyed cooking and eating in Paris between 1979 and 1982. And the rest is history. Rabbit for Easter is not a French custom — anyway, the Easter bunny is unknown in French culture. For us, Easter rabbit is a personal, private tradition. People in the Loire Valley eat rabbit year-round, and a lot of people raise rabbits for food.