Acutely Aware of Alliums and other A Vegetables

It's spring and that means a new beginning. And the beginning of the alphabet starts with the letter A. Perhaps that's why this is the season for alliums, artichokes and asparagus. Of course, none of the alliums start with the letter A but it's fun to have some alliteration here.
My market finds this morning included many A veggies including spring onions, green garlic (mostly adolescent but more about that later), garlic scapes, uncured shallots, chives (all alliums) and artichokes.


Currently I am cooking my small artichokes in the pressure cooker. I added a bit of olive oil to the cooker and put in a minced cured garlic clove (first of the season but not local to me), a minced stalk of green garlic, salt, pepper and vegetable broth. The artichokes were sliced in half. After 9 minutes they were tender and delicious and no chokes but just a few tough leaves. I'll do them again if I can get them.

But the green garlic and garlic scapes (the top flowering part of the garlic) are done. And we will move past the A vegetables and get to the rest, including the Zs for zucchini. Oh, I can't wait because that means that tomatoes will also be on their way.