We haven’t made it to our local indoor farmers market nearly as often this year as we have in years past, but when we heard a rumor that we might find the season’s first asparagus there today, we woke early and headed on over. We were rewarded with all this:
Two little bundles of spears of varying length and thickness, plus wee radishes, a dozen gorgeous eggs, and a bunch of tiny carrots. I removed the tips from the two fattest asparagus stalks and cooked them in a bit of browned butter, showering them with a bit of salty Pecorino, and when they were cool enough to touch, I gave them to the boy.
I think our little locavore is off to a great start.
I shaved the rest of those two stalks into thin ribbons and tossed them with a mustardy vinaigrette, then piled them on top of some watercress, adding crumbles of soft goat cheese, snipped chive blossoms, and a couple of beautiful pastured eggs fried in that same browned butter.
Parents gotta eat too, you know.
It all looks so yummy! It’s nice to see parents starting their kids off with vegetables and fruits.
After doing some research, it just makes way more sense to me (and Mike) than to start J off on something like rice cereal… we’ve got diabetes on both sides of the family, so I feel like anything we can do to help Julian not develop a taste for refined starches can only help him in the long run. Plus, you know, it’s more fun this way! I’d much rather have a wedge of avocado or a juicy strawberry than a bowl of mush
It is so fun to watch Julian’s “first bites”.
It’s fun for us, too
Hey Jennifer. My husband and I share a similar philosophy — feeding REAL (albeit appropriate) food, rather than baby food. How many teeth does Julian have ? I like how you feed him chunks of food rather than puree, and am wondering whether it would be smart if I tried to do the same.
Well, he just popped his first, and has another one (possibly two) hot on its heels! But from what I’ve read, a baby’s gums are strong enough to mash a lot of things, so we feel comfortable giving him things like wedges of avocado, or spears of cooked asparagus, that sort of thing. The texture is soft enough that he can scrape little bits off and safely swallow them, and he seems to really like being able to hold and manipulate the food that way
that’s what i thought ! our tot has 2, though they are they ones in the front, so i don’t think they actually do much chewing. this blog is an inspiration — thank you !!!