Living calendar
March
Spring
March is the pivot. The first real asparagus shows up toward the end of the month, the early strawberries appear (the actual local ones, not the imported water-bombs), spring radishes pop with color. You start cooking green again — herb sauces for eggs, lamb stews, the first proper salads. Shops flip to spring mode: sumac comes back in fashion, fleur de sel goes on the radish-and-butter plate, green peppercorns start their short fresh window. On the supply side, the February-harvest Kampot and Penja arrive in April and May, so in March you're still finishing last year's crop — but it's the moment to buy Tasmanian pepperberry fresh at its best price of the year. St. Patrick's Day fills the pubs and the corned-beef pots; Mother's Day (UK) lands mid-month with the first proper roast of spring.
Bring out of the pantry
Signature dishes
- Fattoush salad · with Sumac · see the pairing →
- Radishes with butter and fleur de sel · with Fleur de Sel de Guérande
- Coq au vin · with Green Peppercorns · see the pairing →
- Corned beef and cabbage (St. Patrick's Day) · with Long Pepper
- Spring herb salad and soft eggs · with Sumac · see the pairing →
- Roast lamb (Mothering Sunday, UK) · with Halen Môn Sea Salt · see the pairing →
Culinary celebrations
- March 17 · St. Patrick's Day (corned beef, Irish stew, soda bread)
- Variable, mid-March (UK) · Mothering Sunday (the spring roast)
- Around March 20 · Spring equinox / first day of spring
- Variable · Ramadan begins (some years) — iftar feasts
Chef's note
March is the month you put down the heavy sauces and go back to herbs. Buy a bunch of chervil, one of tarragon, one of chives, chop them by hand — never the blender, it oxidizes and turns them to sludge — and fold them into Greek yogurt with fleur de sel and a thread of young olive oil. That green sauce goes on everything: a soft egg, a radish, asparagus, white fish. The rule: if your condiment spent all winter scenting a braise, it should spend spring finishing something raw. Change the reflex. And on white asparagus, reach for Penja white pepper, not black — the black flattens it, the white walks alongside.