Thick jumpers and warm shoes can be discarded at last. Days are longer and there is much more sunshine around. People prefer getting out into the fresh air. The time of picnics, walks and cycling excursions has arrived. Springtime enthusiasm is also reflected in what one eats. At last we can feast on fresh lettuce for lunch and cottage cheese with radish and chives for breakfast. It is also the time when many vows are made to eat much more fruit and vegetables since they taste so good now winter is over.

FOR BREAKFAST AND LUNCH
A good breakfast is the best way to start the day. Scrambled eggs taste much better when eaten with spring chives and onions. Even sandwiches taste much better with cottage cheese or herb butter, spring chives and radish. It is also true that a pork chop with potatoes is much tastier with new stewed cabbage and dill. Though a Polish speciality is bigos – made with ripe cabbage, sausage, prunes and mushrooms – no less pleasant sensations are offered by new cabbage which has a delicate, almost velvety, taste. Other popular spring vegetables are spinach and young beet leaves added to cold soup. Young spinach leaves with spices, and garlic with cream are important delicacies of spring cuisine. Young beet greens are made from very young red beetroots and leaves, cut in strips and boiled, adding salt, pepper and cream to taste. This can be eaten warm but is most frequently served cold, with quartered hardboiled eggs, chives and radish added. This is a vegetarian version, but those who prefer something with meat will enthuse over what is known as Lithuanian cold soup in which fine-sliced chicken is added to the above mentioned ingredients.

IN THE GARDEN AND ON PICNICS
The general conviction is that vegetables are best grown at home, which guarantees that they are natural, healthy and not sprayed with chemicals. Hence the popularity of vegetables grown in home and allotment gardens. Many balconies can be seen in the spring with tomato seedlings growing alongside flowers. Home-grown fruit and vegetables taste best and the preserves made from them in the autumn are a great pleasure and satisfaction, something well worth remembering as spring approaches. Beetroots and beet leaves when very young are best stewed and kept as a preserve. Spring vegetables are excellent for picnics and excursions since they taste best in the open air. This means use every moment of fine weather and consume great amounts of vegetables – all of which are huge injections of healthy vitamins. Don't waste time. The spring vegetable season is not long. And as you all know, all that is good comes quickly.