Saint Patrick’s Day always feels to me like the perfect way to celebrate that last moment before the winter farm market bids takes its leave and begins exploding with spring produce. It’s a meal filled with root vegetables, cabbage and slow cured, slow cooked meat. Besides, a holiday like this is everything I love about food - the opportunity to create some joy and sit down at a table to share it.

Irish soda bread’s humble beginnings welcome the addition of butter and an egg, caraway seeds and currant, transforming into a rich, flavorful loaf, best served slathered with butter. Irish of course. Best of all? This will be ready to eat in under an hour with no proofing.

Floral honey and the sharp, earthy flavor of caraway brighten, while roasting develops and deepens the often insipid sweetness of cooked carrots. Perfect for a Saint Patrick’s Day meal with the caraway echoing the flavor of both the corned beef and soda bread.

Colcannon is an Irish blend of cabbage and mashed potatoes. It becomes a wonderful soup for the raw, damp days of March. A combination of waxy (Red or Yukon Gold) and starchy (Russet) potatoes creates the perfect creamy, light texture.