Make Spring Fun with Brooklyn Public Library

Let me get this out of the way first: spring is my least favorite season. I think it’s a tease. If it’s gray and frigid in the morning, you’ll be sweating through your work shirt and squinting in the sun by the afternoon. Sure, there are daffodils and magnolia trees—but are the buds really worth the sneeze sessions that come with them? Easter egg hunts were fun when we were kids, but now I contemplate lanternfly egg hunts, and spring is full of trepidation!

But I don’t want to be the curmudgeon who wears turtlenecks until Memorial Day. I’d like to be the kind of person who delights in the changing season, swallows allergy pills with a smile, and digs her hands into the dirt. So, here is my attempt to make spring fun, which isn’t hard—as Arthur the aardvark would say—when you have a library card.

The first stop on our journey to loving spring is the bookshelf, of course! One thing I love about this season is the explosion of plant life. When the crocuses pop their little bonnet heads above the earth, I feel a stirring of something like joy in my belly. But it wasn’t until I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer that I felt an urgent and emotional connection to the bits of nature I walk by every day. Kimmerer’s book is a collection of essays about the natural world, with each essay featuring a particular plant, animal, or ecosystem and weaving in scientific knowledge, her Potawatomi world view, and personal narrative. Kimmerer’s writing is beautiful, and the message of investing in and giving thanks to the natural world is a call to action we too often ignore. Plus, I learned that the same spring temperature fluctuations that drive me crazy—freezing at night and balmy during the day—produces another of my favorite things: maple syrup! Spring is sugaring season in the northeast, and that’s definitely something to be grateful for.

Which brings me to the next reason to celebrate spring: the edible plants that come into season in March, April and May. In order to take greatest advantage of local produce, I checked out Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden. Part cookbook and part farm guide, McFadden breaks the year into not four but six distinct growing seasons. Early spring is the season of lettuces, asparagus, artichokes, and peas, those “grassy, delicate vegetables that ... are never as sweet and delicious as when they first emerge from the newly warmed earth.” Try McFadden’s Pasta Carbonara with English Peas, or his Asparagus, Nettle, and Green Garlic Frittata, and your stomach could bring you around to loving spring, too! Plus, BPL has cooking classes and programs that can help you shop for fresh produce on a budget.

Granted, it can be hard to feel connected to edible agriculture in busy, bustling Brooklyn. But that’s where your library card can help, yet again! Culture Pass allows anyone armed with that magical bar code in New York City to reserve museum and theater tickets for free at participating organizations. So, you can visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and learn about the Trees of Little Caribbean, like the papaya, guava, and soursop trees that produce fruits essential to Caribbean cooking. From there, you can hop on over to Little Caribbean in nearby Flatbush to try some of these delicious plants at restaurants around the neighborhood (check the Trees of Little Caribbean webpage for recommendations!).

While you’re in Flatbush, stop by the Flatbush African Burial Ground. No tickets are necessary to take their audio walking tour and learn about the farmers and laborers—both free and enslaved—who cultivated Brooklyn in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, walk through Flatbush (sampling patties and rotis, perhaps!) toward Canarsie to visit the Wyckoff House Museum. While the building is closed for renovations, you can explore the grounds with their audio walking tour, which includes the history of the Canarsie people and their expertise with indigenous plants that helped newcomers survive colonial Brooklyn.

If your spring appreciation tour tempts you to venture to the island of Manhattan, Culture Pass can get you free tickets to the National Museum of the American Indian—where you can learn more about the Canarsie and other Native people of New York—and the Met Cloisters, where there’s an incredible courtyard garden of medieval herbs and medicines. But you don’t even have to leave the Republic of Brooklyn to savor spring; BPL has a new event series called Branches in Bloom, programs designed to introduce patrons to all things gardening and growing. Take a sneak peek at this Windsor Terrace event featuring guerilla gardening techniques and learn how to make your own seed bomb!

Phew—maybe I like this season more than I thought! Not convinced yet? Here’s a booklist with more titles to help make spring fun.