Mother’s Day

Our favorite tradition used to be to have brunch at the Lake Terrace Dining Room at the Broadmoor Hotel for Mother’s Day.  They have everything cooked to perfection, including eggs Benedict and waffles with whipped cream, real maple syrup and fresh blue berries.  Topped off with a cappucino or cafe au lait, I don’t see how you could do better at home, so we love to go out for this occasion.  Alternatively, we made a little homemade stuffed French toast and spend the day shopping for new additions, to plant in our French gardens while letting a Boeuf en Daube simmer in the oven all day while planting the new finds in garden and getting it all ready for Spring.

Nowadays we like to fish the Mother’s Day caddis hatch on the Arkansas River.  The “Mother’s Day” caddis hatch on the Arkansas River in Colorado is a famous annual event. The hatch usually starts in Canyon City in mid to late April and works its way upstream to Salida. One of my favorite flies for this hatch is the Royal Hooker.  The hatch creeps up the river in late April and early May when the water temperature reaches 54 degrees Fahrenheit. The hatch lasts for several weeks and includes a day that’s likely to be on Mother’s Day.  During the hatch, the Arkansas River may be flowing strongly as spring run-off nears, which can make wading difficult or hazardous. The hatch continues until the spring run-off blows out the Arkansas sometime later in May.  The caddis are similar to black flies in Canada, but they are bigger and don’t bite. Adult Brachycentrus caddis have a black head and a dark olive or black body. When the adults first emerge, their wings are dark gray to black, but they become semitranslucent, tan, or cream-colored by the time they are ready to mate. The caddis hatch most densely in the late afternoon and evening.

Here are our Mother’s Day recipes:

Boeuf en Daube

Stuffed French Toast

Here some interesting links to articles relevant to Colorado gardening from Douglas County government, if you find yourself planting a garden on Mother’s Day:

Small Fruit Production in Colorado – Options for the Front Range

Raspberries on the Front Range Article