What's At Your Farmers Market This Spring? What Are You Making And Eating?

Question

I am a big fan of farmers markets (Northern VA and Washington DC) and spring's bounty has come just in time to lift me from the ennui of a long winter. This weekend, I found ramps, morels, asparagus and rhubarb. They were a welcome sight and I couldn't wait to use my morels and ramps.
I braised chicken thighs with morels, ramps, thyme, marjoram and white wine, then finished the sauce with a bit of cream.
I also made ramp crepes to wrap around the leftover chicken in the following days.

Strawberries can't be far away!

So, what is exciting you at your local farmers markets? Whatcha making and eating??

ps...check out the pics!

http://houndstoothgourmet.com/at-the-dupont-farmers-market-april-13-2008/

Answer

How'd you make the ramp crepes?? Sounds great. I've been holding off on the FM because I thought nothing would be in season, but now I think I better get myself there!

Answer

I'm waiting for the local asparagus from eastern Washington to show up (should be any week now) so I can make these...

Pickled Chipotle Asparagus
http://www.recipezaar.com/160203

I made a few jars last year, and they were so good, I'm going to make a whole lot more this time!

Answer

Saw the first fava beans of the season (for me, anyway) this weekend. Early in the season, I blanch and peel them, squirt a bit of lemon juice on them and eat them with pecorino and mint. Later in the season, it's fava beans cooked in olive oil, enriched with more olive oil, served on crostini with a few shavings of pecorino on top. I know there are other preparations out there, but I can't seem to move past these two... I gorge myself on these two dishes every spring.

Answer

I am envious. Here, in Calgary, we do not have any local produce on the shelf yet - except hot house stuff. But just wait! Our fruit season is fabulous.

Answer

Here in Southern California. Fresh shelled peas - for those of us (me) who are too lazy to shell our own peas. I steamed them for three minutes and then tossed with a tiny bit of butter and fleur de sel. It was wonderful - it tasted like Spring. And it only took me 3 1/2 minutes to make, since I didn't have to shell the peas! The butter was not local, but was shipped from Minnesota http://www.pastureland.coop - I have not been able to find butter locally that is made from grass fed cows.

Also blood oranges galore, loquats (yum), plenty of strawberries (they don't seem sweet enough yet to me) and nettles. The things I want that are not yet in the market are hot chilies and purslaine.

Answer

We're in the middle of the "hungry gap" here in the UK, but not long to wait now until the English asparagus season, and all of the other bounty. My organic vegetable box will soon go from winter to summer. Thank goodness, because I am heartily sick of kale, swede and cauliflower.

Answer

i'm in the same general area as you monavano and unfortunately I haven't been to any farmer's markets this year. However my mother grows a lot of korean veggies in the back yard and lately she's been making this delicious salad to go with a lot of the grilled kalbi that she does. She takes watercress, chinese watercress, chives, young garlic (stems and cloves), and young dandelion leaves and tosses them all with fish sauce, sesame seeds, vinegar, gochugaru, and a few other things I forget. 

Either way I can eat boatloads of this stuff and its so great with pretty much any grilled meat, korean or not

Answer

Hey monavano, I'm in the same area as you! I stopped by the Arlington farmer's market this past week, but didn't see anything exciting. Maybe I got there too late... There was definitely no asparagus to be found anywhere! I'm new(ish) to the NoVA-DC area and would love to know which farmer's markets you consider to be the best over here!

Answer

You've got some great stuff, monovano. I haven't seen a lot of spring produce at my local farmer's market in New York. The big excitement for me is that the fish guys are back. They go to Florida for the winter. So far I've bought scallops and cod. My farmer's market is Wednesdays and Saturdays so there may be more veggies tomorrow. But if I buy anything I'll have to bring it to work and stash it in the office refrigerator, then take it home when I leave.

Answer

Thank you so much for the recipe to the ramp crepes. They were fabulous. (I just had them plain--nothing to wrap around, that is.) I didn't have ramps around, so I used green garlic and chives, and I also subbed a 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour. Yum!

Answer

Monavano - I just wanted to thank you for the ramps crepes recipe. I made them last night and wow were they good. I had to control myself from nibbling at the crepes as I was cooking them! I used your filling as a rough guide (making it vegetarian) and the flavors of the mushrooms and ramps together was wonderful.

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What's At Your Farmers Market This Spring? What Are You Making And Eating?

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