Fresh food and vegetables at a Farmer’s Market (Rodger Shagam/Getty Images) The scent of freshly baked bread drifts through the open-air stalls, mingling with the bright, green scent of just-picked herbs. Shoppers weave through tables stacked high with vibrant produce, filling their baskets with the best of the season. Farmers’ market season is upon us now that spring has officially sprung .
Spring is the best time to enjoy bright, refreshing recipes packed with seasonal fruits and vegetables . That includes leafy greens (think spinach, arugula, kale, lettuce, collard greens and Swiss chard), root vegetables (carrots, radishes, beets and turnips), stalk vegetables (asparagus, rhubarb and celery), stone fruits (apricots and cherries), fresh berries and herbs. Aside from produce items, seafood (like clams, black sea bass and lobster) along with eggs, gourmet cheeses and honey are also seasonal must-haves.
Among all the vibrant spring ingredients, there’s one that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserves: mushrooms. Although peak mushroom foraging season varies from location to location, most species tend to come out in early fall. Some, like the highly prized morel mushrooms, will enjoy seasons beginning as early as March. According to Outdoor Life , morel season kicks off in March, ending early in the South but stretching into June in the Midwest and Northeast.
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“I think that with spring finds, we’re looking at the possibility of more forage mushrooms and also just more forage produce out there with short growing seasons,” said Celine Beitchman , Director of Nutrition at the Institute of Culinary Education’s New York City campus. “There might be some producers who are kind of doing it in hydroponic settings for small local farms. But again, it’s going to be this really short window.”
Beitchman said morels are spring’s best farmers market find: “I’d say morel mushrooms are your kind of little sweet spot of the darling of spring that pops out for like a month, and then it’s gone.
“So if you have an opportunity to find morel mushrooms fresh at the farmers market, that’s going to be the peak […]
Spring’s must-have farmers market find? It’s not what you think
