BeyondWonderful.com: Barbara Adams, Beyond Wonderful Baking, Cheese, Produce, and Wine Culinary Experts


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	Dan's Best of Season Fruits Apples Fresh crop apples—Chile and New Zealand Grapefruit Texas grapefruit Kumquats Kumquats Lemons Meyer lemons Mandarins/Tangerines Ojai Pixies Melons Bitter melons Oranges Blood oranges Sweet navel oranges Pears Bartlett Pears—Chile and Argentina Pineapple Gold pineapples Rhubarb Hot House Rhubarb Specialty Items Cherimoya Kiwano—New Zealand Star fruit—Taiwan Young coconuts—Thailand Strawberries Watsonville strawberries Tangerines Tangerines—Ojai Pixie Vegetables Artichokes Baby artichokes Castroville artichokes Kiss of Burgundy artichokes Asparagus California Delta asparagus Avocados California Avocados Beans Fava beans—Watsonville Californa Blue Lake green beans New crop Broccoli/Cauliflower Broccoli Crowns & Bunches Broccoli rabe (Rapini) Celery Root Celery root Corn Fresh Coachella Valley corn Garlic Elephant garlic (Oregon) Spring green garlic Greens Dandelion greens Fiddleheads greens Fresh Amaranth greens Green chard Living watercress Nettles Rainbow chard Red chard Onions Ramps—Eastern US Spring onions Peas English peas—Watsonville Green peas Radishes French breakfast radishes Roots (various) Celery root Sunchokes Squash Blossoms Squash blossoms Squash California zucchini New crop Summer squash Columns to Savor Dan Avakian Potato Lovers Month, and Beets Winter Freeze Ravages California Crops, Celery Root, A Fresh Look at Fitting in Produce Chestnuts, Yams, Persimmons, Walnuts, and Winter Squash

Produce Expert
Dan Avakian

Getting Fresh
Spring Asparagus
and Radishes

Dan Avakian, Beyond Wonderful Produce Expert.

Asparagus
The Spears of Spring

The tasty spear of spring, asparagus has been cultivated and savored by numerous cultures for thousands of years. Its culinary and medicinal uses are evident in ancient Egypt; it was thought of as an aphrodisiac in Arabic culture and in France; Thomas Jefferson even got in on the act, mentioning the vegetable in his experimental gardening book in 1775. As far back as the first century BC, the Romans developed a method of freezing fresh asparagus to enjoy in the off-season. They loaded up chariots in the fields and then, as fast as they could, they raced it to the snowline of the Alps where the ATF (Asparagus Task Force, in case you were wondering) would stuff it in the snow… and there it would stay for six months 'til the Feast of Epicures

Radishes

Beyond Wonderful Producer Expert, Dan Avakian with spring radishes and eggplants.

When I was a teen in the mid seventies I had my first produce job in Alameda. Although cardboard boxes were already in common usage, there were plenty of growers still packing their harvest in wooden crates. We displayed the produce on the racks in the store, and stacked the empty crates along the fence outside.

Normally, an old man named Andrew would pull into the parking lot in his red pickup truck, load up the empty crates and take them back to the local farms to be re-used by the growers. This recycling would continue until the crates were completely worn out. Every once in a while, Andrew would miss his stop and we would have an abundance of crates in the way. On these lucky days, I got to load up the store truck and take the crates out to the farms myself. At the same time, I would pick up a few crates of greens and radishes to bring back to the store. I’ll never forget the flavor of a fresh radish right out of the ground – crisp, hot and mighty tasty. I’d eat a good handful right on the spot.

Beyond Wonderful Strawberry Shortcake dessert recipe.

You might make strawberry shortcake out of sponge cake, pound cake, angel food—pretty much anything. But nothing compares to a huge, fluffy buttermilk biscuit piled high with cream and juicy berries. What better way to celebrate peak-season fruit! Recipe

Read more about Dan Avakian.

Dan's Web site www.producepair.com



	Spring produce fills the market.



	Blood oranges are plentiful.



	Fresh asparagus for the spring cook.



	When you’re lucky enough to find tender, sweet asparagus at the market, they require very little in the way of preparation. Scrumptious sides don’t get much easier than this! Recipe



	Crisp radishes helps make this so good! Beautiful colors and textures. Dress it when the potatoes are hot so they absorb all the good flavors. Recipe



	Dan shows Barbara Adams his organic strawberries from Watsonville, CA. They are destined for strawberry shortcake and strawberry sorbet with cracked black pepper.



	This luscious sorbet was inspired by the Italian tradition of macerating fresh strawberries in fine balsamic vinegar, then spicing them with a hint of pepper. Straining the fruit to remove the seeds is a bit time-consuming, but the results are well worth the effort. Recipe

Barbara Adams Beyond Wonderful features large recipe collections of full-proof quick and easy recipes, classic family favorites, global cuisine, and party ideas. Get illustrated cooking tips and techniques,cooking for beginners, food features, and expert advice on baking, cheese, produce, and wine.

Barbara Adams, Recipe Collections, Quick and Easy Recipes, Party Ideas, Global Cuisine, How To
Cooking Tips and Techniques.