Asparagus, artichokes, cherries, fava beans, and herbs all catch the eye of Viktoriya Campos, executive chef of Felix in Venice, who arrives at the market at 7 a.m. and gets first dibs on spring produce. The melange of vegetables will make their way into one dish at the restaurant — salad primavera. Campos prefers to keep the vegetables raw rather than blanching. She simply trims the asparagus and thinly slices it at an angle.
Look for smaller stalks as larger asparagus gets fibrous, and listen for a crunch when biting into it raw. Artichokes from Suncoast are trimmed and shaved then added to the asparagus along with snap peas, lemon, olive oil, black pepper, mint, and Thai shallots.
Johanna Finley of Finley Farms has been growing asparagus for approximately nine years. A perennial crop, asparagus takes three years to harvest after being planted. Growing the plant is laborious, explains Finley, as her organic asparagus is always competing with surrounding weeds. During the winter, a disk will cover the crop which can damage rhizomes but the process makes the stalks extremely flavorful.
"It's sort of an ongoing joke," Finley says. "People are sort of fighting over them here at the table, and some customers will ask us to save them. Then we have a little stash of hidden asparagus. It's a hot commodity that I just can't keep up with."
Fava beans are also on the table at the farmers markets, with blackberries just around the corner.