Rhubarb stalks

• Starting in late spring, Rhubarb is available.  Identified by it’s crimson (although some varieties stay green) stalks, it is uniquely bitter but a little sugar and heat bring out its earthy, vegetal sweetness.  I have three primary uses: preserves, mixed with a little sugar and grapefruit zest and then topped with a crumble and baked (serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream), or use it in place of pineapple for a rhubarb-upside down cake.
• Hull peas or peas in general, have drawn my ire for many, many years (ask my mom, she’ll validate).  Boiled, starchy piles of mush that I couldn’t force down my gullet as a child and just continued to turn my nose to as I aged.  If you grow them, however, or can purchase them fresh, in the hull, the plot thickens.  They are a very pleasing vegetable to the senses of touch (texture), taste and hearing.  Raw, they possess a fantastic pop when bitten and make for a great auditory experience when plink-plinking them into a bowl while shucking.  They are a lot of work (with perceived little reward on the home grown front), but so are a bushel of blue crabs or a craw-fish boil or pistachios.   You don’t do it for the consumption, you do it for the experience and camaraderie.  You do it to teach your children to plant seeds, show them how things grow, show them patience and show them how the fruit of their labor tastes.  Maybe a few labor intensive treats would elbow out some of the nonsense and bad juju that we tend to spend our time on these days.  Maybe our ancestors had it right but they did it out of necessity while we have to make it conscious effort.  Literal food for thought….
• Ok, off my soapbox and back to the goodies.  Yellow pear tomatoes have a soft spot in my heart as my dad would plant these in an area beside our house while my brother and I were growing up and we had to care for them and harvest them but we got to ‘sell’ them and keep the proceeds.  While the life lesson was outstanding, the culinary take home from this is halved golden tomatoes drizzled with a little honey balsamic and some fresh ground pepper.  Beautiful on the plate and explosive balance of acidity and sweetness.
• Okra….sounds like a dirty word to most northerners.  I would say our southern brethren got it right with both primary applications: Dredged in peppery cornmeal and fried crisp or used in gumbo to add earthiness and a natural thickener to the stew.
• Hot Cherry peppers are becoming increasingly difficult for me to track down but their combination of fruity flavor with well balanced heat make them the perfect flavor profile to make my garlicky, vinegar-based hot pepper relish.
• Lacinato or Dinosaur Kale is a leafy green that some would characterize as bitter.  While possessing more tannins than spinach, a light saute of garlic, red chile flake and olive oil really brings out a latent sweetness that is fantastic and I won’t belabor the overwhelming health benefits of leafy greens (do your homework)
• White Peaches are a love and a hate of mine.  Taste-wise they frustrate me with their overwhelming sugar content (pay attention sweet lovers) and their lack of acidic punch and depth of flavor that we associate with yellow peaches.  However, the perfume of ripe white peaches is absolutely intoxicating and floral and leads me to use them as ice cream flavor, cocktail mixes (think peach colada or pair the peach puree with bourbon, orange bitters and ginger soda)

This is just a primary list but this is a good early to mid summer start.  Later I can talk about Jonamac apples, golden beets, Deep red plum varieties (that make the best fruit leathers) and fall squash and hopefully the list doesn’t get too long.  Thanks for checking in and Happy Eating!