Oh yeah, heirloom tomatoes! Really any farmers’ market, CSA or garden tomato. Any variety which is grown for flavor over shipping and shelf life. It’s been six months since the last fresh tomatoes. The first of the year are always special. I’m going to grab some fresh mozzarella from Chapel Hill Creamery and prune the tips off the basil in my garden. Caprese, here we come!

Last week we had zucchini. This week we get one of its summer squash cousins, zephyr squash. Most summer squash behaves the same from a culinary perspective. The nice thing about this batch is that they were harvested quite young. They are long and slender, and I expect little to no seed development. Just squashy flesh goodness.

Purple carrots! I always try to eat the rainbow, and purple vegetables are hard to come by. I always stock up on purple carrots at the market when I see them. And we have red beets again! These have been a regular in my CSA share. I’ve had them four out of the last 5 weeks. This is by design. This week I selected to swap these beets in, replacing Lacinato kale. Beets are among my favorite spring vegetables, both the roots and the tops. I don’t think they’ll be around much longer, so I’m getting while the getting is good. And we round out with a large head of lettuce. Much like the beets, these will be disappearing from the local, seasonal scene shortly. We’re moving into summer with the tomatoes and summer squash, soon to be followed by the likes of eggplant, green beans, okra and sweet peppers.