Oh, baby.  The Chicago Green City Market has gone open-air again for the summer and I couldn’t resist a visit this morning: the first Saturday of the season.  I woke way too early, with a giddy Christmas-morning-type feeling in my stomach.  As Kevin slept on (can you blame him?), I walked east, under a low, grey sky full of dramatic, ominous clouds.  By the time I hit Lincoln Park, it felt a lot more like late fall than early spring, but those thoughts were immediately wiped away when I saw the white tents and the splendid produce spilling out beneath them.   There were radishes, slim and fushia with white tails and leafy green tops.   And there were truckloads of asparagus, some thick and purple, others slender and green.  One farmer had stacked his spears so high that he could barely see the patrons over the three-foot stack on his table.

Produce spilled out from yellow bins at the Nichols Farm stand—the same bins that will tote juicy tomatoes in every hue later this summer (though, for now, that almost seems impossible).  People milled about excitedly, huddling against each other and gripping cups of hot Intelligentsia coffee to ward off the wind.

One farmer sold stalks of ruby-red rhubarb for a quarter apiece.  The woman in front of me in lineheld two armfuls’ worth and was shocked to hear that they would set her back only five dollars.  She was murmuring about simmering them in butter and making pies.  She seemed like my kind of lady.

People ate and shopped and talked and gawked.  The sky starting spitting a half-rain at one point, but no one seemed to mind.  We’d waited too long for a few raindrops to ruin the day.

In honor of my first market day, here are some recipes from The Kitchen Sink posts of the past that make great use of spring produce:

Asparagus & Fava Bean Recipes:

Asparagus, Favas & Peas with Basil
Warm Asparagus, Leek & Potato Salad
Spring Farro Risotto

Rhubarb Recipes:

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam Bars
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
Ginger-Rhubarb Bread

Green Garlic, Spring Onion & Ramp Recipes:

Spring Onion Jam
White Bean-Green Garlic Dip
White Cheese Pizza with Ramps