GROCERY STORE PRODUCE gets sparse toward the end of winter and I've been ready for the fresh stuff to get here and to support the local farmers. I'm pretty much "California Broccoli'd" out. I've had my fill of "Brazilian" Cauliflower and "Chilean" Red Grapes.

Farmers markets can be said to be the earliest form of community free market in the country. We've been going to them for centuries. You'll see, touch and sample the fresh veggies, aromatic herbs and colorful flowers. On a spring day these can intoxicate the senses. The Middleburg Farmers' market holds true to all the above and the great thing is you get to experience it all right in our backyard.

What's available now is some of the best bounty you'll get all year. Spring vegetables are to produce, what a Filet Mignon is to beef. The big difference is spring produce is short lived.

When you walk the Farmers' Market and speak to the growers you feel their enthusiasm. Ellie Hiller of Blue Swallow Farm has some beautiful spring onions along with fresh garlic flowers. Linda Hart from Vineyard Nursery eagerly shows me the year's first potatoes, new fennel and baby beets along with bunches of fresh dill and parsley.

Many people, greeting each other, walk through looking at all the abundance of fresh fare. Each week as summer approaches, more and more new items appear. It's a weekly inventory turnover that goes unrealized by the masses. New produce arrives every week just as soon as the Earth can turn it out.

I realized that many of the new veggies appear in the nightmares of our childhood. Odd shaped vegetables that appeared at certain times of the year. Each boiled, fried or somehow incinerated beyond recognition by our parents. We were all made to sit there and finish our plate. As we became adults, occasional glances of the individual vegetable would only bring back those childhood gastric nightmares.

Fennel & Spring Onions
Two of the most misunderstood veggies to cook were the highlight of the market this week because of their freshness. You could smell the fennel across the parking lot!

This is a take-off on a Jamie Oliver recipe that I found delicious and well received by all my dinner guests, specifically vegetarians who, sadly, aren't accustomed to having unique dishes served to them.

This makes a great side dish or a main meal over wild rice.

2 medium bulbs of fennel
2 medium bunches of spring onions
24 cherry tomatoes
Large handful of pitted black olives
Small handful of fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & crushed
1 glass of White wine, Vermouth or Pernod
2 tsb of butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Remove the feathery stalks from your Fennel and slice them finely into 1/4" strips. Cut your fennel bulbs in quarters and then slice them in half. Put them into boiling salted water for 10 minutes (blanching). Preheat oven to 425°F and prick a small hole in all your cherry tomatoes. Remove the fennel and place in the roasting pan. Add the tomatoes to the boiling water for 45 seconds to loosen the skins. Draining the water and run cool water over them. Pinch or peel the skins away and add the skinless tomatoes to the roasting pan. Add the onions, olives, thyme and garlic. Add 2 big glugs of olive oil and with your hand mix everything together well. Add butter and wine and mix up again. Try to make one layer. Bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Baby its Beets
Beets are a true nightmare for many of us. If you're like me, they were mostly the canned variety and they were always the last things left on my plate. Thank God for my dog, "Bumper" who would quietly take them from my fork under the table or else I'd still be sitting there!

My reintroduction to baby beets came in adulthood where I found that what was on my plate as a kid, was in no way a fair representation to the real vegetable. Facts don't lie; beets are one of the most nutritious vegetables on the planet. My wife juices them!

This simple recipe makes a great side dish for a main meal of any kind. Again, all the ingredients are available at the Farmers' Market.

Baby beets are thinned skinned and it's your choice as to whether you prefer them peeled. The red beets will "bleed" so be sure to keep this in mind when preparing and planning for their use.

3 bunches of baby beets, washed well with tops
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 glug of olive oil
3 tablespoons of honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut off the tops, and place the beets in a roasting pan, toss with olive oil and add rosemary sprigs. Roast at 375° for about 30 minutes. Remove skins while warm, and cut in half. Meanwhile sauté the beet greens in olive oil and season with salt and pepper and place on a plate, top with roasted baby beets and drizzle the honey over the top.

Server with just about anything.

Gazillions of Tomatoes to Come
In the coming weeks we'll see fresh fava beans, a gazillion different types of tomatoes, eggplant and haricots and kohlrabi. Into the late summer and fall we'll get the fall and winter squashes and, of course, sweet corn. Blue Moon Herbs' Lynne Wright mentioned that some unique herbs are on their way, including varieties such as cinnamon basil, which really grabbed my curiosity.