Taste Spring!

What’s your favorite taste of Spring? Is it the first strawberry? Or the juiciest cherry? How about a perfect apricot picked from the tree?

Maybe you prefer something green? Spring vegetables are easy to love. From the freshest asparagus to the earliest zucchini, this season is full of wonderful (and often crunchy) vegetables that add flavor and snap to Spring salads, entrees and side dishes.

There may be no better place to taste Spring than right here. These recipes showcase our Spring bounty at its best—in season.

In the Sacramento region and throughout California, Spring offers an amazing assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables – the first taste of a new harvest or the farewell to cool-season favorites. Farmers markets return to local parking lots. Farm stands take down their shutters. And our own backyard gardens get back into high gear.

We admit: We’re partial to strawberries. Local fields still dot our communities. In this recipe assortment, blueberries, cherries and early stone fruit also get their due.

But why stop there? Bite into Spring with these recipes – all tested and proven. You may discover a new favorite – and more reasons to look forward to Spring.

Featured vegetables: artichoke, asparagus, beet, carrot, chard, corn, fava bean, fava greens, fennel, green bean, green garlic, green onion, kale, lettuce, pea, potato, spinach, zucchini

Featured fruit: apricot, blueberry, cherry, citrus, lemon, loquat, nectarine, peach, rhubarb, strawberry