Memorial Day weekend is upon us, and while the internet and calendar are insisting that it’s almost summer, San Francisco is still acting like it’s March and calling for sweaters and socks. Mornings have had some thick fog but the markets are starting to burst with strawberries, snap peas, and early season stone fruits. It’s a season of contradiction, bare toes and goosebumps, chilled wine and hot soup, flowers blooming and my allergies are spiraling but the clouds are hesitant to lift.
Spring and summer are dancing around each other, in some delicious cozy little tango that I can’t get enough of. Before we fully lean into summer’s foggy brightness, I’m holding onto a bit of spring still, so with that let’s chat about this week’s bits & bites
This week’s farmers market haul
One of my pals works at the Marin Farmers Market up in San Rafael and I’ve been promising that I’d come visit her booth for months, but leaving the city requires a certain level of effort that I rarely feel equipped for that early in the morning. Still, I finally made the trip, and wow—what a mistake it was to wait this long.
Tucked just north of the Golden Gate, this market might be my new favorite. All the purveyors I adore at my city markets were there but with the bonus of farm stands I’d only ever heard whispers of but now understand why they call it the chef’s farmers market. It was full of local chefs loading up their carts with huge pre-orders before weekend service, exchanging nods like members of some secret society of flavor.
I ran into a few friends and got caught up yapping about which market cart to finally invest in (wheels are non-negotiable, obviously, and width over vertical space is a must to avoid crushing your delicate picks). I filled my bags with wild-scented herbs like strawberry mint, lemon verbena, and lemon thyme from Marin Roots. I snagged fluffy basil, strawberries, apriums, and tender asparagus from Full Belly Farm and made a mandatory stop at Stepladder Creamery for some goat cheese. Then, on the suggestion of a friend, I picked up fava beans and English peas from Iacopi Farms, which you’ll see in my Lamb Shank with English Pea Smash on the blog this week.
I closed out the morning at my friend’s stand, Front Porch Farms, where I picked up a bundle of garden roses so beautiful they felt cinematic, some beets, garlic scapes and heads of their red butter, green butter, and spinach lettuces. With spring still lingering and my favorite summer produce beginning to peek through, I guess I’ll be making the drive up more often!
What are your must-buy items at the market during the summer?
A little spring bite for your weekend
It’s looking like San Francisco will be having a cool, cloudy Memorial Day weekend so instead of breaking out the grill, we’re leaning into cozy spring dishes a little bit longer. One of my favorites this year have been these Steamed Artichokes with Sesame Aioli, which you can snag over on the blog. Give them a try and double that dip recipe so you can dunk any extra veggies you may have leftover this week.
Steamed Artichokes with Sesame Aioli
There’s a brief but glorious window in spring when artichokes take center stage and this recipe makes the most of this time. Steamed in a deliciously fragrant court bouillon instead of just water, these thistle-y babies have depth of flavor cooked in before you dunk the leaves into a rich, nutty sesame soy aioli. What once felt like an annoyance of a veggie to eat, now feels like a delicious way to linger over spring.
You’ll need a few things for this recipe:
Whole artichokes
Rice wine vinegar
Lemon
Tarragon
Black Peppercorns
Red chili flakes
Mayonnaise
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Tastes Like Growing Up
Back in March, I started a little series on Instagram and Tiktok that I’m calling Tastes Like Growing Up—a personal project where I’m cooking with the food I once feared as a picky eater raised in the suburbs. Almost immediately though, I took a much-needed, long break from social media to help my attention span slow down, step away from the mindless scrolling, and quiet the comparisons that were feeding my anxiety.
Now, I’m figuring out how to dive into this series in a way that feels nourishing and exciting. Socials can be overwhelming but this series is too close to my heart to let it fade so it’s returning this week (yay!), and I thought it would be fun to unpack it a little more here, too.
Tastes Like Growing Up is my love letter to the ingredients I once swore off, things like anchovies, olives, mustard, beans, blue cheese… all the bold, squishy, fermented, fishy things I was raised believing I didn’t like. Growing up in a quiet suburb with two cautious-palate parents, I picked up a lot of food aversions that I’m realizing I just needed some good olive oil, a move to the city, and some therapy to unlearn.
As I’m reintroducing myself to these misunderstood ingredients, I’m pulling recipes from my ever-growing cookbook collection to let their pages guide me toward a new way of seeing and tasting. So far, I’ve tackled anchovies with Pasta Every Day and green olives with The Cook You Want to Be (both surprising wins), and upcoming this week, I’m timidly approaching the world of egg salad through Maman.
Follow along, invite a friend, and help this little passion project find its footing again. There’s so much to taste together!
If you’re loving this newsletter, have some thoughts, or want me to try the recipe currently on repeat in your kitchen, drop a line in the comments so your girl knows there are people on the other end or subscribe so you don’t miss the updates.
Love hearing from you! See you next week—stay well fed.
xx, Cate
I’ve never seen garlic scapes. What’s in the bottle? and I’m jealous you can get pasta at farmers market. We adore our little market and buy local mushrooms and eggs, Ad Astra bakery bread and hummus from Hummus Heaven. Artichokes, cauliflower and tomatoes plus strawberries and the best stone fruits make it into our bags. We are so thankful for our local farmers.
So excited for all the stone fruit you brought home!