Everyone's already posting summer grilling recipes for families and I get it, I do. The pull of charcoal and warm evenings is real. But we're skipping something. Right now, in this little window between cold and hot, there's a whole season of food just sitting there waiting for someone to pay attention to it.
Spring produce doesn't shout. It whispers.
The Stuff That's Good Right Now
Asparagus is everywhere and it's cheap, which only happens for about six weeks a year. Snap peas are crisp enough to eat standing at the counter. Strawberries are starting to show up at farmers markets, the small ugly ones that taste like actual strawberries instead of waxy red decorations. Fresh herbs are tender and bright. Peas are sweet enough that my daughter eats them frozen, straight from the bag, like tiny green popsicles.
Here's what I've noticed after a few years of paying attention to what's in season. The food that's abundant right now is also the food that's cheapest right now. That's not a coincidence. It's the whole point. When I stopped buying asparagus in November and started buying it in April, the price dropped by more than half and the flavor wasn't even comparable. November asparagus tastes like chewing on a green crayon. April asparagus tastes like spring itself, grassy and almost sweet.
Why I'm Not Rushing to Summer
There's this pressure to always be looking ahead. Meal planning content in March is already talking about Fourth of July cookouts. I used to do that too. I'd scroll past the spring stuff, bookmark the burger recipes, and then realize in June that I'd missed the whole asparagus window. Again.
So this year I'm being stubborn about it. We're eating what's here now.
The other evening I tossed asparagus in olive oil, threw it on a hot cast iron skillet, and let it get those blistered char marks. Squeezed half a lemon over it. Flaky salt. That was the vegetable side for dinner and it took maybe four minutes. My husband, who will eat anything but volunteers enthusiasm for almost nothing, said "we should have this more." From him that's a standing ovation.
Seasonal Cooking Isn't a Lifestyle. It's Just Paying Attention.
I think people hear "eating seasonally" and picture someone in linen carrying a wicker basket through a sun-dappled market. That's not what this is. This is me at the regular grocery store noticing that snap peas are $1.99 instead of $4.49 and thinking, okay, we're eating snap peas this week.
You don't need a chart or a subscription box. You just need to look at what's piled highest in the produce section. That's what's in season. The store is telling you. The prices are telling you.
Spring produce doesn't need much. A little heat, a little fat, a little acid. Salt. That's it. These ingredients are doing the work for you because they were picked close to ripe and they didn't travel across the world in a refrigerated container to get to your kitchen.
The grilling posts will still be there in six weeks. The burgers aren't going anywhere. But right now, for this tiny window, there are strawberries that taste like something you remember from childhood but can't quite place. Peas so sweet they don't need butter. Asparagus that practically cooks itself.
I don't want to miss it this year. Not for a Pinterest board full of recipes I'll make in July.
What's the thing at your store right now that's piled high and priced low? That's your dinner tonight. Don't overthink it.