There wasn’t much to see at the farmers market just now, but it’s a good thing I took my camera along. Waiting at our front door upon our return was this lovely Scarlet Tanager.

I’ve been using a 50mm prime lens since Uncle Don loaned me his D80 for my photography class earlier this year, and I’ve come to love the simplicity of it. Want to see something in more detail? Move closer. Need to see the whole thing? Back up.

Thinking I might enjoy exploring another type of lens (and having just received a new one for his birthday), Uncle Don kindly passed a 55–200mm zoom lens my way this past week. I popped it on for the first time this morning and headed out with a plan to shoot mostly on Auto.

I pointed it at things high up in the trees, at architectural details on rooftops, and down at the ground. Here’s a sampling of what I found.

In the early season, when trips to the farmers market yield just a few bits of local produce, the pressure’s on. As a cook, you’ve got only one or two chances to enjoy the fruits of the land before it’s back to the winter slog of canned whatever, dairy, starch and meat. So you’d better make that green stuff — the season’s first herbs, a bunch of radishes — shine.

Yesterday’s first trip to the Midtown Farmers Market produced a haul consisting of exactly one small box of pea shoots, courtesy Growing Lots Urban Farm. The delicate sprouts don’t exactly lend themselves to front-and-center, main-course prominence. When more abundant, pea shoots are great in stir-frys, a fresh pea soup, or in a salad, but I worried those options would have blunted the shoots’ flavor or required use of too many additional, non-local vegetables, stealing attention from the shoots.

I settled — eventually — on this pasta with cream, ham and mushrooms — ingredients that would provide rich background flavors that would allow the bright green pea shoots  to garner the attention they deserved and drive the tastes of the dish. Plus, with pasta from North Dakota, cream from New Prague, mushrooms from Wisconsin and prosciutto (americano) from Iowa, it felt true to the farmers market eat-local ethos, even if it’s too early for the market to really support it.

Shells with pea shoots and cream

Ingredients:

• 1# shells or other pasta
• Olive oil
• 6 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced 1/4″ thick
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup cream
• 2 oz prosciutto, sliced thin
• 1 cup pea shoots

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and cook until well browned. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Pour in cream.
3. When the cream has reduced significantly and is quite thick, stir in the prosciutto and the pea shoots, reserving a few raw pea shoots to garnish the bowls. Stir until the shoots wilt, just a few seconds.
4. Toss cream mixture with cooked pasta until evenly distributed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, topping each bowl with a small bunch of raw pea shoots.

I know, I know, Minnesota, you’re tired of hearing about how crappy the weather has been. So I won’t dwell on the fact that today, May 4th, the opening day of the 2013 Midtown Farmers Market season, didn’t exactly present us with “farmers market weather.” 35° and rainy isn’t unbearable but it doesn’t make you want to linger outside.

But it did beg for comparison with last year’s opening — which to be fair was a day later, May 5. Minnesota was enjoying a long period of freakishly nice weather at the time, reflected in the market’s bounty: strawberries, asparagus and rhubarb — produce one doesn’t usually expect until later in the month. This year’s produce availability was more typical: we bought the only green edible there, pea shoots from Growing Lots Urban Farm.

We spent maybe 15–20 minutes at the market — less time than it takes to bike there and back — and decided to take our breakfast tamales to go. The vendors who had to set up in the downpour this morning and will stand at their stalls wearing as many layers as they can have my admiration and gratitude. Even though these early markets can be kind of unpleasant weather-wise and don’t yield much in the way of produce — in a normal year anyway — it’s one of the most exciting times to be at the market as, week after week, the land’s bounty begins to ramp up. I can’t wait to see what next Saturday will bring.

With any luck, I’ve captured the official last snowfall of the year. On the left are images from my morning walk on Tuesday, while on the right are scenes from my morning walk on Friday. It’s been an odd week to say the least. We did our fair share of groaning at last week’s snow (and sleet, and hail), but I didn’t so much mind the Monday night snow that I woke up to on Tuesday morning. Even an April snow shower is easy to stomach under sunny blue skies. As I write this, I have the windows open and listen to the chirping of birds. The city has come alive. Our hibernation is over and we are collectively and enthusiastically seizing the day. A morning ride revealed as much—the trails are crowded with people on bike and on foot. What remains of the snow are only parking lot mini mountains. And that’s all I’ll say for now. It’s not a day to be sitting inside.