Recipes: Seven ideas from around the world for using kale

Lacinato kale, a Tuscan heirloom variety, was a novelty in California farmers markets 10 years ago. Today, it is one of the more common winter greens in the farmers markets that I frequent. It's the best variety of kale for cooking, in my opinion.

A few bites of kale will give you your daily recommended dose of Vitamins A and K -- good for your vision and your blood, respectively -- and it is chock full of numerous other nutrients. Better yet, it's tasty and versatile, as these seven recipes illustrate.

Recipes: Lemony tabouli, Italian chard pie and farmers market jambalaya.

Victoria picked up fixings for three different recipes on her recent visit to the farmers market in Campbell, Calif. With some late season tomatoes, which weren't particularly tasty when eaten fresh, she whipped up a southwestern Louisiana-style (ie. wet) jambalaya.

Victoria also made some tabouli, a refreshing salad that features lemons.

Victoria's most unusual concoction features chopped chard mixed with ingredients including almonds, raisins, sugar and ricotta cheese, baked in a crust. As the ingredients suggest, it is a sweet pie and it is called erbazzone, a traditional dish from Bologna, in Italy’s Emelia Romagna region. You can make a savory variation by holding the sugar and stirring in some browned pancetta.

Market Report: Oysters amidst the vegetable displays in this market

The farmers market in Campbell, a bedroom community in Northern California's fabled Silicon Valley, strikes our reporter as more of a venue for recreational food-shopping than a place to stock up on the necessities of life. Thus, you can get your knives sharpened, listen to some live music, pick up some healthy treats for your dog and slurp down some miyagi oysters on the half shell at the Intertidal Aquafarm oyster bar, and yes, you can also find plenty of seasonal vegetables at this market.

Read Victoria's report on her Dec. 4 visit to the Campbell, Calif., farmers market.

Market Report: Heirloom apples in winter markets in New York City

Last week, for the first time in years, I visited New York City, where I lived when I was in law school from 1979 to 1982. The city's now-fabled greenmarkets were just starting in those years, and I was oblivious to their existence. Denise Matychowiak has given Seasonal Chef readers a good sense of what they've grown into these days with her reports on visits to some of the city's largest greenmarkets in August, September and October. But on my trip, I looked forward to seeing a greenmarket or two for myself. Having lived in relentlessly sunny Southern California for going on 20 years, I was also curious to see whether winter markets are viable at all in the cold, snowy northeast. The two tiny markets I visited on a hectic workday in the big city were viable indeed. I picked up some interesting heirloom apples (including this Golden Russet, the grandfather of the Golden Delicious), four types of pears and some "grass-fed cheese."

Here's my report on my visit to a couple of winter markets in New York City.

Seasonal Chef: Roy Breiman uses local produce, even during long, rainy Pacific Northwest winters

Breiman, the executive chef at the Salish Lodge & Spa in the mountains near Seattle, is committed to buying most of his ingredients locally, which is easy enough in summer and fall, when nearby farms and orchards supply him with a bounty of fruits and vegetables. It's somewhat more of a challenge in winter. But Breiman dries lots of fruits when the local harvest is underway, and revives them in compotes when the inclement weather sets in.

Here is a profile of Roy Breiman. And here is his recipe for braised short ribs with autumn fruit compote.

Here, you'll find lots of other profiles of seasonal chefs.

Recipe: Romescu, a garlicky, nutty sauce from Catalonia

Every winter, the people of Catalonia, in northern Spain, celebrate an unusual vegetable with an ancient connection with the region. The vegetable is an extraordinarily large green onion called the calcot. As legend has it, a farmer "discovered" them in the 14th Century when he found some spring onions that had been left over the summer wrapped in burlap in a dark storage space. When he replanted them in the fall, they awoke from their hibernation and within a few months had swelled into gigantic, mild-tasting scallion-like onions. At the winter food festivals where they are the featured attraction, they are roasted over fires and eaten with a dipping sauce called romescu (or in English, romesco).

Here is a recipe for romesco sauce, which can be used in any number of ways besides as a dipping sauce for roasted calcots.

Market Report: In Barcelona, Spain, olives and rovellon mushrooms are specialties of the season

On a trip to Catalonia, Spain in early November, I visited an array of markets -- from the bustling and touristy Mercat de la Boqueria in central Barcelona, to a smaller, neighborhood market in an off-the-beaten-track part of town, to a small sidewalk market in the Mediterranean beach resort of Sitges 25 miles south of the city. I found olives -- lots of different types of olives -- and some other regional specialties of the season, such as calcot onions and rovellon mushrooms.

Read the report on my recent tour of farmers markets in Catalonia.

Here are lots of other recent reports from farmers markets in California, New York and beyond.