Market Report: a visit in May to two New York City greenmarkets

Big fat parsnips are one item that I don't believe I've ever seen in the farmers markets that I frequent near my southern California home. So I snapped up a few when I spotted them in the Tompkins Square greenmarket, in the East Village of lower Manhattan, on Mother's Day. They were probably left in the ground through the cold New York winter, which helps them build up sugar. The next day, I dropped by the market in Union Square and found something else that was new to me: red spinach.

Read my report on my visits in May to two New York City greenmarkets.

Recipes: Nine things to do with fava beans

Fresh fava beans are a fleeting seasonal treat, readily available for only a few months each spring. So you'll have to move quickly if you want to try out some of these recipes, which range from a simple Roman style dish featuring fava beans sauted with pancetta and a garlicky fava sauce, which could be served with rice or roast chicken, to three fava beans stews from Spain, Italy and Morocco.

Nine fava bean recipes.

Recipes: Eight things to do with blood oranges

It's getting late in the season for blood oranges in my neck of the woods, California. So if you, too, are around here, you'll have to hustle off to the nearest farmers market as soon as possible to load up on blood oranges, if you want to try these recipes this year.

Each spring, I always make and freeze a large jar full of blood orange syrup and use a spoonful at a time in salad dressings for the much of the rest of the year.

Here's a recipe for syrup and seven other blood orange recipes.

A bunch of new cookbooks

It has been awhile since I updated Seasonal Chef's bookstore. Now, I've done so, and I found lots of great new cookbooks that would be of interest to readers of Seasonal Chef.

There is, for instance, a book about one of the best of the farmers markets in northern California, called The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market Cookbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Impeccable Produce Plus Seasonal Recipes.

And there are lots of more narrowly focused books, such as Olive Trees and Honey, a book of Jewish vegetarian recipes from around the world, and The Berry Bible, which, as the name suggests, is all about all sorts of berries.

Here, you'll find all of the latest additions to the bookstore.