If there is one essential pair of late-spring early-summer vegetables to pair now it’s new potatoes and summer shelling peas. I haven’t seen this duo in Portland’s farmers’ markets yet, but I encountered them at Beth’s Farm Market in Warren, the midcoast farm-store behemoth that always seems to be the first with the gems of summer produce.
At a recent trip there, the peas were just out, still somewhat small but bulging pods with sweet green peas. Nearby were the basket of new red potatoes and those precious baby carrots that are just being pulled from the ground.