I'm never happier than when my farmers' market bounds back into action. Immediately my cooking becomes joyful and inspired due to the sheer liveliness of truly local and therefore truly seasonal food. Everything sparkles and glows, and so does my cooking!

We associate asparagus with spring, turnips with winter and harbor other such notions of seasonality with hardly a second thought. But what I have found to be true is that the season is inseparable from place, and that ultimately what's in season depends on where you live. The supermarket is the season of the world, but the farmers' market expresses your true season and with that, there may be some surprises. May in Northeast Ohio brings peas and rhubarb; however, by May in California peas and rhubarb are long gone. Tomatoes might be finished by June in Phoenix, but in Vermont, August is when you finally get that Brandywine – just weeks before the first hard freeze.

When you eat your local asparagus, turnips, tomatoes or strawberries, you will discover a quality of taste that just isn't there in something that's been picked, packed, shipped, stored and shipped thousands of miles away before it lands in your market basket. The great taste of local food, its impeccable freshness, and the interesting varieties you will find at a farmers' market are what make it so inspiring to cook with – and so easy to succeed. As my teacher, Alan Chadwick, used to say, “The cooking is really done in the garden; it's merely finished in the kitchen!” And curiously, since foods that are in season together always taste good together, you can feel confident when cooking intuitively from the farmers' market.

Grab a basket, a fistful of dollars (not all twenties, please!), throw a cooler in your car and head to your nearest farmers' market. Ask questions, try samples, enjoy yourself and come home with a whole new world of food for you and your family to enjoy. And then pat yourself on the back for helping in the work of rebuilding the health of the family farm so that all can eat well by eating locally.

This season, after a bountiful journey to your farmers' market, try out one of these recipes:
Pea & Spinach Soup with Coconut Milk
Serves 6

2 T unsalted butter
2 T white basmati rice
2 C thinly sliced sweet white onions
sea salt & freshly ground pepper
2 T curry powder
4 cilantro sprigs, plus extra for garnish
1 ½ to 2 pounds pod peas
4 C spinach leaves
1 Qt vegetable stock or water
¾ C coconut milk

1. Melt butter in a soup pot over medium heat and add the rice, onion, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, the curry powder, 4 cilantro sprigs and 1 cup water. Simmer over medium-low heat for 12 minutes.
2.Meanwhile, shuck the peas and wash and coarsely chop the spinach. Add both vegetables to the pot, along with the stock. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the coconut milk.
3.Puree about a cup of the soup in a blender and return it to the pot. Taste for salt, season with white pepper and serve, garnished with fresh cilantro leaves. Or puree all of the soup until smooth, about 1 minute, then pass it through a strainer and serve.

Rhubarb with Berries & Candied Ginger
Serves 4

Serve this compote garnished with strips of candied ginger (it turns slightly medicinal when baked), cream and a ginger cookie. Or spoon it over ice cream. Plan to spread any leftovers on your morning toast.

1 ½ pounds rhubarb
½ C light brown sugar, packed, or maple
syrup
1 T minute tapioca
Juice and long strands of zest of 1 small orange
  to ¼ T ground cloves
A handful to a few pints strawberries, mulberries or blackberries
Cream and crème fraîche
4 slices candied ginger, cut into thin strips, for garnish

1. Wash the rhubarb, trim off the ends of the stalks, then slice them crosswise into ½-inch chunks. If the stalks are very thick, halve them lengthwise first. Toss with the sugar, tapioca, orange juice, zest and cloves. Arrange in an 8x10-inch gratin dish and let stand while you preheat the oven to 400° F. Cover with foil and bake until fruit is tender when pierced with a knife, 35 to 45 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, if you're using strawberries, rinse them quickly, then slice thickly. Plunge mulberries briefly into water and remove any stems. When the rhubarb is done, remove it from the oven, scatter the berries over the top, and let stand with a piece of foil placed loosely over the top. The heat of the rhubarb will open the flavor of the berries, cooking them slightly. Serve chilled or at room temperature, garnished with cream and crème fraîche whipped together until billowy, and the candied ginger.

Deborah Madison is the author of Local Flavors, Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets,
published by Broadway Books in 2002. For more information, please visit
www.randomhouse.com/features/deborahmadison.