Normally I wouldn’t be talking about peas and radishes this late, but this was an unusually long, cool spring, as you surely noticed. The up side of cooler weather is it extends our “salad days.” Wonderful greens and salad companions remain abundant. But, summer is here, so get your strongest harvest and farmers market baskets ready for imminent employment. Tomatoes, eggplant, cukes, squash and corn are coming.

Peas

Snow peas and sugar snaps have climbed up their teepees and fences and into markets and restaurants. They’re star performers in my stir-fries, but a handful never make it into the wok. Their sweet crunchiness is just too irresistible. In fact, they’re great on a plate with dips, adding not only color contrast to carrots, but lots of B vitamins and fiber. Shelling peas used to be a summer ritual, but most varieties have edible pods now. Still, there’s no rule that says you can’t shell them and enjoy the sound of the little green orbs bouncing off the bowl. Such a sit-down-and-chat-chore always is welcome.

Radishes

These spunky little balls — usually red, but sometimes in other Easter egg colors — often are the first thing to embellish spring salads. They’re often the first vegetable kids plant because they’re fast and reliable. Inspired by Deborah Madison’s cookbook, “Local Flavors, Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets,” I made a radish sandwich with some I got at the Corvallis Farmers’ Market last week.

She recommends slicing them into thin rounds, then narrow strips and mixing them in softened butter to make sure they stay on the bread. However, I’d use hummus or pesto instead and slide a piece of mild cheese and some greens in, too. If the radish greens are still fresh and perky, include them for more peppery bite.

Besides adding a pleasing crunchiness, color and spiciness, radishes bring vitamin C, iron, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium to the table. They’d also bring color and zip to a relish tray with the sugar snaps or snow peas. Of course there are oblong radishes called Oriental which are just as nutritious. Daikon, for example. Radishes are related to turnips and horseradish, after all.

New potatoes

While out of place on a relish tray, potatoes would be amicable companions with peas and radishes in a salad. They come in a rainbow of colors and cooking characteristics. Nothing beats just-out-of-the-ground potatoes. The skins contain fiber, so it’s best to leave them on, although they’re so delicate at this stage, they almost wash off. That’s why some farmers’ market potatoes look like they’ve been scraped.

It’s the result of washing. In a recent newsletter, Denison Farms recommended that you use plenty of salt when boiling new potatoes, or the flavor will leach out into the cooking water. (A good reason to save that water for making soup or bread.)

Nutritionally, potatoes have more potassium than bananas, vitamin C, B vitamins, highly digestible protein and minerals.

You can contact Chris Peterson at localfood@peak.org.