via Wikimedia Commons

Last year, heavy rainstorms and wet weather delayed the start of spring until late April for some farms. However, this year has proven warm and dry, and our friend/produce expert Bill Fuijmoto reports that farms all over California — especially in the Delta, Sacramento, the Capay Valley, and Salinas — are looking forward to a great season.

As the season continues to unfold (the equinox is in two days!), you’ll see a fundamental shift in the Oliveto menu as we transition from a hearty winter to a glorious produce-packed spring. Already we’re starting to welcome fresh familiar flavors like new asparagus, spring onions, and fava greens.

In the south, at our friend Martin Bournhonesque’s farm in Monterey, warm weather has already brought the season’s first asparagus and spring onions. You’ll find these tender signs of spring at Oliveto in dishes like Chef Jonah’s Hedgehog mushroom salad, conchiglie with smoked trout, and involtino of Swiss chard.

Also on the menu are fresh fava greens from Tairwa’-Knoll Farms in Brentwood. Chef Jonah has paired them with pan-roasted striped bass with onion crema, spring onions, asparagus, and black truffle-poultry sugo for a real taste of the burgeoning season.

Make reservations online for dinner, or call us at 510.547.5356.