Well it’s happened again. I ripped off KCRW’s Good Food. This time my victim was the chef at Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica, Evan Funke.

When I left the house this morning for the Hollywood Farmers Market I had an open mind about what I would find for my weekly Market Matters post. But when I got there, the market felt a bit off to me. I think we really are transitioning from the winter crops to the early spring stuff. I even saw English peas in the pod. A sure sign that spring is on it way in. But the peas were not really peaking and I’d rather wait a few more weeks and be rewarded with perfect peas.

All the usual suspects were to be found though. I saw great citrus, and the winter greens are still aplenty. There were carrots, carrots, and more carrots. Some nice potatoes too. But nothing really inspired me. Then it hit me. That interview with Evan Funke came bursting to the forefront of my consciousness.

Okay, you have to understand that I store information about food in my head the way most Angelinos store obscure rush hour short cuts. You never know when your gonna need ‘em and you have no idea where the information comes from. But there it is, like magic; just when you need it.

What I am trying to say is I was not intending to steal from Evan Funke. But, after really scouring the market, I came home with a bunch of baby purple artichokes. It may sound like a great choice (and it is), but it was not really MY own unique, one-of-a-kind choice.

This week at the Hollywood Farmers Market I was on my weekly crawl to find something interesting. But I had a secret; I actually had a plan this time. I had my sites set on salsify.

What is salsify you ask? Maybe you know it better as oyster plant or goatsbeard. No?

It’s an ancient plant, long utilized as food. It is related to the sunflower and is in the family Asteraceae, which makes it, basically, a wildflower. But this information probably does not help you identify it because we don’t eat the flowers. Or at least I don’t eat the flowers…they’re just too darn pretty!

As a food, salsify is primarily a root vegetable. But the green grass-like leaves and stems are edible and often sold still attached to the root.