Last Chance Foods

Every spring at Chez Panisse, the restaurant in Berkeley opened by seasonal food guru Alice Waters, teams of chefs and interns shuck, blanch and then peel the skins off of mountains of fava beans. Former Chez Panisse chef and author Tamar Adler says the skill became so ingrained in her that, even years later, she remains a speedy pro at fava prep.

There’s a little bit of northeastern Italy growing on a rooftop in Long Island City, Queens. Castelfranco, a type of radicchio native to Veneto, is at the end of its season at Brooklyn Grange’s rooftop farm.

A few weeks ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a new plan to ban super-sized sodas from being sold in places where the city performs inspections — from restaurants to movie theaters. For certain self-policing, food-conscious subsections of Brooklyn — for instance, those neighborhoods where ice cream vendors nearly get chased off public playgrounds — huge, artifically sweetened colas are arguably less of an issue.

Burdock is one useful weed. Its prickly burrs famously inspired the invention of velcro. Its roots have been used medicinally for centuries to treat everything from a sore throat to eczema. And right now, burdock’s tender, young flower stalks also make for good eating.

Some things are not what they seem at The Point, a community development center in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx. What looks like a trash can is not for garbage. Instead, urban fish farmer Christopher Toole is raising tilapia in these water-filled bins, which he said should not be considered garbage cans at all.

Strawberries and rhubarb may be superstars of spring produce, but leeks also have a place in that lineup, according to Keha McIlwaine, a farmer at the Queens County Farm Museum. She said spring leeks have been a particularly popular item at the Union Square farmers market lately.

Bustling trade and loudmouthed fisherman used to be fixtures at the South Street Seaport. But in 2005, the Fulton Street Fish Market moved to the Bronx, taking its rough-and-tumble culture with it. This Sunday, New Amsterdam Market hopes to revive the seafood scene in lower Manhattan with its second Gathering of Fisheries event. Fishermen and purveyors will bring in fresh, local seafood and teach people about cutting, cleaning and cooking fish.

There are two good reasons to keep an eye out for stinging nettle in the woods. The first is so you avoid touching the plant with bare skin — the sharp hairs on the plant contain histamines that can cause pain, itching and redness. The other reason is the weed makes for good eating. Just be sure to put on a pair of gloves before reaching out and plucking a few stalks.

Japanese knotweed is one of the country’s most pervasive and hated invasive plants. The tender red-freckled shoot may look like an innocuous cross between asparagus and bamboo, but it is so powerful it can push through concrete and asphalt. Urban forager and writer Marie Viljoen called knotweed a “thug” and said that it indiscriminately invades agricultural land and backyards. She exacts her revenge in a visceral and delicious way: Viljoen eats it.

The bright green spirals of ostrich fern fiddleheads are a beacon of spring. Delicate and grass-like in flavor, fiddleheads are one of the season’s most fleeting vegetables.