Springtime brings some new colours, savours and flavours, and green market in Split looks and smell really spectacular, bursting with seasonal food. Among all of them, however, anyone from Split will always pick two as real signs of the season. Let's talk about wild asparagus and artichokes.

Those who know asparagus only coming from cans, or as thick wooden plant bought in a supermarket, should try its wild, or free grown relative. You will see it anywhere at the market, usually tied in bouquets of 20-30. Sellers pick them anywhere in the nature around Split, and elsewhere in Dalmatia. What you shouldn't do is asking them where they picked them. First, pickers have their posts, usually kept as a secret. Second, telling you where they picked them would point to a fact that they picked it. Complicated? Well, state forest agency brought a rule nobody obey - to report how many of those wild herbs one picked, and pay some fee for it. It's ridiculous, of course, because we are talking about a plant which grows everywhere in forests, practically as a weed. By the way, you didn't hear "ridiculous" part from me. That's why most of sellers pretend that asparagus actually fell to their lap straight from the outer space.

This food is very seasonal, asparagus grow in the nature only between March and late June. Very rarely it changes, usually as a result of some unfortunate event. After last year's fires around Split, asparagus surprisingly grew in November. That explains wild asparagus price at the market. However, what if you have no place to cook them, even if you find some of many recipes? It's very common to find them as a dish in restaurants, especially in those with more traditional food. You can order them as a part of an omelette, risottos, pastas, with cottage cheese, boiled eggs, and whatever skilled chefs can think of. Same rule count in restaurants like at the market; don't ask where they are coming from. And if you notice strange urine's odour afterwards, don't worry - there are claims that wild asparagus is healthy little creature, helping detoxing your body. You can believe that or not, but it's a good excuse if someone enters bathroom after you.

With artichokes it's a little bit different story. They are grown on farms, but those we eat here are usually smaller than those bought from the supermarket shelf, picked who knows where. Chefs can invent many recipes, but if you want to eat it as we cook them at home, combine them with broad beans (some call it fava beans). It's as always with local, traditional dishes; every house has its own recipe, and it's always the best in the world. Same goes with restaurants. What is similar with asparagus, artichokes are very seasonal, too. If you are offered some in the middle of the summer, or in September, pass. It's probably not local.

What might be a slight problem is how to eat artichokes. In Dalmatia they are served as a whole, not only soft, delicious heart. To get there, you have to remove all those tough leaves, and as you are getting to the heart, they are softer and softer. But don't just remove them, use your fingers and teeth to peel them from anything eatable. You can't use fork to do it, so prepare to get dirty. There is nothing better but to lick your fingers after artichokes. Use fork (and bread) for beans. Actually, if you don't get dirty, you did something wrong.