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All of the amazing food you find in the LEAP Community Store, Mobile Market, and Farm Share started with farmers, moved through the LEAP Food Hub, and sometimes the LEAP Kitchen, on its way to shoppers. As farmers plant and prep for the main growing season, LEAP staff get the Food Hub ready to receive and distribute bags, cases, and pallets of local food, while the Kitchen works through the stores from last year’s harvest and starts to incorporate the fresh flavors of spring. This transitional time of year brings a mix of excitement, anticipation, and patience as we plan for and dream of summer produce (that is not quite yet here)…
Across LEAP markets, these early days of spring bring a plethora of spring greens, bunches of colorful radishes, the first bundles of asparagus, and whispers of strawberries coming soon. Meanwhile, LEAP’s store of winter squashes and potatoes dwindle as our canned and frozen goods are used up to make space. Seasonal eating this time of year is so sweet as we say goodbye to the dependable storage crops we won’t see again until fall and rejoice in the emergence of fresh foods coming back in abundance.
Behind the scenes in the LEAP Food Hub, this transitional time of year brings a mix of excitement, anticipation, and patience as we work through outgoing and incoming food supply. The Food Hub continues its year-round operations to accept deliveries from farmers that supply the LEAP Mobile Market, and Community Store, while the LEAP Kitchen works through its winter stores and starts to incorporate fresh flavors coming in. From February–April, the LEAP Farm Share takes a pause to prepare with farmers and register new members for the upcoming season.
As farmers plant and prep for their main growing season production, the LEAP Food Hub gets ready to receive and distribute all of the produce from abundant harvests to come. Every day we receive more and more availability lists from our farmers, indicating what will be on the ordering menu this year. It’s impossible to not feel the anticipation of the bounty on the horizon as we start to see farmers more regularly and the availability lists start to grow. Before you know it, we will be in the thick of the season again!
Get it now: Main Season Farm Share registration is open until 4/20/26 for a weekly share from May through October!
LEAP’s aggregated Farm Share works with a variety of local farmers who supply members with an assortment of super fresh and seasonal produce each week. This allows farmers to rely on and plan for the regular schedule of deliveries, while giving customers access to what’s available in higher quantities throughout the season.
In the Food Hub, the LEAP Kitchen is again bustling with volunteers who help to prepare weekly recipes for our Community Store and Mobile Market customers. Year-round, the Kitchen works to process excess and seconds produce into nutritious and delicious ready-to-heat and eat foods.
In the Kitchen, the sights, smells, and sounds of spring are filling our senses letting us know that seasonal change is upon us. This time of year can also present us with a great challenge. While we are looking forward to the overflowing bounty of vine ripened tomatoes, summer squash, and cucumbers that summer brings, we are still working with a limited variety of available foods and relying on what’s been stored or frozen from last year’s harvest. How do we make the most of what we have? One way to balance the transition is to level up a tried-and-true winter recipe or pack of frozen veggies with new flavors as they start to arrive.
Try this at home: LEAP Seasonal Veggie Stir-Fry with LEAP frozen veggies prepared last fall with in-season cabbage, carrots, yellow squash and peppers, ADD green onions, spinach, and your favorite early spring flavors.
Join us in getting into the springtime spirit and making the most of the transitional season! Here are some quick tips to make the most of the season:
Happy spring eating!