Brined pickles are easy to make, delicious, and good for you. The fermentation process increases vitamins and healthful enzymes, and they're probiotic, too!

Cucumbers with dill are the most traditional pickle in the US, but nearly any vegetable and herb mixture will work. (Ripe tomatoes are too soft, and I wouldn't try raw potatoes, but we've had good success with every other veggie we've tried so far.)

June is what we call "mandatory salad season" - we eat a salad with or for at least two out of three meals a day. Usually a pile of mixed salad green and pea shoots with a dash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar is plenty, but sometimes one craves a bit more. This dressing is a great use for big bunch of cilantro, especially before the tomatoes come in and you can't make salsa yet.

This is our new go-to for evenings when it's suddenly six o'clock (which happens to us pretty regularly once the season gets into swing). It's quick, light but filling, yummy, and packs a lot of vegetables.

This is a nice way to use radishes if you find them too strong on their own, because the dressing and the creaminess of the chickpeas tames their bite.

Pea shoots are great raw, but they're also nice cooked. We like to saute some garlic in olive oil (scapes are great for this), then add the soots and cook until they're wilted and just tender. Then, you can add them to all sorts of things, like:

• Scrambled eggs or omelets
  
• Potato salad
  
• Egg salad
  
• Tuna salad
  
• Any salad, really
  
• Lentils
  
• Mashed potatoes
  
• Macaroni and cheese
  

Scapes are the flower stalk of the garlic plant. We snip them off because that helps the garlic bulb develop better - and, conveniently, they're also delicious! You can use them in just about any place you'd use garlic or onions - just chop them up, excluding the long flower bud on the end, which usually isn't very tasty. This pesto is one of the best ways to use this short-lived treat.