The produce and the chef

Now that it’s officially summer, I asked Ame Harrington, chef at L Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen (1801 L Street), which area farms have some of her favorite produce and how she’s planning to use it this season:

“Terra Firma does a lot of cool peppers. And tomatoes, of course—they also have really good lettuces, like the little gem. With the peppers, I’m thinking of doing a pipérade; I’m looking to keep everything clean and really fresh. I’m thinking about doing an avocado, tomato and arugula salad.

“I use Del Rio Botanical—they have a lot of little interesting rare things. My spring menu, I was doing pea greens, which were really nice, and they had the fava greens. I haven’t seen their summer list yet—couldn’t even begin to guess, they have such really odd and rare things. I look at [their] list sometimes and am like, ‘Whoa, this is really cool stuff.’

“Riverdog does a lot of great stuff with lettuces. I know they’ll have tomatoes and interesting torpedo red onions that are always fun to use and melons. I have a week-and-a-half to get all this stuff together!”