Special spring produce is coming into season. Here’s what to look for and where to find it.

Spring is in peak bloom in Philly, and with it comes a fresh crop of seasonal specialties as fleeting as the cherry blossoms in Fairmount Park. Foraged gems like ramps, morels, and fiddlehead ferns will work their way onto menus over the next few weeks. If you’re lucky, you can snag some for your own kitchen at the farmers market (or in a nearby forest).

Below, we highlight some spring produce to keep your eyes peeled for. Some items are sourced locally; others grow farther afield but are still worth seeking out this time of year.

Spring has officially arrived when this pungent, garlicky, bright green member of the onion family pokes its head out of the ground. The harvest starts further south, in West Virginia and East Tennessee, in late March and early April, then moves north toward Ohio and Michigan as the weather improves, petering out by June. Pennsylvania ramps started turning up at markets and on CSA lists last week.

Ramps are wild — there’s no commercial production. “People are very protective of their sources at all levels of the supply chain. … A lot of chefs have their own local connections,” says Emily Kohlhas, director of marketing for specialty produce wholesaler John Vena Inc. Though some vendors aggregate a large number of ramps to redistribute, it’s much more common for individual foragers to sell directly to restaurants and businesses.

Ramps have two long, slender leaves and small white bulbs. They grow best in shady, wooded areas. They gained a foothold with chefs several years ago but have long been celebrated in Appalachia, where ramp festivals have been held since the 1950s. Foragers who stumble across a patch of ramps are urged to harvest carefully: Only take a third at most, or better yet, leave the bulb alone and just take the greens.

The greens are often used in compound butter or pesto, but ramps can be grilled, sauteed, braised, and pickled, too.

Try them: Buy ramps (while they last) at the Rittenhouse, Chestnut Hill, and Bryn Mawr farmers markets; look for them at Wild and Wonderful Foods, Primordia Farm, and Two Gander Farm stalls. They’re also at Riverwards Produce in Fishtown. Or look for them in the restaurant wilds: Order ramp hummus from Frizwit in Pennsport; grilled scallops with ramps at Twisted Tail in Head House Square; or queso fresco with grilled ramps, fava beans, and spring radishes at Sor Ynez near Kensington.

Another native North American plant, fiddlehead ferns grow as far north as Alaska and Canada, and as far south as Virginia. Wild and specialty mushroom buyer Todd Kostka of To-Jo Mushrooms in Avondale says that fiddleheads come in two varieties: the ostrich and the Western lady ferns, the former of which is deeper green and grown in Pennsylvania.

Fiddleheads have a tall, snappy stalk and a furled, frilly head like a shepherd’s crook. “They have a kind of grassiness to them,” says Farm to City farmers market program manager Jon Glyn. “The crunch comes from the stalk, and then you have these still-young feathery fronds that taste really good.”

Fiddleheads should be cleaned in cold water to remove any errant leaves, but they don’t require much cooking. Glyn recommends soaking them in warm water with a little lemon juice, but they’re also often blanched or sauteed. Kohlhas points out that fiddleheads have been used for culinary and medicinal purposes thousands of years, figuring into Native American cooking and artwork.

Try them: Fiddleheads can be found at the aforementioned vendors at the Rittenhouse, Chestnut Hill, and Bryn Mawr markets and at Riverwards Produce. Twisted Tail’s green goddess flatbread is festooned with fiddleheads, asparagus, fava beans, and watermelon radish. Bibou in Bella Vista plans to feature snails with fiddleheads in next week’s takeout dinner menu.

These springtime mushrooms can be so elusive in this region, they’re almost comparable to truffles. They start fruiting in early April, when soil temperatures climb above the 50s, Kostka says. They often grow in clusters near ash, elm, and apple trees (morels have a symbiotic relationship with the trees’ root systems). They’re typically picked by hobbyist foragers who have relationships with markets or restaurants interested in limited quantities. “A good harvest is one to two pounds,” Kostka says.

Blond morels are found in our area, Kostka notes, while black and gray morels grow in more abundance in the Pacific Northwest, which tends to net large enough harvests to sell and ship commercially. (Some morels are imported from China, which has pioneered commercial cultivation in recent decades.)

If you see morels or other wild foods at a market, Glyn strongly encourages buying them — and asking about them, too. “If you find ramps or fiddlehead ferns or morels or watercress at your farmers markets, there is a story behind how that product came from the woods to a corner of Walnut Street in Center City.”

And as for cooking, Glyn cites an old saying in the kitchen: “If it grows together, it goes together. So you don’t need to overthink these spring vegetables. Asparagus with morels and ramps, with side of buttery fiddlehead ferns — I mean, there you go.” He also recommends pairing that produce with fresh-made cheeses, which often carry a note of onions and chives that grow with the grass cows are grazing on this time of year. “The milk has a springtime flavor right now.”

Try them: Morels have recently been featured in dishes at Bibou, the Pyramid Club in Center City, Forsythia in Old City, and Park Place Cafe in Merchantville. Riverwards Produce plans to sell some later this month. The season is short, so act fast.

In our global economy, asparagus is grown year-round and imported mainly from Peru and Mexico, according to Kohlhas. But local producers in Pennsylvania and especially New Jersey (the fourth largest U.S. producer) also grow a fair amount of asparagus, and it’s springing out of the soil ahead of schedule this year. Glyn spotted some at the Beechwood Orchards stall at last Saturday’s Rittenhouse Square farmers market.

“Local asparagus are some of the freshest ingredients you’ll get because they move so fast,” Glyn says. “Any time a farmer is coming to the market with asparagus, they either picked them that morning, before coming to market, or in the last day or two, because you need to work with them very quickly or they shoot up.”

Local, seasonal asparagus tastes different than the thick supermarket stalks you can pick up whenever. It has sweet, grassy notes and barely needs to be cooked to become tender.

Try it: Look for local asparagus on upcoming menus at Forsythia and Ember & Ash in East Passyunk, and at your local farmers market as the season progresses.

“Spring is the season where things begin to pop,” Kostka says, “but it’s ramps and fiddleheads, there’s really not much else” locally until May.

Of course, one can indulge in spring specialties from elsewhere, too. Kohlhas cites artichokes and rhubarb as two products that signal spring domestically and abroad. Though these plants are often shipped to this area from California and Holland or the Pacific Northwest, respectively, restaurant menus around town will feature them at this time of year in a nod to the season. (Rhubarb is harvested locally, but comes into season closer to May, when Lancaster County hosts a festival dedicated to the plant.)

» READ MORE: It’s artichoke season. Here are their best starring roles in Philly restaurants.

Another rarity are green almonds — a large, fuzzy, unripened version of the everyday nut. Green almonds are a short-lived treat especially prized in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking, the cuisines to which almonds are native. Kohlhas reported that John Vena’s California-based supplier won’t be handling them this year, but that she had spotted some at Cherry Hill’s Ammon Mediterranean Market.

There, owner Riyad Mazahra is determined to supply his loyal customers with the seasonal fresh produce they might have grown up eating. In spring, that means green almonds, green sour plums, fresh chickpeas, and more. He drives to New York and back on Fridays to get these specialties, and he says they often sell out by end of day Saturday.

Mazahra recommends eating green almonds — which are fuzzy, soft, and refreshing — as a snack. “Most people, they eat it [raw]. Just take a first bite, a small bite, and then dip it in salt and eat the rest of it. It’s really delicious.” They can also be poached in olive oil, cooked in stews, or sliced and sprinkled over salads. Mazahra predicts he’ll have some for the next three or four weeks, but after that, they’ll be gone.