Plovdiv Seasonal Food: Spring Nettles to Winter Sarmi

What is in season in Plovdiv, and what to order when the market changes.

Spring

Spring lamb: Easter lamb is the spring centrepiece. April markets fill with whole young lamb for the courtyard grill, served with green onions and sirene.
Wild nettles and sorrel: Foraged spring greens go into omelets, banitsa fillings and the Bulgarian version of green borscht. Markets sell bunches from mid-March through May.
Strawberries: Bulgarian strawberries arrive late May and run through June. Plovdiv plain growers supply Hali market in heaped paper cones.

Tomato: Plovdiv plain tomatoes are the Bulgarian standard for shopska salad. Roma tomatoes from July through September are the canonical season for the dish.
Tarator: Cold yoghurt, cucumber, walnut, dill and garlic. The summer staple soup served every kitchen from June through September across Bulgaria.
Watermelon and melon: Bulgarian melon and watermelon hit peak July and August. Hali market stacks crates outside; cubed melon with sirene is a classic afternoon snack.

Mavrud grape harvest: Asenovgrad and the Thracian Valley vineyards harvest Mavrud in September. The Young Wine Festival in November showcases the first pour.
Walnuts: Bulgarian walnut harvest runs September through October. Walnuts go into tarator soup year-round, but the autumn shells are best for nut-stuffed dough sweets.
Roasted peppers and lyutenitsa: Autumn pepper harvest means lyutenitsa season. Families gather to roast, peel and blend peppers, tomato and aubergine into the winter spread put up in jars.

Sarmi: Cabbage-leaf sarmi stuffed with rice, minced pork and dill. The Bulgarian Christmas Eve dish, served with yoghurt and pickled vegetables.
Kavarma: Clay-pot stew of pork or chicken with onions, peppers, tomato and paprika. The Bulgarian winter restaurant staple, every mehana runs a daily version.
Boza and salep: Boza is a thick fermented millet drink; salep is a hot orchid-root drink. Both are Plovdiv winter warmers from Ottoman-era street vendors still on Knyaz Alexander.
Trifon Zarezan boiled wine: February 14 is St Trifon's Day, the wine saint. Asenovgrad vineyards prune the first vines; the city's wine bars pour mulled Mavrud through the evening.