Chilled Fennel Potato Soup

It really is slow food when you try to harvest it yourself.

One of us believed the fennel growing wild in a certain vacant lot is the kind that you could dig up for its crisp, licorice-flavored tubers.

Marja, the chef, raised a skeptical eyebrow but came along.

Clank. (My shovel hits rock at 10 a.m.).

Thud. (My shovel falls to the ground at 1 p.m.).

I admitted defeat and headed to a bookstore. Marja, the traitor, had already gone to the farmer's market for her fennel. A gardening book revealed wild fennel to be lacking, in the tuber department. Like: no edible bulbs.

You can however, use its feathery fronds for garnish. Or add them to a wild greens salad for a hint of anise.

Back at the tuttifoodie test kitchen (a.k.a., my apartment), Marja's chilled fennel potato soup waited. It's simple, clean and buttery somehow, with a tasty hint of licorice. And, with only a few ingredients, it's so easy to make. That is, if you buy your fennel—Florence fennel—at the market.