the fronds and stems are great quick-pickled, you can slice and roast the bulbs, and if they make it to flowering (some get eaten first lol) they grow tiny sweet fruits around each fennel seed! you could dry them for seeds, but i almost always just eat the fruit
we make a soup once a year or so that's just fennel bulb, onion, (both sliced and sauteed), potatoes, stock, and an amount of black pepper that could have started a war 500 years ago
it's super easy, i think we went off some online recipe the first time? but it's super easy to wing it. also good with leeks instead of onion, kind of like a potato leek soup but not blended and with fennel. i also can't express enough how much pepper should be in it. more than that.
