In the early season, when trips to the farmers market yield just a few bits of local produce, the pressure’s on. As a cook, you’ve got only one or two chances to enjoy the fruits of the land before it’s back to the winter slog of canned whatever, dairy, starch and meat. So you’d better […]

Tom and I spent Memorial Day visiting Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield (a first ring suburb of Minneapolis). The weather had been off-and-on all weekend and when it began to clear up on Monday we headed out, not wanting to wait too long… considering the sky might turn on us again. When we arrived our […]

Hoping to catch the earliest of the season’s morels, Tom and I headed south last weekend in search of the Minnesota State Mushroom. As with any mushroom trip, the central goal – the one that we try to convince ourselves of over and over, as we continue to tote an empty basket – was to have […]

There are few things more satisfying on a cold winter’s evening than sitting down to a meal brought about by your own craft and ingenuity. When a morning spent tracking rabbits across the snowed-in woodlands yields a young hare to serve as the centerpiece to a meal, garnished by shallots from the root cellar, carefully […]

Call me a pessimist, but in spite of all the amazing advances being made in the realm of cold weather fruits I don’t think anybody’s ever going to grow citrus in Minnesota. So what’s the hard-core locavore fundamentalist zealot to do when he finds himself in the North country and craving a glass or two […]

It’s finally here! It’s been pretty warm in Minnesota for about a month, but that only made the lack of fresh local produce seem even crueler. As of yesterday, the food drought was over with the advent of the Midtown Farmers Market. Martha and I were so excited that we arrived shortly after market open […]

It’s springtime again, which means the Internet is running rampant with reports of ramps. Amidst all the gushing over this early allium, I read probably the best assessment of ramps ever written: Most “spring” menus are cruel teases. The good stuff we really want, like local peas and asparagus, doesn’t turn up for at least […]

The season at the Midtown Farmers Market officially ended in October, though some obsessive hoarding and a special winter market before Thanksgiving kept us supplied with fresh local produce into the beginnings of winter. Eventually though, we ate our way through our fresh supplies, leaving only a few cans of pickles and tomato sauce as […]

Seven local designers, two great calendars. See below for details on how to get yours. happify For the fourth year running, happify brings a 2010 calendar in the form of 12 postcards, offset printed in a rich chocolate brown on an extra-thick (110#) recycled cream 5″x7″ cardstock. On the reverse side there’s space for writing […]

Finishing up a visit to Saugatuck, Michigan (on Lake Michigan about 130 miles north of Chicago), my favorite find has to be The Summertime Market. Driving back home from downtown Saugatuck on our last day here, and hoping to spot some sort of farm stand selling lettuces, we stumbled upon their little store. If you’re ever […]