The Minnesota Farmers Market Cookbook: A Guide to Selecting and Preparing the Best Local Produce with Seasonal Recipes from Local Chefs and Farmers

The Minnesota Farmers Market Cookbook is a guide to choosing, preserving, and preparing the seasonal food you find at farmers markets, plus 80 recipes from local chefs and farmers.

Bowls of heavy, red tomatoes; stacks of tender sweet corn; baskets of crisp green beans: this is what summer looks like at the farmers market. The number of farmers markets in Minnesota has more than tripled over the last decade (from 45 in 2002 to more than 150 today) as we search out the healthiest, most delicious, and most local food we can find. The trouble is, sometimes we simply don’t know what to do with a heaping basket of green beans—not to mention $3 of kohlrabi. The Minnesota Farmers Market Cookbook solves that problem. It’s easy to use—you can look up food by name, season, or recipe—and supremely helpful in figuring out how to choose the best produce, store it so it stays fresh as long as possible, and prepare it with simple, delectable recipes that you’ll return to again and again.

More than 80 recipes collected from chefs, vendors, and foodies around the state showcase the best of seasonal cooking, from Andrew Zimmern’s zuppa valdostana to Lenny Russo’s grilled pork tenderloin to Atina Diffley’s sesame kale. If you’re not a whiz in the kitchen, don’t worry—author Tricia Cornell explains basic cooking techniques and offers timesaving tips for busy folks who want to eat right. Maps and a complete market directory benefit explorers and rookies alike: if you don’t know where your nearest market is, or you know it so well you’re craving a change of scenery, take a look inside.

Tricia Cornell is a Minneapolis writer, foodie, urban chicken-keeper, former editor of Minnesota Parent magazine, and contributor to monthly newspaper City Pages and food blog The Heavy Table. She is also the author of Eat More Vegetables: Making the Most of Your Seasonal Produce (April 2012, Minnesota Historical Society Press) and Voyageur Press' Minnesota Farmers' Market Cookbook. Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TriciaCornell, or at The Heavy Table Blog: heavytable.com/author/tricia/