Here’s what I wrote about “Fields” in 2005 in the Strib:

“Cooks fascinated by farming should not miss the remarkable “Fields of Plenty” (Chronicle Books, $35). A gifted storyteller with a sharp eye for detail, author Michael Ableman describes the lives and passions of artisanal-minded producers, visiting an Oregon potato grower, a Manhattan rooftop greenhouse, cheesemakers Mary and Dave Falk’s sheep ranch in Grantsburg, Wis., and more than 20 other small-scale ag operations. In this gem of a book, Ableman does double duty as photographer - his richly evocative pictures are worthy of their own frames - and there are several dozen appealing recipes, all inspired by the considerable bounty Ableman encountered on his coast-to-coast journey.”

I re-read “Fields” last week, and that assessment still holds up; anyone interested in the world of farmstead growers should have this title in their libraries, or at least yank one off the shelves of their local library. What I’d forgotten were the great-sounding recipes, which include such gems as roasted chicken charred with rosemary, fresh corn tamales, apricot-pistachio biscotti, winter root vegetable soup, fresh shell bean gratin and this refreshing vinaigrette for just-picked salad greens.

CITRUS VINAIGRETTE
Makes enough for 1 large salad.
Note: From “Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It” by Michael Ableman (Chronicle, $35). “Use this vinaigrette with 1 1/2 lbs. mesclun, mache or butterhead lettuce,” write Ableman. “For a more elaborate salad, serve with pickled beets and a few fresh grapefruit segments.”

2 1/2 tbsp. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 1/2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp. sugar
Sea salt to taste
1 1/2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp. grapeseed or sunflower oil
Salt and white pepper to taste

Directions
In a small bowl, combine grapefruit juice, lemon juice, sugar and a pinch of sea salt and stir to dissolve. Slowly whisk in olive oil and grapeseed (or sunflower) oils to make an emulsified vinaigrette. Taste vinaigrette with mesclun leaf; you may want to add a little more oil or an extra drop or two of lemon juice. Place greens in a large bowl and season with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Gently toss with just enough vinaigrette to lightly coat greens. Transfer salad to a serving platter or to individual plates and serve immediately.

Yeah, I know, don’t quit my day job for a new career in photography. Still, doesn’t this week’s haul look amazing? Clockwise, from upper left: Spinach (bagged), kohlrabi, Swiss chard, radishes, garlic scapes, snap peas, Red Butterhead lettuce, Romaine lettuce.

I was hoping to get a glimpse of the Burning River Farm crew as they dropped off my still-wet cardboard box, but these people work fast; they were in and out before the good guys in Shipping and Receiving here at Strib HQ could even get me on the horn to tell me that my CSA box had arrived. So much for snapping with my trusty little Canon PowerShot. Maybe next week.

Here’s the news from Burning River Farm, via farmer and diarist Mike Noreen:

“By the time you get this third delivery, activities here on the farm reach about their halfway point,” he wrote. “We’re barely into deliveries of shares and weekly journeys to the farmers market, but things were started in the greenhouse by the first week in March and have been going full-time ever since. By this time in the season, we’re looking at adolescent tomatoes and stubborn peppers, trying to coax them on. The weeds, however, don’t need coaxing. Things that were weeded and clean three weeks ago are now in need of major attention and a carpet of quack grass appears one place just when we got it down in another. We run around with hoes and rototillers, cultivate with tractors, and get down on our hands and knees to pull them at their source. If you ask me, we are short on weed-killing devices. I dream of a fleet of tractors with different shapes of steel and ingenious devices for dealing with these plants before they become a problem. But for now, we make due with what we have.

“Once neighbored by weeds, now in your box” (Translation: This is the contents of my CSA box for the week; the descriptions are Mike’s):

1. Lettuce (Red Butterhead, and Romaine for the big boxes)

2. Radishes: “Easter Egg, probably the last of the radishes.”

3. Sugar snap peas: “Yum. Be careful. Eat slowly. Savor. For those who scarf these sweeties too fast awaits the feeling of the unmistakable peabelly!”

4. Garlic scapes: “These bunches are the flowering heads of the garlic. Use just as you would garlic itself.”

5. Kohlrabi: “These are very sweet. Stir fry, or shred for raw use. Don’t be discouraged by these oddities.”

6. Swiss chard: “Because we love you. Beautiful, don’t you think?”

Next week’s forecast: “[We] should see for sure the first of the scallions. Also I hope some arugula, broccoli, more peas? We’ll see.”

Me again. I have to admit that after last week’s kale, the first item that got a whistle of appreciation was the gorgeous chard: The long, proud leaves have an almost muscular strength, their rhubarb-red stems contrasting so vividly against the forest green of those rippling leaves.

And can I tell you how incredibly generous this all feels? Three weeks in, and I’m definitely of the opinion that a CSA - well, at least my CSA - is proving to be a major value. That overstuffed bag of premium-quality spinach kept my household happy for almost four days; ditto the ample lettuces. And how much would those radishes and kohlrabi fetch at Whole Foods Market? I don’t think that I want to know.

You know what? I’m also loving the unpredictability of it all; it’s like playing a vegetable version of Mystery Date. Who knows what lies behind Door No. 1, right? I was thrilled to pull that marvelous purple-tinged leaf lettuce out of the box and discover that underneath it was a pair of kohlrabi. That’s going to be my goal tomorrow: Find a few delicious uses for this cousin of the turnip, along with getting another vinaigrette under my belt, since the crisper drawer of our refrigerator has become the most popular place in the house. Yep, our salad spinner is really going to get a workout this week.

The day after my strawberry U-pick adventure, I got an email from one of my picking partners. The memo line said “Strawberry mint soup” and the message read: “From Marcus’ ‘Aquavit’ book. Take a look.”

That’s all I needed.

Every recipe I’ve ever made from this book has been a winner (it’s worth buying for the meatball recipe alone), and now it sounds like I’ve got another one to add to that list.

STRAWBERRY MINT SOUP
Serves 6 to 8.

Note: From “Aquavit” by Marcus Samuelsson (Houghton Mifflin, $45). Use only ripe, fragrant strawberries; smaller berries often have a more intense flavor than larger ones. For a delicious summer cocktail or refreshing drink, combine 1/2 cup of this soup with 1/2 cup Champagne or sparkling water and serve over ice. “In June, people in Sweden eagerly forage for wild strawberries; their flavor are fragrance are unparalleled,” writes Samuelsson. “Traditionally this soup would have been prepared with wild berries, but because they have only a very short season and are not easily available, I use regular strawberries. Serve this only when strawberries are in season and plentiful; if you are lucky enough to come across some wild berries, add a few to the mix. You could also make this soup using other berries, such as raspberries or blackberries or, for a red fruit soup, a combination of strawberries and raspberries.”

3 pints strawberries, hulled
6 c. water
1 c. freshly squeezed orange juice (from about 4 oranges)
2 to 3 pieces ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
4 to 5 stalks fresh lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed, tender inner stalks lightly smashed and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1 bunch fresh mint, coarsely chopped, including stalks (about 2 c.)
1 c. sugar

Directions
Set aside 1/2 pint of strawberries and thinly slice remaining berries. Place sliced strawberries in a large saucepan. Add water, orange juice, ginger, lemongrass, mint and sugar and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, set aside and let soup steep for 1 hour. Strain soup through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl (discarding solids). Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours. Meanwhile, cut reserve strawberries into 1/4-inch dice. Transfer to a small bowl, cover and refrigerate. When ready to serve, place a small mound of diced strawberries in center of each soup bowl, pour chilled soup around cut berries and serve.

Northeast Minneapolis Farmers Market vendors Kathryn and David Brewer

One of the main reasons to shop the Northeast Minneapolis Farmers Market is to scope out what Kathryn and David Brewer are featuring on their red-and-white-checkerboard-covered stand.

Last week the couple was selling six varieties of lettuce, garlic scapes, kohlrabi and broccoli, all raised at their 19th century farmstead about six miles north in New Brighton. It was the fist kohlrabi I’d seen this year - the Sputnik-shaped vegetable is always an attention-grabber - and I asked them how they like to use it. “We eat it raw, that’s our favorite way,” said Kathryn. “We slice into slivers and put it into salads,” said David.

Kohlrabi: Peel it and eat it.

(A few days later my friends John and Dave had 20 or so over to dinner, and one of the dishes they served was crisp Romaine leaves filled with white beans, chopped black olives and slivered kohlrabi; it was delicious).

The Brewers’ stand always features a beautiful selection harvested from their New Brighton garden. “No fertilizers, no chemicals, and it was picked today,” said David.

Garlic scapes, marvelously fragrant, make their seasonal debut.

The Northeast market has always been a favorite of mine. It’s in an easily accessible location, on University Av. just south of Broadway, and it has always had just enough vendors to make the trip worthwhile. This year it seemed a little smaller - a result, perhaps, of the slow growing season - which only made the Brewers’ efforts that much more compelling.

“It’s always a challenge to get up at 5:15,” said David with a laugh. “But we still enjoy it. It’s so nice to see all the people who come to shop. People are always interested in what we have here.”

I’ll say. In the coming weeks, look for 10 varieties of garlic, four different kinds of potatoes, pie cherries, gooseberries, currants, “lots of green beans” said Kathryn, cabbage, cauliflower, squash and tomatoes, all raised on that beautiful 2-acre hobby farm. How lovely that the Brewers choose to share their hobby with the rest of us.

The Brewers, in front of their landmark 1894 home, in a 2004 Strib archive photo.

The garlic scapes were so teasingly pungent that they led me straight to Google, where I ran across this recipe from the Washington Post.

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO
Makes about 6 oz. pesto.

Note: From the Washington Post. For 1/2-pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

1 c. garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/3 c. walnuts
3/4 c. olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 c. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
In bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine garlic scapes and walnuts and pulse until well-combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in olive oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a medium mixing bowl. Add Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to one week.

Michelle Gayer at her new bakery, the Salty Tart.

The Midtown Global Market just got a whole lot sweeter, thanks to the talents of pastry pro Michelle Gayer, who opened her Salty Tart bakery in the food-focused complex in late May. Gayer is the former pastry chef for Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, and she was lured north to the Twin Cities in 2004 to open the Franklin Street Bakery. Since then, she’s been teaching as well as directing the dessert programs at La Belle Vie and Solera. Now she’s baking every day at the Salty Tart, putting her keen sense of seasonal goodness to very good use. Here are Gayer’s takes on . . .

Strawberries: “I’m a fan! But only during strawberry season. I love them when they are small, bright red and delicious. I’m not a fan of out-of-season berries and I would never, never, never use them just because my dessert needed some color or for some other ridiculous reason. Which I have no idea what that would be! My friend just brought me some from Winona this morning and they will be the star of the show tomorrow in all of their beauty and splendor.”

A favorite pastry on her current menu: “I guess it would have to be the raspberry and almond tart. Just because it’s so cute, not to mention tasty.”

STRAWBERRY CREME FRAICHE CAKE
Serves 6 to 8.

Note: From Michelle Gayer of the Salty Tart, 920 E. Lake St., Minneapolis. “If you don’t have creme fraiche on hand, you can use sour cream,” said Gayer. “Or just make some.” Here’s how “Joy of Cooking” (Scribner, $35) suggests making creme fraiche: Combine 1 cup heavy cream and 1 tablespoon buttermilk in a small saucepan and heat over low heat to 110 degrees. Pour mixture into a jar and keep in a warm place, loosely covered, until cream is thickened and has a pleasant mildly sour flavor (this may take as little as 6 to 8 hours, or as long as 3 days).

2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pan
2 c. sugar, plus extra for garnishing cake
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 c. creme fraiche, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
2 pints freshly picked strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 9×9-inch pan. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and reserve. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl to ensure eggs are incorporated thoroughly. Add creme fraiche, vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix until well-combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Divide batter in half and spread one-half into prepared pan, then arrange one-half of cut strawberries on top. Cover strawberries with remaining batter, then top batter with remaining strawberries. Sprinkle strawberries with a light dusting of sugar and bake 30 minutes. Remove from oven, tent pan with aluminum foil and bake an additional 30 minutes. Times may vary according to your oven; cake is ready when it springs back slightly when lightly pressed in the middle and a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Remove from oven to wire rack and cool completely before serving.

When I was running through the Midtown Farmers Market on Saturday morning, I ran into Robert Skafte. He’s a longtime member of Ballet of the Dolls, an inveterate community garden gardener and now the coordinator of a new south Minneapolis farmers market.

He told me that the Stevens Square Farmers Market is going to make its debut this Wednesday at the corner of Franklin and Nicollet Avs. in south Minneapolis. The market, sponsored by the Stevens Square Community Organization, will meet from 2 to 4 p.m. every Wednesday through Sept. 24.

It’s not a large market by any means; Robert said that it’s limited to just five vendors. But that’s five vendors more than that busy corner had last week, right? If you find yourself in that part of town on Wednesday afternoon, be sure to stop by and check it out.