"This isn't rocket science," said Laurie Pyle with a laugh, as she gestured at the temptations spread out across her Cocoa & Fig stand. "It's just the best ingredients we can find, used simply." Still, that not-so-secret formula is working wonders at her weekend enterprise, a meet-the-public branch of the new catering business she owns with partner Joe Lin. In just a few short weeks, the couple have developed a devoted following at the Prior Lake Farmers Market, selling an eye-catching array of sweets (fruit-packed muffins, ultra-moist cork-shaped brownies, chewy sandwich cookies, gorgeous fruit tarts, pretty vanilla-bean cupcakes) and savories (Cheddar scones, single-serving quiches). Pyle sources locally when she can: a flaky tart's rhubarb was plucked from her parents' Prior Lake back yard, and a neighboring vendor, Mike and Linda Noble's Farm on Wheels, supplied the pork sausages in the lovely pepper-mushroom quiches (at right). "Catering can be mysterious," said Pyle. "So we love the idea of being here at the market, meeting people and showing them what we can do."
RICK NELSON
Cocoa & Fig is at the Prior Lake Farmers Market on Saturdays (8 a.m. to noon, Hwy. 13 and Pleasant Av., priorlakefarmersmarket.com) and the City of White Bear Lake Farmers Market on Fridays (8 a.m. to noon, www.down townwhitebearlake.com/events.htm). For a complete list of Twin Cities farmers markets, go to startribune.com/taste.
