The lilac-tinted cauliflower at the Tiny Planet Produce stand was something of an agricultural accident. A happy one. "We were going for the full purple variety, but this is what we got," said co-owner Benjamin Hopper with a laugh. "The color might not be what we expected, but it tastes great."

It sure does. Turns out the farm near St. Croix Falls, Wis., cultivates a veritable rainbow of eye-catching cauliflowers. Last Sunday's colorful selection also included Cheddar (orange) and Panther (lime green), and the farm's Fremont and Snow Crown (white) varieties should be reaching maturity any day now.

From lemon cucumbers and Costata Romanesco zucchini to watermelon radishes and torpedo onions, farmers Benjamin and Andrea Hopper and July Rauls specialize in off-the-beaten-path vegetables that visually stand out among their garden-variety farmers market brethren. (I'm looking forward to trying their Country Lou tomatoes, a breed of their own making.) With heirlooms this pretty, I'll bet that opening the farm's weekly CSA boxes (pro-rated summer shares are still available, and the trio plans to offer an autumn share program for onions, potatoes and other storage crops) has a Christmas-in-July vibe.

Hopper said that they have a typically busy week ahead of them at the farm: Another half-acre round of cauliflower is going into the ground for fall harvest and, because the 17-acre spread is a chemical- and pesticide-free zone, there's plenty of weeding. "Having all this rain has been nice," he said. "For us, the big thing is water, and rain means not having to irrigate. The downside is that the weeds are out of control."

RICK NELSON

Cauliflower ($3 per quart) at Tiny Planet Produce (www.tinyplanetproduce.com) at the Kingfield Farmers Market, 43rd Street and Nicollet Avenue S., Mpls., www.kingfieldfarmersmarket.org. Open 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. For cauliflower recipes -- and a listing of this weekend's farmers market events -- go to Startribune.com/tabletalk. For a map of Twin Cities metro-area farmers markets, go to Startribune.com/taste.