Although the only reason anyone needs to visit the Minnesota State Fair is a hankering for a corn dog, here’s a great one for anyone looking for an excuse to play hooky on Tuesday: It’s Minnesota Cooks Day at the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

From 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., a long list of chefs from Minnesota restaurants will be strutting their stuff - and showing off locally raised ingredients from Minnesota farmers - at Carousel Park. Another reason to visit: You can pick up a copy of the 2008-2009 Minnesota Cooks Calendar, always a memorable state fair souvenir. Oh, and it’s free (well, you have to pay the fair’s admission price at the gate, but after that it’s free).

Here’s the lineup:

8:30 a.m.
Tracy Singleton and Marshall Paulsen of the Birchwood Cafe, with Annette Gilbertson of Gilbertson Farms: Omelet with wild-rice sausage
Dick Trotter of Trotter’s Cafe , with Mike Dekarski of Apple Jack Orchards: Maple cornmeal pancakes with lemon curd and fresh raspberries

10 a.m.
Nathalie Johnson from Signature Cafe, with Chris Sandwick from Pepin Heights Orchard: Apple cider-scented chicken with fresh vegetable slaw.
Nick Schneider of Cafe Brenda, with Dave Massey of Northwoods Organics: Roasted eggplant salsa with pita chips

11 a.m.
Lucia Watson of Lucia’s Restaurant, with Lisa and Eric Klein of Hidden Streams Farm: Spinach fennel pesto.
Mike Phillips of the Craftsman, with the Kleins: charcuterie

Noon
J.D. Fratzke of the Strip Club, with Todd Churchill of Thousand Hills Cattle Co.: Swedish meat balls
Alex Roberts of Restaurant Alma, with Dave and Florence Minar, Cedar Summit Farm: Creamed-corn corn bread with slow-cooked red beans

1 p.m.
Jorge Guzman, Tejas, with Brian and Leslie Axdahl of Axdahl’s Farms: Tomato and crab salad
Ann Christoforides, Gardens of Salonica, with the Axdahls: Braised chicken with okra

2 p.m.
Judi Barsness of Chez Jude, with Gary Pahl of Pahl’s Farm: Lake Superior whitefish with Meyer lemon butter
Donna Lovett of Marriott City Center, with the Pahls: Ratatouille in a roasted acorn squash

3 p.m.
JP Samuelson of jP American Bistro, with Charlie Johnson of Whistling Well Farm: Butternut squash creme brulee
Peter Ravinski and Jillian Forte of Chester Creek Cafe, with Johnson: roasted chicken and grilled plum salad

4 p.m.
Brian Hauke of Red Stag Supperclub with Don and Bev Struxness of Double D Natural Meats: Liver and onions
Jeff Klemetsrud of Savories Bistro, with Jim and LeeAnn VanDerPol: Pepito-crusted pork

We had BLTs for lunch today.

Heaven.

This morning I picked up a big-old heirloom tomato at the Loon Organics stand at the Mill City Farmers Market. That’s the secret to a mind-blowing BLT: A fantastic tomato. I paid $4.50 for it, and it was worth every sheckle. I mean, look at it:

Then I made sure that I got all of my other ingredients in order. I fried up some Nueske’s bacon: thick, smoky, salty, divinely porky. I toasted some of the dense Mediterranean White sandwich bread from A Toast To Bread, which I picked up at Mississippi Market (I should have visited the St. Paul Farmers Market this morning, but I got lazy and didn’t want to make the drive to downtown St. Paul). I washed some of the fine salad greens from my CSA box from Burning River Farm. I ferreted the jar of Hellmann’s mayo out from the back of the refrigerator. Then I put a knife to that awe-inspiring tomato.

Add a tall stack of greens, three or four slices of barely crisp bacon, and both inner sides of the sandwich liberally swiped with mayo, and there it was: August lunchtime perfection, if I do say so myself. The bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich; is there a better combo? Certainly not during Minnesota’s all-too-brief tomato season.

Three minutes of prep time, 30 minutes in the oven and voila: a great-looking (and great-tasting) dessert.

A few weeks ago when I was at the Maple Grove Farmers Market, I chatted with Amy Goetz, the hard-working baker behind Bramblewood Cottage. If you’ve not tried her shortbreads and scones, then you’re missing out. They’re the real deal.

Anyway, she mentioned that she had been tinkering with various ways to boost sales, one of which was using her shortbread cookies as a tart crust. She had even tested a few recipes, and would I like to see them? Sure. I mean, if General Mills can employ a battery of test kitchen workers to find new uses for their products (Surprise Cupcake Cones, anyone?), why can’t Amy Goetz? Turns out she’s even packaged some of her lemon shortbread cookies ($8) specifically for use as tart crusts, so I bought a package and there it sat in my kitchen for a few weeks.

Goetz’s new tart-friendly packaging.

So last week, when I was shopping at the Summit Avenue branch of the St. Paul Farmers Market, I spied some super-plump raspberries, and that package of shortbread cookies sprang to mind. Time to bake, I thought.

It was the easiest dessert, ever. Truly, Betty Crocker couldn’t improve on this winning formula, which requires three minutes (tops) of pre-oven labor and results in a lovely tart that looks as if you did some serious fussing. The crushed cookies baked into a firm but not crisp crust, which was perfect, and their faint lemon flavor was just the right flavor accent against those delicious raspberries. I bet it would work very well with blueberries. Goetz’s lavender ginger shortbread cookies have lots of tart-crust potential, don’t you think?

I made one change in the recipe: I greased the bottom and sides of the tart pan with lots of butter. It made the tart easier to serve, and I think the butter gave the cookie crust a little extra something in terms of texture and flavor.

My recommendation: keep a few packages of Amy’s shortbread cookies on hand for when you need to produce a fast and impressive dessert. Just don’t try this with Lorna Doones. Oh, Bramblewood Cottage products are also available at the Mill City Farmers Market as well as at Kowalski’s Markets, the Bibelot Shops and Surdyk’s. Here’s the recipe:

FRESH BERRY TART WITH LEMON SHORTBREAD CRUST
Serves 8.
Note: Adapted from Amy Goetz, owner of Bramblewood Cottage

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature, for tart pan
8 Bramblewood Lemon Shortbread cookies, crushed
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
3 c. berries, washed, picked over and stemmed if necessary
1/2 tsp. freshly minced thyme or basil, optional
Freshly whipped cream or ice cream for serving

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease bottom and sides of an 8-inch tart pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, crush cookies. Press crushed cookies an even layer on bottom and sides of tart pan; refrigerate until needed. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch and 2 cups berries (and thyme or basil, if using). Mash lightly with a fork. Pour berry mixture into prepared crust, then scatter remaining 1 cup berries on top of berry mixture. Bake for 30 minutes, or until berries are bubbly. Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Serve at room temperature (or refrigerated), with fresh whipped cream or ice cream.

Goetz also created a chevre-cream cheese tart. Here’s the recipe:

CHEVRE TART WITH LAVENDER-GINGER SHORTBREAD CRUST
Serves 8.
Note: This recipe must be prepared in advance. From Amy Goetz of Bramblewood Cottage. Goetz prefers Stickney Hill Dairy chevre, produced in Kimball, Minn.

8 oz. Bramblewood Cottage lavender-ginger shortbread cookies, crushed
8 oz. chevre, at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg
1 tsp. freshly grated lemon zest
Pinch kosher salt
2 egg yolks
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. flour
1/4 c. heavy whipping cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Fill a baking pan with water and place on oven’s lower rack; this will create steam and help prevent cracks from developing in tart. Line 10″ springform pan with parchment paper. Firmly press crushed cookies into bottom of pan and push up sides. Refrigerate until needed. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat chevre and cream cheese together until well-combined. Using a paring knife, split vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape seeds into cheese mixture (reserving pod for future use). Add nutmeg, lemon zest and salt and mix until just incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed; do not overmix. Add egg yolks, sugar and flour, mixing until just incorporated. Slowly pour in cream, scraping down sides of bowl, until cream is just incorporated. Pour batter into prepared crust, Place tart pan on rack directly above pan of water and bake, 35 to 38 minutes, until center no longer moves. Do not overbake or brown; tart should be slightly underdone. Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Wrap tart in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight.

Saturday is the day for garlic lovers: the third annual Minnesota Garlic Festival is going to hit the Wright County Fairgrounds in Howard Lake, starting at 10 a.m. and going to 7 p.m. The fairgrounds about an hour west of downtown Minneapolis.

Naturally, the fair features all kinds of garlic raised by Minnesota growers, including Dakota Garlic, Joel Girardin, Living Song Gardens, Hawk’s Brain Garlic, Sunfresh Foods, Coffman Garlic, Hixton Blue Collar Cafe and Earth Star Farms.

There’s also lots of food, games, kids’ activities, live entertainment and a full schedule of cooking demonstrations from Minneapolis chefs, including talent from the Modern Cafe, Lucia’s Restaurant, Birchwood Cafe and Common Roots Cafe and more.

Other events include master gardener talks, an appearance by Minnesota author Catherine Friend (who will read from her new book “The Compassionate Carnivore“), all-ages yoga and belly dancing classes and more.

Sounds like a good time. Danny Schwartzman, owner of Common Roots Cafe, seems to think so.

“I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to see local food in a completely different setting,” he said. “There are going to be a lot of farmers there, celebrating a local food item that we don’t celebrate enough.”

Save gasoline by taking the Garlic Express to the festival: The bus leaves the Mill City Farmers Market at 10:15 a.m. and returns at 5:45 p.m. Cost is $12 for kids and $17 for adults.

A close-up of some of Marvel’s strawberries.

A few days after my daytrip to Sam’s Produce, the strawberry U-pick farm in Arkansaw, Wis., my picking partner Marvel sent an email bearing this message in the subject line: “Strawberry lemonade from my bartender. . .Johnny.”

That would be Johnny Michaels, the head bartender at La Belle Vie, the deluxe Minneapolis restaurant and lounge located in the patrician 510 Groveland building, which is downstairs from Marvel’s apartment. Marvel’s version of Johnny’s recipe was more of a sketch than a roadmap, so I called him and asked for a few particulars.

(When I asked him how he described what he does, he said, “You can call me the bar manager, or head bartender. I know ‘mixologist’ is the most commonly used term these days, but I just don’t like it. I consider myself a drinkmaker. When I say I’m a mixologist, it sounds ham-fisted.”)

I mentioned Marvel and her strawberries, and he signed. “What a bonanza,” he said. “That was super-nice of her.”

Then I asked about the drink. He calls it the Blonde Bombshell.

“You’re basically making a fresh strawberry-sweet-and-sour,” he said. “At work I make my own lemon concentrate, it’s a 50/50 mix of fresh lemon juice and simple syrup. Then you make a 50/50 mix of strawberry juice-lemon concentrate. You juice the strawberries, and because they will vary in flavor and ripeness, you need to taste and adjust for sweetness, adding more strawberry juice or more sweet-and-sour. For a cocktail, it’s half gin, half strawberry-sweet and sour. Shake it gently over ice, just a couple of a quick shakes, not too hard. Pour that into a glass, with the same ice you shook it with, add a sliced strawberry and a lemon wheel. People love it.”

He also suggested a little egg white. “It’s optional,” Michaels said. “It’s an old-time bartender thing, it gives the drink a bit of a foam, a little mouth feel. Just a little bit of egg white will do. Start with a teaspoon. Egg whites are tricky, it depends upon how fresh they are. You can whip them just a bit with a fork to loosen the strands.” [Note: I would suggest using a pasteurized egg white.]

This is what Michaels had to say on the subject of gin: “I think a softer gin, something like Bombay Sapphire, works better than some of the more pronounced juniper gins like Beefeater. But Gordon’s would work fine as well. You can use the best, that’s totally cool, but since you’re essentially covering the taste of the gin, this drink is a good opportunity to use Gordon’s. It’s cost-effective, and it’s a good gin.”

For an alcohol-free strawberry lemonade, Michaels suggests skipping the gin (and the cocktail shaker) and using chilled soda instead, following a 70/30 or 75/25 soda/strawberry sweet-and-sour ratio in a tall glass filled with ice. “Chilled soda keeps its carbonation longer,” said Michaels. “Pour the soda in first, then add the strawberry mix, it foams up a little less that way.”

Marvel prefers her Blonde Bombshell with gin, thank you very much. “Very refreshing,” she noted. Michaels agrees. “It’s just one of those simple, really good drinks,” he said. “Sometimes I like to try things where the flavors are complex, but I really get off on the simple beautiful ones like this one, too. It’s all about the early season strawberry flavor. This drink has maybe a couple weeks left. By August it will be time to move on to something different.”

BLONDE BOMBSHELL
Makes 1 drink.
Note: This recipe must be prepared in advance. From Johnny Michaels, head bartender at La Belle Vie in Minneapolis.

Fresh strawberries, stems removed
Freshly sqeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 c. superfine sugar
Water
Chilled soda water
Ice
Gin
Egg whites, optional

Directions
To make simple syrup: In a small saucepan over high heat, combine 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar and 1 cup water and gently simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool completely; refrigerate in a tightly sealed jar for up to two weeks.
To make sweet-and-sour: In a small pitcher, combine equal parts simple syrup and lemon juice. Stir, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
To make drink: In a blender or juicer, juice berries. Strain juice through a fine-mesh strainer, discarding seeds. Pour juice into a pitcher. When ready to serve, combine equal parts strawberry juice and sweet-and-sour. For a non-alcoholic drink, fill tall glasses with ice. Fill 3/4 of glass with chilled soda. Combine equal parts strawberry juice and sweet-and-sour (tasting and adjusting for sweetness) and top soda with strawberry mixture. Garnish with strawberry and lemon slices and serve. For a cocktail, combine a 50/50 ratio of gin and strawberry sweet-and-sour mixture (and 1 teaspoon egg white, optional) into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake gently a few times, pour cocktail and ice into a tall glass, garnish with strawberry and lemon slices and serve.

After spending a few hours on my hands and knees at Sam’s Produce in Arkansaw, Wis., I am convinced that everyone should incorporate strawberry picking into their schedule.

When my friend Mary Anne emailed with an offer to join her and a few pals at their favorite strawberry U-pick, I jumped at the invitation. When she mentioned, in a subsequent message, that we would be congregating at her place at 7 a.m., I briefly reconsidered. I live in St. Paul, and Mary Anne lives 80 miles to the southeast on a fairytale-setting farm in Maiden Rock, Wis. The prospect of hitting the road by 5:30 a.m. was a bit daunting, but I decided to tap my inner Morning Person and get with the program.

I don’t know who was more surprised: Me, when I discovered the loveliness of the post-dawn world, or Mary Anne, when I drove up her gravel driveway at precisely 7 a.m. Marvel was already at the farm, and Terry was right behind me. (She and her husband John run nearby Rush River Produce, a blueberry farm that belongs at the top of any U-picker’s summer itinerary).

We climbed in Mary Anne’s car and headed up and down hilly country roads until we passed through the tiny town of Arkansaw and into the wide, verdant expanse of the Chippewa River valley. Potato fields spread out in every direction as far as my eye could see. Mary Anne took a left, and suddenly we were there.

The sign to watch for in Arkansaw, Wis.

Another surprise. There were at least 50 cars lined up along what turned out is the farm’s strawberry patch; laid end to end it would cover the equivalent of about seven football fields. It was quite a crowd, considering it was the farm’s first day of the season and the gates had opened just 20 minutes earlier. Such is the allure of the fresh-picked strawberry.

People love their strawberries. The farm had been open for a half-hour when I snapped this picture. There were an equal number of pickers working behind me.

We got right down to it. A friendly attendant pointed us toward one of the long rows and we were off. In my shorts and white shirt I was obviously a first-timer, and within two minutes I regretted my sartorial selections. First, sitting with my bare knees grinding into dry mulch was not an ideal way to spend a morning; I sacrificed my favorite sweatshirt for the cause. Second, within 15 minutes my shirt was streaked with pink strawberry juice. Oh well, I’ve never much liked it anyway. Memo to self: Next time, wear jeans and a dark T-shirt.

My handiwork, after about five minutes of picking (and sampling).

Picking quickly evolved into serious business. Mary Anne pointed out that one of the farm’s many assets is the surrounding landscape. “You can see weather approaching from a long ways away,” she said. “One morning we watched a storm approaching, but did that stop us from picking? No.”

Mary Anne turned out to be a strawberry picking machine. When I patted myself on the back for filling a tray to overflowing, I glanced over and saw that Mary Anne was putting the finishing touches on her second box. Marvel’s box was barely half-full. “I’m not going for quantity, I’m going for quality,” said Marvel. “You just keep telling yourself that,” was Mary Anne’s response.

Marvel, hard at work.

There’s lots of sampling, too. Each sweet, sun-dappled bite usually sent a gusher of juice running down my chin. You can’t help but overhear conversations among your fellow pickers.

Mary Anne takes a breather to take a bite.

“How many have you already had?” asked one woman. “Seven,” was her friend’s reply. “No, eight,” she said, popping another in her mouth. I looked up and saw that she was smiling and her eyes were closed, her face lit up in a strawberry-induced revery. Terry, who knows a thing or two about U-pick rituals, looked at me and smiled. “You have to taste,” she said. “That’s the best part of berry picking.”

Like everyone else at this beautiful farm, Terry has lots to smile about.

Just then Mary Anne stood up and groaned. “This used to be easier,” she said with a laugh. I knew just what she meant. My knees and ankles were complaining; I really need to get to yoga more often. “The spirit is willing,” said Terry with a laugh. “It’s the knees that are weak.”

As I picked I also gleaned a few tips. Look for the smallest, reddest berries, which means steering clear of berries with white tips. “You know you’ve got a perfect one when you hear a ‘pop’ as you pull them off,” said Terry. “That’s the sound you’re listening for.”

As time passed, the cloudless sky becomes bluer, a slight breeze moved across the rows and the pickers who seemed so far away when we started suddenly picked their way to within yards of my position. A large group of Mennonite woman arrived, dressed in long, plain dresses and starched white bonnets. I noticed that one of them was carrying an infant, dressed in a miniature version of its mother, the same long dress, the same white bonnet.

Mary Anne suggested we start in a new row, and when I saw what she’d accomplished - nearly three overflowing flats, I was awash in picker’s envy. Roughly two hours had passed in a flash, and I was ready to call it quits, having filled two flats to overflowing. “It’s amazing what you can do if you get up early,” said Terry.

We loaded up the back of the car and drove to the checkout garage, where several friendly teenagers helped carry our haul to the scale. My take: 26 pounds. At $1.25 per pound, that worked out to $28.75. I wrote out a check. A personal check! I was momentarily propelled back to the late 1980s, when everyone everywhere wrote and accepted checks.

Part of what the four of us took with us when we left Sam’s Produce.

No garage has ever smelled so good, due to a long table topped with containers of various sizes, all filled with fragrant, fresh-picked berries. The prices seem very reasonable: $3.50 for a quart, $13.50 for a gallon, $26 for a flat.

I spoke briefly with co-owner Dan Sam. He and his wife Tammy have been raising strawberries for about 15 years. Their farm started small, about a quarter of an acre, and mushroomed to its present 7 1/2 acre field. The cool, wet spring meant a slow start to the season, Sam explained, then gestured to the pickers fanned out across the field. “They’ve all been waiting,” he said. “Pent-up demand.”

(Sam’s Produce doesn’t have a website; the address is W7272 Cty. Rd. P, Arkansaw, Wis. Phone is 715-285-5351.)

The car was weighed down with 125-plus pounds of strawberries, their scent wrapping around me like a shawl. Terry carefully rested a flat on her lap. “Oh happiness,” she said as she popped one tiny, ruby-red berry into her mouth after another. “It’s amazing what Mother Natures gives us, isn’t it?”

It was time for me to ask the question I’d been thinking about since before we arrived: What was everyone planning to do with their treasure?

Mary Anne went first: “A fresh berry pie, definitely,” she said. “Lots of fresh eating, too. But most will go into strawberry jam. I buy Sure.Jell, a pectin. The old way is too much of a mess for me, and this method (see recipe below) is delicious; it just disappears from my house. We’ll also freeze a lot, and pull them out for smoothies in the winter, a little banana, some frozen strawberries, some frozen bananas and some yogurt, and it’s a power-packed morning.”

Then it was Terry’s turn: “I’ll make jam,” she said. “But we’ll eat a lot, too; I bought two quarts of cream yesterday in anticipation. I’ll get some to neighborhood shut-ins. And I’ll freeze them, because there’s nothing like the smell of cooking strawberries in January, when it’s bleak outside and that aroma of summer just fills the kitchen.” I asked how she freezed them. “I pull the caps off and toss them in a big bowl. I toss them with a half-cup of sugar then spoon them into Ziploc gallon freezer bags and freeze them.”

Marvel was up next. “I’m going to eat as many as I can, and I’m going to make strawberry vodka,” she said. “Then I’ll bring the rest to friends. I think I’ll bring some back to Johnny, the bartender at La Belle Vie. He just adores strawberries.”

We all had strawberries on the brain for the next few days. Mary Anne was in town later that week, and when she dropped for dinner by she left a jar of her jam. Delicious. Here’s how she made it.

THIRTY MINUTES TO HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY JAM
Makes 5 cups.
Note: This recipe must be prepared in advance. From kraftfoods.com.

1 qt. ripe strawberries, stems removed, divided
4 c. sugar
3/4 c. water
1 box Sure.Jell fruit pectin

Directions
Rinse 5 1-cup containers in boiling water and set aside. In a large bowl, crush strawberries, 1 cup at a time. Measure exactly 2 cups crushed berries into a large bowl. Stir in sugar and let stand 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a small saucepan over high heat, combine water and pectin and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring for 1 minute. Add water-pectin mixture to fruit mixture and stir 3 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy (a few sugar crystals may remain). Immediately fill all five containers to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers and immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Jam can then be used, stored in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks or frozen for up to 1 year; thaw in refrigerator before using.