I arrived at the home of Pat and David Barker last week for the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation and immediately felt like family. We talked (over cookies) for a good 20 minutes before the topic of our shoot even came up, swapping stories of the babies in our lives (their two week old great granddaughter, my seven month old son), and about their passion for helping homeless youth, which grew out of Pat’s tenure as a high school science teacher, when she discovered how prevalent teenage homelessness is.

I saw this picture as I was packing up after the bulk of our shoot, and had to unpack and take another minute to capture it. I’m so glad I did.

The work I do with nonprofits is so important to my professional life. Not only do I get to meet people who do amazing, selfless work, and help tell compelling stories that the public desperately needs to hear, but also I invariably leave nonprofit projects reinvigorated, both in terms of my photography and my faith in the basic goodness of humanity. I’m in the very lucky position of meeting amazing people like the Barkers on a regular basis. It’s the number one reason I’m a photographer.

Large dice any combination of sweet potatoes, rutabaga, parsnips, potatoes, carrots, onions, and fennel so that you’ve got a nice layer on the bottom of a dutch oven. Toss with olive oil and salt & pepper, and bake at 450 for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, take a few of your favorite sausages, slice, and brown.

After 30 minutes of roasting the veggies, add the sausage and 2 cups of chicken broth, and roast for another 15 minutes. Bam!

As with so many vegetables, cabbage is so beautiful because of the textural contrasts – the smooth, almost waxy outer leaves, and the amazing layers that emerge when you cut in to it. Good stuff.

But this stuff beckoned to me, with its color palette and texture. And while it’s not my favorite, make no mistake: I will eat it. Soon. Probably stewed, with sweet potatoes.

I returned to the studio from Heartland Market with a bulb of fennel, which is fun for its contrasts. The very sturdy and layered bulb gives way to amazingly delicate fronds. I tried to do justice to both identities here.

Many thanks to my friend and photo colleague Mette Nielsen for the prop loaners. So nice to have friends with good taste.

As of this month I’ve taken up part time occupancy of Rat Race Studios in Lowertown St. Paul, a very exciting development for all the possibilities it opens up for new directions and capabilities in my work. And to inaugurate my stay here I’ll be working on a personal project throughout the winter on produce. Because one block from the studio is the heavenly Heartland Restaurant and Farm Direct Market.

Last year I photographed Chef Russo for the Culinary Mistress, and lamented that I didn’t find myself in Lowertown more often to take advantage of the market and deli’s offerings. Now, here I am, practically in their dining room. The Farm Direct Market has beautiful produce, like this red beet.

Stay tuned for my weekly series, and if you follow me on Twitter I’m sure you’ll hear and see a sampling of the Heartland Deli’s sandwiches too.

We had a great time doing laps down Minneapolis’s historic Main Street, Craig on his swank ride, me flat on my belly in the back of my mini van, strobe clamped to the open hatch back, Craig’s friend Hunter doing an admirable driving job not crashing in to Craig or anything else. Best of luck to Craig on his award nominations!

But when duty calls and leaves you a message, you call back. And as it turned out, it led to a couple of firsts for me.

The client was Giggles Campfire Grill, one of my favorite food vendors at the Minnesota State Fair, and they have a new dish for this year’s Great Get Together: Northwoods Salad on a Stick. Here it is, in all its glory:

Giggles wanted to make a splash, following up on the splash they already made this spring, when they were featured on The View; they wanted Salad on a Stick on billboards and bus shelters surrounding the fairgrounds. An unheard of marketing coup for a State Fair food vendor.

Now, like many many Minnesotans, I’m nuts for our State Fair: until recently, with the influx of food trucks in Mpls and St. Paul, the fair was about the only place to stroll and stuff yourself on simple portable foods (one of my favorite food categories). So any opportunity to work in connection with the fair. . . I’m there. Plus, I’d never shot anything for outdoor use. Two birds, one dish on a stick!

Which is how I came to meet Rachel at Gabe’s in the Park (another fine property owned by the Giggles folks) at 9AM on a Sunday. We set up in their game room, Sunday morning gospel on the sound system, beautiful salad on our minds. Here are a couple behind the scenes snaps of the glamour:

If you’re on the University of Minnesota campus, or driving south on Snelling in the vicinity of the fair, keep your eyes peeled for the billboard and bus shelters. And it goes without saying that you should get yourself a nice, healthy salad on a stick this year at the fair!

Out Styling in the Field – Images by Chris Bohnhoff

The oppressive temperatures were defeated by Rachel and Anna’s chilled dishes: fried polenta squares with savory tomato relish and onion straw, peach and tomato salad, raw corn chowder, basil and lime sorbet, chilled pork roast with arugula and mustard sauce, chocolate truffle cake – topped off with a homemade limoncello. All delicious, and beautiful wildflowers and place settings to compliment the rustic backdrop. Great times, and beautiful and delicious food.

Ahhh, summer! Thanks so much to Rachel and Anna for including me in the good times and artistry.

1. You like to cook.
2. Chemistry holds some appeal.
3. You’re pretty sure drinking beer is fun.

Find a friend with overlapping interests, and you’re in business.

Conor Lawrence and the gang at 514 Studios/Callahan & Co. have been brewing for longer than I have, and for years they’ve been brewing up a house recipe – Dirty Larry Brown – giving bottles away to clients and friends. When Conor told me the story of Dirty Larry Brown over coffee recently, I thought it would make for a fun photo shoot, documenting the making of a signature calling card of their business, while at the same time giving a sense of 514 Studios as a place. And a project was born.

Home Brewing at 514 Studios – Images by Chris Bohnhoff

(hover over images for occasional captions)

If you’re unfamiliar with the beer brewing process, it’s a pretty simple deal. The alcohol is created by taking the sugars from roasted and dried barley and other grains, boiling them in water for an hour or so with hops for bitterness and floral taste and smell characteristics, then cooling it down to room temperature and storing it for a while with some special yeast. The yeast eats the sugar and releases alcohol. Voila!

Of course there are countless variations of grains, hop varieties, and yeast strains to choose from – not to mention enough gear to keep any guy with his face in a Northern Brewer catalog for hours at a time. And for the OCD crowd, there’s the lingering danger that one small bacteria could get by your fastidious cleaning routine and skunk the whole 5 gallon batch. Ask any home brewer about any one of these nuances and you’re liable to be roped in to an hour and a half conversation. With any luck you’ll get a beer or two out of the deal, but just be warned.

In the brew pot the day I swung by was a recipe by the name of Ferocious, modeled after a certain aggressive local IPA favorite. The beer called for what some might consider a ridiculous number of hops, which Conor models in a few photos in the gallery. But the fun – and my favorite photos from the shoot, from a brewer’s perspective – came when it was time to transfer the wort (the raw liquid that will be beer after it ferments for a while) from the boil kettle to the carboy. Since there are always hops and other things in the wort, the boil kettle has a screen over the spigot to keep the non-liquids out of the carboy. But our boy Ferocious had so many hops that it clogged the screen and wouldn’t let any liquid through. Problems. So then Conor and his friend Dave tried bypassing the spigot and pouring through a strainer and in to a funnel. Then that clogged! Finally, other options defeated, the rest of the whole hoppy stew was poured straight in to the carboy.

And you know what? It’ll be delicious.

Thanks to Conor and Dave for sharing space, time, and brews. Looking forward to bottling.