austin farmer's market republic sq park / 422 guadalupe saturdays 9-1 http://www.austinfarmersmarket.org/ fm-afm-foods-by-season.pdf pears, honey, figs?, flowers boggy creek farm 3414 lyons wednesday and saturday 9-2 austin's historic farmers' market (travis county fm?) 6701 burnet daily 9-6? south austin farmers' market 2901 s congress / el gallo parking lot saturday 8-1 http://www.austinfarm.org/homegrown/austinfm.html http://www.austinfarm.org/safm/ westlake farmers' market 4100 westbank / westlake high parking lot saturday 10-1 barsana orchards http://www.barsanaorchards.com/ $1.90 per pound; pick yourself SPINACH December through April CABBAGE January through April ASPARAGUS January through May CARROTS January through May ONIONS fresh pulled, February through June GREENS October through May STRAWBERRIES April BLACKBERRIES May into July POTATOES fresh dug, April through May GREEN BEANS May through June Summer SQUASH May through June Winter SQUASH September through December TOMATOES late May through July, October through November Southern PEAS June through November EGGPLANT June through October OKRA June through October CANTALOUPE June through October WATERMELON July through October Tree Fruits PEACHES May through July PLUMS May through June NECTARINES May through June PEARS August through October PERSIMMONS October-November FIGS July & August The Peach Tree Gift Gallery & Tea Room (29) 210 S. Adams, Fredericksburg, 830/997-9527 Mon-Sat, 11am-2:30pm The Peach Tree has been our most consistent favorite dining spot in Fredericksburg since Hector and Cynthia Pedregon opened it in 1984. Though the menu changes daily, patrons can count on finding light, flavorful dishes expertly prepared and beautifully served. Save room for the excellent desserts, including the decadent Coffee Ice Cream Pie ($3.75) with hot fudge, praline, or fresh strawberry sauce. Many of the recipes can be found in their self-published Peach Tree Tea Room Cookbook and Peach Tree Family Cookbook, for sale in the store. Barbecue, Biscuits & Beans: Chuckwagon Cooking by Bill Cauble & Cliff Teinert (Bright Sky Press, $24.95) Cowboy author Cliff Teinert made quite a dramatic entrance at the "Bon Appetit, Y'all" book party during the recent Texas Book Festival. Teinert's appearance was such a huge hit because he's so obviously the genuine article. The engaging recipes in this book, and the ranching, catering West Texas cowboys who've shared them, are as authentic as they come. A must-have for anyone interested in Texas culinary history and regional cooking. Award-winning cookbook author Deborah Madison will be in Austin, Aug. 3-6, to promote her newest book, Local Flavors: Cooking & Eating From America's Farmers' Markets (Broadway Books, $39.95). It chronicles the resurgence of farmers' markets across the country and celebrates cooking with fresh produce, as well as developing an invaluable connection to the land and the people who actually grow our food. With the 2003 advent of The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations From Two Great Southern Cooks (Knopf, $29.95) seven years in the making, there's been much curious press coverage about this odd couple of Southern cuisine. Edna Lewis is an elderly African-American chef and cookbook author from Virginia, a grandchild of slaves who became revered as the bohemian and formidable chef at Cafe Nicholson and Gage & Tollner in New York. Scott Peacock is a young white man from Alabama, formerly a chef at the Georgia governor's mansion and currently acclaimed at Watershed restaurant in Atlanta. First professional colleagues, then collaborators and energetic proponents of classic Southern cooking, their friendship has developed into a mutually devoted familial relationship, with Peacock taking the increasingly frail 87-year-old Lewis to live with him, assuming the role of her protector and caretaker. Out of this gentle and powerful relationship has emerged a quietly joyful, beautifully produced book of Southern recipes that encompasses traditions from both of the authors' backgrounds, as well as from their research into the breadth and depth of the foods of the American South. The recipes are peppered with useful cooking techniques and contextual foodways, and the volume is generously larded with gorgeous photos. The voice in the writing is that of Peacock, but the stories, recipes, and philosophy reflect the history and palates of both authors; the collaborative result is a book full of grace, informed creativity, and above all, flavor. Particularly now, just as the bounty of summer crops are coming on, this Southern sensibility and these simple but sophisticated recipes really resonate for me. My farmers' market supper tonight of tomato aspic, fluffy corn fritters, and creamed scallions constituted a happy prelude to a lot more cooking from this lovely book. Potsticker Chronicles: America's Favorite Chinese Recipes by Stuart Chang Berman John Wiley & Sons, 274 pp., $27.50 The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes From the Texas Hill Country's Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe by Rebecca Rather with Alison Oresman Ten Speed Press, 240 pp., $29.95