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Other stories in "Spring"

• A new trail and two state parks
  A variety of scenery makes for a great day in southeast Minnesota.
• The mushrooms are coming
  The search is on for the wily morel.
• Miles to ride
  Chances are, there's a great new bicycle trail near you.
• Work for food (and lodgings)
  In spring, do chores or clear a trail and get a free or cheap trip.
• The season's first ship
  For a free trip to Duluth, guess when the first saltie will arrive.
• Without reservation
  If there's a big festival in your future, stake out space as soon as possible.
• Finally, the Bunyan is done
  Last stretch of paving creates a 106-mile trail between Bemidji and Brainerd.
• Good deals
  Grab a Deals in the Dells card at Culver's.
• Blazing a trail
  Like to hike? Then help out your favorite places.
• Gotta have a twist cone
  When the mom-and-pop ice-cream stands open, happy days are here again.
• Planning ahead
  Tour a tall ship, reserve a campsite, find the mother lode.
• Road Trip/Wildflowers in bluff country
  On two sides of the Mississippi, see thousands of lovely blooms in one day.
• Snap up copy of new biking guide
  In Wisconsin, new trails await bicycle tourists.
• Friend us on Facebook
  Watch for cool events and new picture galleries.
• A room in the Zona Romantica
  In a Puerto Vallarta neighborhood, a B&B fosters friendships.
• Guest List/Andrew Slade's Top 5 North Shore campgrounds
  Guest list.

Culinary getaways

On artisan farms, help pick your own dinner, then dine alfresco.

These days, cooking classes have forsaken the classroom for the great outdoors — because that's where good food comes from.

In Minnesota, Scott Pampuch of the Corner Table restaurant in Minneapolis has founded Tour de Farm, which celebrates artisan farmers with a series of outdoors, family-style dinners, each with four or five courses and wine pairings, $150.

On June 27, Pampuch and Michelle Gayer of the Salty Tart will cook at Tangletown Gardens Farm in Plato, just west of the Twin Cities, near Glencoe.

On July 18, John Radle of Grand Cafe in Minneapolis will cook at Cedar Summit Farm in New Prague. On Oct. 10, Scott Graden of Duluth's New Scenic Cafe will cook.

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee-based Braise on the Go is a culinary school that travels all over the state, combining farm, garden and foraging tours with cooking demonstrations using ingredients that are freshly harvested by participants.

In northwest Illinois, Learn Great Foods of Mount Carroll, near Galena, offers culinary retreats, cooking classes, workshops and tours of sustainable farms, wineries, grist mills and bison ranches in the Driftless Area of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. It also has a base in Petoskey, Mich., on the shore of Lake Michigan.

For more about cooking schools, see Now they're cooking.

Last updated on April 8, 2010