Heidi Grika knows exactly what pushes her customers' buying impulses. "I think they appreciate that everything we sell is traditional; it's tied to the land," she said. It sure is. At her Birchberry Native American Crafts stand, Grika stocks an eye-catching array of products sourced from the White Earth Land Recovery Project on northern Minnesota's White Earth Indian Reservation. There's stew-friendly dried hominy and white flint corn, a marvelously fragrant maple syrup and beautiful wild rice, sold as is or incorporated into soup, cereal and pancake mixes. My favorite: a tangy maple vinaigrette, a perfect complement to spring greens.
RICK NELSON
Mill City Farmers Market, 2nd St. and Chicago Av. S., Minneapolis, 612-341-7580, www.millcityfarmersmarket.com. Open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. For a complete list of Twin Cities farmers markets, go to www.startribune.com/taste.
