St. Paul, Minn. — Foods like squash, cranberries, potatoes and whole wheat rolls will fill the tables of many of our Thanksgiving dinners. Those foods are all seasonal staples of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.

Local food writer Beth Dooley's new cookbook focuses on helping people eat those seasonal foods all year long. Her book, "The Northern Heartland Kitchen," guides readers through our region's long, cold winters to our warm summers. Dooley spoke with MPR's Morning Edition to share a few of her recipes and talk about the challenges of eating locally in the Upper Midwest.

Cathy Wurzer:What's different about eating locally and seasonally in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, versus other parts of the country?

Beth Dooley: We have a few more challenges because our growing season is so short. But the blessing is we also are the center for fabulous meats, wonderful heritage, dairy products. We have cheese makers that come from long traditions of cheese making. We have a lot of the root vegetables that store beautifully through the year. In fact, there are varieties of carrots that actually taste better after they've been in storage and their carbohydrates have sweetened, and those aren't released at least until February when they're at their peak. So we really do benefit from a lot of great stuff that we ship out to the rest of the country but I think we need to appreciate here.