In the opening passages of “Savory Sweet,” Minnesota author Beth Dooley describes her co-author, photographer and friend Mette Nielsen’s propensity for gardening and farmers markets.

“We cook from different perspectives,” writes Dooley. “Yet share a desire to preserve summer’s bounty.”

Though Dooley is describing the logical jump from harvest to canning, as “we can’t eat everything at once,” she is also describing another very Midwestern sensibility: waste not, want not.

These are the core tenets of Dooley and Nielsen’s new cookbook, “Savory Sweet.” The book is a treatise for preservation, not just in the jams-and-jellies sense but also the preservation of the Nordic traditions that promote “seasonal, healthy, and sustainable food.” Nielsen, who grew up in Denmark and moved to Minneapolis in her early 20s, knows these concepts well.

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