Jennifer Olson is living the dream, tapping into her top two interests: photography and food. Although she'd been working in the restaurant trade, she had a degree in photography and was always shooting pictures. After she helped Jennifer Jasinski and Beth Gruitch-Verucchi open the successful restaurant Rioja in Larimer Square a few years ago, she came to a life-changing decision.

"We worked so hard to open Rioja and it was such a rush. And when that whole rush was over, I thought, 'If these girls could make their dreams come true, why can't I?' "

She decided to use her skills to develop a cookbook. But short of using her talents as a photographer, she had to decide exactly what kind of cookbook she wanted to produce. The answer: Olson's Colorado Organic: Cooking Seasonally, Eating Locally, with text by Cecily Cullen and Mindy Sink. It's $34.95 at the Tattered Cover, the Boulder Bookstore, Peppercorn and seasonalandlocal.com. The beautifully photographed book celebrates Colorado restaurants and farmers.

"I love Potager, I love The Kitchen, and it was really important to me to have the book encompass what's in season and what's available at the time," she says.

The seasonal, local angle is, of course, very timely.

"I have so much respect for the farmers and their relationships with restaurateurs," Olson says. "I thought it would be nice to bring all this information together and showcase the farmers because, without them, it wouldn't be possible."

You'll find sweet portraits of farmers such as Adam and Allison Klaus of Bella Farm, in Paonia, with their two tots; and Cindy, Jay, Jennifer and Megan Wisdom, of Wisdom's Natural Poultry, in Haxtun. Also included are chef profiles of some of the better-known names in Denver, including Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson of Frasca and, coincidentally, some of the current James Beard nominees, including Mark Fischer of Restaurant six89 and Yasmin Lozada-Hissom (and her husband, John Broening) of Duo.

The cookbook is organized by season. "I'd like people to understand buying fresh food can be fun. It's doable and accessible, and people don't realize how good fresh peas are, or a tomato, or an artichoke, in season. I hope people will have a little more appreciation for how small farmers put a lot of love into this."

Needless to say, because it's a cookbook, you'll find recipes from the chefs celebrating the season's bounty, including the one from Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson of Frasca on 13.

* Part of eating local and seasonally is eating greener - organic, environmentally friendly foods. Consumer research from Mintel found that the economy is starting to affect the move toward living greener, not only in food but in household products. The portion of Americans who say they almost always or regularly buy green products, 36 percent, remains flat since last year. That follows a tripling of green-thinking consumers from 2007 to 2008.

No surprise that consumers are more interested in price than in organics or environmentally friendly foods and products. Mintel's survey found that the majority of adults are willing to pay only a little extra for green products and that they consider organics still too expensive.

Mintel expects green products such as environmentally friendly cleaners to perform well in the future. But organics, considered the mature area of the green movement, are expected to experience slow, steady growth in the next five years.