Teams with an abundance of salary-cap room first look to invest in their own players. It’s always more sound to build from within than to chase veterans in free agency, where teams wind up overpaying for players who, in many cases, are available for a reason.

The Chicago Bears head into a seismic offseason with a healthy cap situation. They have the eighth-most “effective cap space,” according to overthecap.com, at $36.6 million. Effective cap space takes into account where a team will be after it has met what’s called the “Rule of 51,” for offseason bookkeeping purposes, and signed its projected rookie class. For the Bears, that includes the first and ninth picks in the draft.

The Bears’ figure is expected to rise. Releasing free safety Eddie Jackson and offensive lineman Cody Whitehair would create an additional $21 million in cap room. So general manager Ryan Poles has more than enough flexibility to accomplish his goals for the next phase of roster construction.

That process figures to begin with negotiations to retain cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who was voted to the Pro Bowl Games and was a second-team All-Pro after a banner season that included a career-high four interceptions.

“Jaylon’s not going to go anywhere,” Poles said last week, a sure sign the Bears are prepared to use the franchise tag if they’re unable to hammer out a multiyear contract before the window closes. Teams can apply the tag from Feb. 20 through March 5.

The franchise tag for cornerbacks is expected to be about $18.8 million in 2024, and that would set a floor for contract negotiations and buy another five months to work out more than a one-year deal. The Bears have used the franchise tag twice in the last decade — on wide receivers Allen Robinson in 2021 and Alshon Jeffery in 2016 — and placed the transition tag on cornerback Kyle Fuller in 2018.

Johnson is aiming to become the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback, a distinction currently held by Jaire Alexander of the Green Bay Packers or Denzel Ward of the Cleveland Browns, depending on how you measure it.

“The ball’s in my court, the ball’s in my favor,” Johnson said Wednesday when he appeared on the Fox Sports podcast “All Facts No Brakes” with Keyshawn Johnson. “I think it’s just a matter of time and when it happens. Going into the negotiations I don’t think there’s too much to try to talk about.

“I feel like there’s no reason why I can’t be the highest-paid corner in the league. That’s what I’m aiming for. That’s what I’m shooting for. That’s what I think can be done and should be done.”

Alexander received a four-year, $84 million extension in 2022, with the average annual salary of $21 million setting the bar atop the market. That same year, Ward got a five-year, $100.5 million extension ($20.5 million average) with a record $44.5 million fully guaranteed. Jalen Ramsey of the Miami Dolphins is the only other cornerback in the $20 million club in terms of annual average, having signed a five-year, $100 million deal in 2020.

Two years after the Alexander and Ward contracts, with Johnson having bet on himself, it stands to reason he is shooting to reset the market considering his performance and accolades and the rising salary cap. Whether he gets there remains to be seen.

Poles was reluctant to consider a market-setting deal for inside linebacker Roquan Smith in 2022. While he hasn’t spoken specifically about numbers for Johnson, cornerback is considered a more premium position and the Bears could maintain a strength by retaining Johnson with developing second-year cornerbacks Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith and third-year nickel back Kyler Gordon.

The cornerback market took a slight dip since Alexander and Ward were paid, but that probably had more to do with the available talent than a shift in thinking about positional value and budget allocation.

Some defensive coaches place a greater premium on cover men than pass rushers with the philosophy that it’s easier for offenses to scheme around a defensive end than an elite cornerback, especially one who isn’t a liability against the run.

That’s not to say you can play great defense without top-tier edge rushers — you can’t. It all goes hand in hand, but if forced to pick an elite cornerback or an elite edge rusher, some coaches would go with the guy who can mirror top-tier wide receivers.

That’s why it is paramount the Bears keep their talent. Johnson turns 25 in April, and he’s only eight months older than Gordon despite having two more years of experience.

The Bears love Johnson and his makeup, and he’s wired exactly how you want a cornerback to be with a desire to face the best receiver every Sunday. The only issue they will have when considering whether to make him the highest-paid cornerback in the league is durability. He missed three games this season, including the finale against the Packers when a minor shoulder injury sidelined him. He missed six games in 2022, two in 2021 and three as a rookie.

That doesn’t take away from what Johnson accomplished this season, meeting the challenge of delivering more on-the-ball production. It’s important to recognize Johnson was having an elite season before Poles acquired defensive end Montez Sweat at the trade deadline. So it’s not like his ascent was the result of a suddenly enhanced pass rush.

The front office has a lot to work through with its attention being pulled in many directions. The Bears need to fill out Matt Eberflus’ coaching staff while preparing for free agency and draft meetings.

Confidence should be high that the Bears will resolve matters with Johnson, but it could take some time. The last three players on whom the Bears used the franchise tag — Robinson, Jeffery and defensive tackle Henry Melton (2013) — played out their one-year deals. The Bears secured running back Matt Forte with the franchise tag in 2012, ultimately leading to a four-year contract.

The goal with Johnson has to be a multiyear agreement.

“We’ll work through it and get something done,” Poles said.

It’s a matter of how high the dollars — and more importantly the guarantees — go.

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When life feels too complicated, I can regain a sense of balance by driving to farmland where Amish families intentionally live quietly, simply and conservatively. Add “mysteriously,” if you’ve had little exposure to their lifestyle.

In their rural landscape are black, horse-drawn buggies instead of trucks and tractors. They are driven by men with straw hats, suspenders and beards. The women wear bonnets and modest, ankle-length dresses.

Roughly 384,300 Amish people live in 32 states and four provinces in North America, reports Elizabethtown College, where Amish studies is a specialty. The college is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home to the nation’s largest Amish population at 44,315.

These Christian families typically live without electricity, motorized vehicles, telephones and other modern conveniences. Contact with outsiders is not a priority; but interactions are not one-dimensional, cookie-cutter experiences either.

Amish encounters, and how hard you have to work to find them, in part depend on location. Communities with a high concentration of Amish families approach tourism with varying degrees of interest, creativity and commercialism. Consider the examples of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

Wisconsin: root around on your own

My wintry Saturday drive ended 40 miles north of Madison as I cut east toward Dalton, population 203, for a glimpse and taste of Amish life. Thick-legged workhorses hauled ice from a pond. Others clip-clopped more daintily while pulling buggies on snow-packed hills.

Roughly 10% of Wisconsin’s 25,000 Amish residents live between Highways 22 and 73; Barry Road is one popular shopping route.

First stop, farm-based Pleasant View Bakery, south of Barry Road. In the commercial kitchen were pans of just-baked cinnamon rolls. Cherry mash — chocolate under and over a vanilla filling with chopped cherries — roused my curiosity; I bought one-half of the last pound and also left with a cherry pie, pumpkin bars and a dozen cookies.

Next, Mishler’s Country Store, where household provisions arrive in bulk and are packaged into portions suitable for the average family. Sets of wind chimes, made by the Amish in Indiana, tinkled outdoors. Fat heads of cauliflower, blemish-free and 89 cents each, filled a shopping cart indoors.

On a bulletin board were signs and business cards for clock repair, rides, welding, stump removal and more. On shelves were Amish cookbooks, home medicine remedies and seasoning blends that included ones for homemade bacon and bologna.

Signage on Barry Road in Marquette County, Wisconsin, reminds motorists about who else is sharing the thoroughfare. (Holly L. De Ruyter)

I left with cauliflower, a garlic bulb, bags of teeny bow-tie pasta and chopped pecans. Eggs were not in stock, but the clerk eagerly gave directions to a farm with chickens.

Last stop, Mast’s Bent and Dent, which stocks an unpredictable mix of nonperishable foods that are near, at, or past “best by” dates. Don’t expect signage; I drove past the farm-based business twice before nailing the location.

The treasure hunt of merchandise from overstocks and liquidations was excellent at this well-organized store. Vinaigrettes, toothpaste, mouth guards for sleep, Dolly Parton cake mixes, keto products and oodles of other items were deeply discounted.

Adding a stop or two for bedding plants would be logical during spring. There are at least a dozen greenhouses in the rural neighborhood. The countryside is similarly abundant with woodworkers who build kitchen cabinets, furniture, birdhouses and cutting boards — and they might sell items for Amish craftsmen from other states.

Businesses are listed by address at travelmarquettecounty.com. Or visit the Princeton Amish Country Store for a one-swoop purchase of everything from honey to rocking chairs.

It’s all an easy day trip from Madison or stretch the getaway into an overnight stay closer to the Amish enclave. A good match for lovers of the outdoors is the lodge at Mecan River Outfitters, near Princeton. For a modern, lakeshore resort vibe, check out Heidel House in Green Lake.

Another large Amish settlement is in the southwest, within the attractive hills and valleys of unglaciated Wisconsin. Particularly pretty are 17 miles of County Road D, between Cashton, population 1,108, and La Farge, population 730; driveway signs denote farm family businesses.

Kathy Kuderer describes the people in the area as “Old Order Amish”; they use gas or kerosene lanterns for light, and a wood stove for cooking and warmth. Kuderer, a recent retiree, was raised in the area and for 30 years led tours and sold Amish products at her shops.

Another option: Amish vendors sell bakery, baskets and other wares at the Saturday farmers market in Viroqua, population 4,504, from May through October.

Boxes and pallets of whatever is in season — bedding plants, veggies, potted mums — are sold spring to fall at the twice-weekly Growers Produce Auction; add quilts and furniture at the Memorial Day and Labor Day auctions.

In this more remote part of Wisconsin is a mix of bed-and-breakfast inns and mom-and-pop motels.

Illinois: an elevated Amish profile

George Fritz, owner of the Wood Loft in Arthur, Illinois, grew up in Skokie. (Mary Bergin)

Seventy miles east of Springfield, an Amish settlement of 4,500 is the eighth largest nationally. Arthur, a village with 2,231 residents, is where I stopped for a springtime introduction and overnight.

Meals at Amish farms are arranged for groups, but as a solo traveler, I wasn’t accommodated because there were no group reservations for me to join. So I indulged at the buffet at Amish-owned Yoder’s Kitchen, eating chicken and from-scratch noodles, casseroles and pot pies.

It’s easy to explore the area because self-guided audio tours provide narration. That’s one way to discover fourth-generation Green Meadow Farms, which offers buggy rides, and Beachy’s Bulk Foods, which grinds peanut butter to order.

George Fritz, a Skokie native, operates the Wood Loft, which has Amish-made merchandise. About one-fourth of the store’s furniture and one-third of the quilts are made locally.

“The Amish have been in the area for 100 years but work quietly,” said Fritz, a former Amish cabinetmaker’s employee. “Each farm made something separate — the doors, for example.”

The Wood Loft helped address the question of “how can we help market you because you can’t market yourself,” Fritz said.

“You can’t make a decent living doing any one thing,” Ed Coller, Arthur’s former economic development director, said of small-town life. “The Amish came here for the farmland, which was swampy and tough to farm, but they made it work.”

Penn Station Theatre, which opened last year, hosts productions including Amish-themed musicals. The Illinois Amish Heritage Center, open on Saturdays, is a campus of Amish-built structures and has demos of sheep-shearing, corn-picking and lumbering.

Although national chain hotels are nearby, I preferred a homey suite in an Amish-built cottage at Martha’s Vineyard, which included breakfast.

Amish shoppers fill buggies with groceries purchased in Shipshewana, Indiana. (Mary Bergin)

Indiana: showtime in Shipshewana

Amish-made decor was abundant when I checked into the 155-room Blue Gate Garden Inn in Shipshewana, population 841, about 130 miles east of Chicago. The area’s 20,000 Amish are the nation’s third-largest Amish community; that doesn’t include Mennonites, whose lifestyles are somewhat less restrictive.

At the inn is a restaurant, theater and conference center, where I encountered quilters on a six-day stitching retreat, organized three times per year by Gay Bomers of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Frequent flea markets brought visitors to Shipshewana a century ago, and buggies fill grocery store parking lots today. Much of the downtown is walkable, and gift shops stock locally made products.

My group’s first supper away from the inn was at an Amish farm and was served family style. At least four farms offer this. We ate “poor man’s steak” or breaded ground beef patties with mushroom sauce; chicken marinated in an Italian dressing; noodles boiled in chicken broth; and sweet corn, frozen from summer. For dessert, there was apple pie and canned peaches.

We peppered the meal, served in a simple shedlike building, with questions about Amish life:

How fast does a horse and buggy travel? Figure one hour for 10 miles.

How long are Sunday church services? They’re 9 a.m. to noon.

Tourists in Shipshewana, Indiana, sometimes have the option of touring an Amish home after eating supper in an adjacent farm building. (Mary Bergin)

Is it hard to be Amish? “We grew up like this and don’t think anything of it,” answered our amused hostess, with a shrug.

Afterward, we saw the inside of an Amish home, which was cozy but not lavish. Inspirational messages were plentiful, in needlepoint and on walls. A bookcase was stuffed with titles so worn that binders were torn and peeling.

Cucumbers, gladiolas, honey and maple syrup are common products on the area’s 2,100 farms of 10 to 49 acres. Most families take on other work too; we visited cottage industries through Back Roads Amish tours, but you can also explore on your own.

Lambright Country Chimes began with a semitrailer truckload of discarded square metal tubing. Now there are three dozen variations of wind chimes shipped throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Teaberry Wood Products, a Mennonite business, began with wooden puzzles made from sawmill scraps. Now most work is handcrafted baskets that look woven.

Racks of narrow to extra-wide noodles are made and dried at Dutch Country Market. Ten flavors of honey come from harvesting beehives maintained by the owner and other local residents.

Plain Foods, a wholesale business, produces jams, butters, mustards, pickles and salsas under the Mandy’s Harvest label. The work began with a family recipe for apple butter.

Racks of noodles are made from scratch at Dutch Country Market, between Middlebury and Shipshewana, Indiana. (Mary Bergin)

Silver Star Leather, a former harness shop, uses exotic animal pelts (think elephant, ostrich and cobra) to make purses, belts, gun holders and other goods. Pelts, from creatures that died of natural causes, come from as far as South Africa.

Cinnamon caramel doughnuts are popular at Rise ‘n Roll Bakery, which began by selling treats from a porch, using generations-old recipes. Now there are 15 Indiana locations.

It’s an early-to-bed vibe in Shipshewana, with rare exception. Blue Gate Theatre presents wholesome, Amish-themed productions, such as “Half-Stitched: The Musical” and this year’s “When Calls the Heart.” The new Blue Gate Performing Arts Center accommodates larger audiences, for nationally known touring acts.

If you go, a few rules are basic when shopping at Amish farms. Stop if serious about making a purchase, but not just to gawk and interrupt. Shop with cash, not credit cards. Ask before taking photographs. Don’t visit on a Sunday.

Mary Bergin is a freelancer.

And then there were … 21. Seasons of “Top Chef,” that is.

A new season of Bravo’s “Top Chef” kicks off at 9 p.m. March 20 in a flurry of novelty that includes a new location, new rules, a new host and racing sausages. (Yes, really.)

Fan fave and season 10 winner Kristen Kish takes on host duties this season, joining judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin. This season of “Quickfires” and elimination challenges take the cheftestants to cherry country, cranberry bogs and a Milwaukee Brewers game, where a race among sausage mascots is apparently a thing.

Kristen Kish is the new host of Bravo-TV’s popular “Top Chef” series, which launches its 21st season on March 20, 2024. (Courtesy Natalie Engel/Bravo TV)

This season’s 15 contestants include James Beard nominees and rising stars from across the country, including  three with Bay Area ties. Among them: Rasika Venkatesa, whose resume includes stints at Yountville’s triple Michelin-starred French Laundry and San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Mourad, where she was chef de cuisine.

TOP CHEF — Season:21 — Pictured: Laura Ozyilmaz — (Photo by: Stephanie Diani/Bravo)

David Murphy worked at San Francisco’s Madera and at Whitechapel before opening his Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine, which was named one of the best new restaurants in America in 2022 by Esquire.

And Mexican-born chef Laura Ozyilmaz hails from New York City’s Eleven Madison Park and San Francisco’s Saison. Ozyilmaz was a co-founder and co-executive chef at that city’s buzzy Noosh, until a major falling out with another co-owner in 2019. She and her husband, Sayat, returned to San Francisco’s dining scene last year with Dalida, an elevated Middle Eastern restaurant in the Presidio that was named one of the best new restaurants in America by Esquire last fall.

They’re the latest in a long line of Bay Area chefs competing on one of the small screen’s most popular culinary competitions. And this season brings a few surprises.

Quickfires will carry cash prizes, and elimination challenges will confer immunity.

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That trip to a Brewers game will see cheftestants vying to elevate a quintet of sausage options — brats, chorizo, Polish, Italian and classic hot dogs, the same varieties that inspired the team’s adorable racing mascots. A supper club challenge includes a Quickfire trip to a farmers market with guest judge and Oakland native W. Kamau Bell. And the season finale sends the team off to the Caribbean aboard Holland America’s MS Eurodam cruise ship.

“Top Chef” airs on Wednesdays from 9 to 10:15 p.m. on Bravo; streaming episodes air the next day on Peacock.

The Big Ten men’s basketball tournaments has set up shop in the Gophers’ backyard, and the U will need to improve its defense if it wants to make it an entertaining multi-game run for the home team.

Minnesota’s defense has been a primary culprit in losing six of its final nine conference games, including a deflating four of the last five. The U’s adjusted offensive efficiency is respectable at 56th in the nation, but its defensive efficiency lags at 118th, according to KenPom on Wednesday.

“We got worn down,” head coach Ben Johnson said Tuesday of the Gophers’ most recent game. “I thought that played a part, whether that was mental lapse, mental fog, physically worn down in stretches.”

The Gophers allowed Northwestern to shoot a ridiculous 56 percent from 3-point range in the 90-66 blowout loss on Saturday. In three defeats, Illinois hung 105 points on the U on Feb. 28, while Iowa also reached 90 on Feb. 11and Purdue scored 84 on Feb. 15.

The last time the Gophers held an opponent under 70 points was the 59-56 win over Michigan State at Williams Arena on Feb. 6. The ninth-seeded Gophers (18-13, 9-11 Big Ten) will play the eighth-seeded Spartans (18-13, 10-10) at 11 a.m. Thursday in the second round of the Big Ten tournament at Target Center.

Michigan State beat Minnesota 76-66 in East Lansing, Mich., on Jan. 18, so Thursday’s game serves as a rubber match. The winner will play top-seed Purdue (28-3, 17-3) at 11 a.m. Friday.

Spartans guard Tyson Walker took over late in the January matchup against the Gophers and finished with 21 points. He had 20 points at The Barn last month.

Johnson looked at defensive letdowns in the last two losses — to Indiana and Northwestern — that snowballed into bigger deficits.

“The one or two lapses all of sudden now turns into — it was a manageable game — and they go on a run, especially if they can shoot it from three,” Johnson said.

Minnesota gives up 36 percent shooting from 3-point range this season, which ranks 316th in the nation.

“I thought we needed to get mentally back right and back fresh, physically back fresh,” Johnson said about a reset before the conference tournament. “Because those segments where, again, your defense gives up a play or two and then you try to get it back with your offense. There is that push-pull. It just doesn’t work.”

The Gophers have only one injury concern going into the Spartans game, Johnson said. Forward Josh Ola-Joseph (concussion protocol) missed the end of the Indiana game and Northwestern game but has been improving.

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