Corny

This is my pornography: Cornmeal made from corn grown biodynamically on a farm 10 miles from my home, hand-ground by people whose names I know, then given to me as part of my CSA share in the middle of a dreary, frozen February.

Now the question looms: What should I make with it? Cornbread seems too mediocre for such a precious flour, but a more complex preparation might overpower the cornmeal's flavor, which I want to fully savor. Maybe polenta or tamales; I'm waiting for inspiration to strike. Any ideas?

Sweet Potato Muffins with Candied Ginger

I can't stop making these muffins, so it's a good thing people keep eating them. Every time I make a batch, they're gone within 48 hours. When someone tells me that a healthy food tastes like candy, it usually smacks of a parent trying to get a child to eat their vegetables, but I'm going ahead and taking that risk: The sweet potatoes we've been bringing home from Genesis Farm have a rich, mapley flavor, and they're the sweetest sweet potatoes I've ever eaten. I've been meaning to ask them what variety they grow. So they certainly help the recipe, but these little morsels are moist and sweet and a little bit spicy no matter what orange vegetable you use.

Sweet Potato Muffins with Candied Ginger

1/2 cup chopped candied ginger
1/4 cup butter, melted, or vegetable oil (I use oil)
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup mashed sweet potato
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 3/4 cups flour (I use up to 3/4 cup whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375˚. Oil or spray muffin tins. Mix the ginger and wet ingredients in a bowl until smooth; mix the dry ingredients in a second bowl. Combine the two, mixing gently until well blended. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake on the middle rack until lightly browned, about 25 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Tip: If you don't feel like buying an entire quart of buttermilk, you can mix 1/4 cup plain or vanilla yogurt with 1/4 cup milk. In a pinch, you could even substitute clabbered milk, which is 1/2 cup milk mixed with 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice and allowed to sit for 10 minutes.

From Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, with a few tweaks by yours truly

Eggshells?

“What is this a photo of?” you may ask. Why, it’s a quart-sized container full of ground eggshells. But why do we have such a thing? Where did it come from? These are all valid questions, and we have the answers, but they may be less than satisfying.

Last year we planted each tomato seedling with 1/2 C. bone meal, hoping to stave off the dreaded blight known as blossom end-rot. We had no previous experience with this heartbreaking scourge, which renders tomato fruit black and rotten on the vine, but we didn't want to take any chances. And whaddaya know--by July we had quite the healthy crop of black, withered tomatoes as far as the eye could see. End-rot is not a disease but rather a side-effect of uneven water supply. Calcium is supposed to help the tomato plant regulate its water intake during periods of drought and deluge. According to Wikipedia, "blossom end rot can happen even though sufficient calcium is present if watering is irregular." Great. So you're damned if you do, etc.

So what the hell does all of this have to do with a quart of ground eggshells? First, Mark is totally anal about the compost and doesn’t like to put eggshells in there because they take so long to break down. This may have something to do with the fact that he is the one who ends up screening the compost and picking out perfectly preserved eggshell fragments. Second, since they are essentially comprised of calcium, Mark now saves our eggshells (along with those of anyone else he can convince) as a readily available calcium source. He painstakingly peels off the inner membrane, air dries them, and then pulverizes them with our industrial-sized mortar and pestle. Sure, we don’t have enough hours in the day to read great books or do laundry in a timely fashion, but somehow we always make time to crush eggshells the old-fashioned way (although I’m not sure there is any other way to crush eggshells, actually). Incidentally, seashells are another great source of calcium. We're investigating beachfront property as we blog.

So if you’ve come to our house and cocked an eyebrow at a row of empty eggshells on our kitchen windowsill, now at least you know why. All I can say is that our tomato plants damn well better appreciate it. We're not even sure that the added calcium will make a difference. Oh yeah, did we mention that the quart-sized container has enough calcium for a whopping 8 plants? Yay. It's three omelets a day from now until May, baby. And the end-rot problem? We're already laying out the plans for our elaborate, state-of-the-art, permaculture-unfriendly drip irrigation system. But that's another impossibly exciting story...

Toys

We may be taking a non-interventionist approach to gardening this year, but that doesn't mean we have to deny ourselves some new toys. We're not made of stone, you know! Mark couldn't help ordering these soil block makers from Johnny's, which supposedly make seed starting and transplanting easier and more efficient.

You fill the blocks with your favorite growing medium and stamp them down into a seed tray. It's much cheaper and more effective than using peat cubes or filling hundreds of tiny little cups with soil. Peat is great for starting seeds, but those new seedlings need to be transplanted quickly after sprouting since peat doesn't contain many nutrients. We're hoping to cut out that time-consuming transplanting step for our alliums, brassicas, and some flowers. Our first trial will be leeks in organic, store-bought potting soil.

Since the blocks are separate from each other, the roots of fast-growing seedlings are less likely to get tangled up. Even if each block is rootbound, it should be easy enough to separate it from its neighbors and lift it out for transplant--a lot easier than those seed trays, which inevitably get mangled during the transplanting process. So there's the added bonus of not destroying a dozen plastic seed trays every year, sending them to the landfill, and then paying to replace them.

We'll let you know if these toys are worth the investment. They are industry standard for many commercial growers, so we have high hopes. Check back soon for the exciting results!

The A List

Here's what we're ordering this year, where we're getting it from, and why we like it. Feel free to post your own favorites in the comments. We're always looking for new ideas.

Seed Savers Exchange

• Tiger's Eye Bean- A tender, stripey soup bean that can be eaten fresh or stored.
  
• Red Of Florence Onion- Mild and torpedo-shaped, these long-day onions can be stored or eaten fresh.
  
• Green Arrow Pea- There's no substitute for fresh shell peas, since the sugars start converting to starch within hours of being picked. Can't wait for these!
• Golden Treasure Sweet Pepper- Sweet, thick-walled, Italian-style.
• German Butterball Potato- Tasty, versatile, good for storing. We can never have too many potatoes.
• Rat's Tail Radish- Helps repel bugs and act as a trap for flea beetles. You eat the seed pod, not the root.
  
• New Zealand Spinach- Not a true spinach, though it's supposed to taste the same. Good in hot weather.
  
• Irish Eyes Sunflower- A dwarf variety to attract bees and beneficial insects.

Baker Creek

• Amarillo Carrot- Lemon yellow and very sweet and juicy.
  
• Muscade Carrot- We're planting this one because it's unusual and intriguing, from North Africa.
  
• Bouquet Dill- Tiny umbelliferous flower heads are ideal at attracting & sheltering parasitic wasps and nematodes (say what?)
  
• Di Firenze Fennel- Small, sweet bulbs. Can't wait to roast these for a veggie pot pie.
  
• Siamese Dragon Asian Greens- A unique mix of greens for stir-frying.
• Bleu Of Solaise Leek- Hopefully this cold-hardy leek will get bigger than the American Flags did last year. Also it's French, so Kate couldn't resist.
• Val D'Orges Lettuce- French butterhead. 'Nuff said.
  
• King Of The North Pepper- Red bell pepper for short-seasoners like us.
  
• Chinese Red Meat Radish- Look like adorable mini watermelons.
  
• Bee Balm- Good herb for tea, but we're using mostly for bees.
  
• Borage- Attracts beneficial bugs, also good for salads.
  
• Chives- We're putting little patches of chives all over the yard. You can never have to many of these. They're also perennial.
  

Johnny’s

• Garden Of Eden Pole Bean- Tender, broad green beans we'll be training over a trellis spanning the walkways between our raised beds.
  
• Blue Wind Broccoli- Even after last year's broccoli disaster, we are not deterred! This is an early version, a full 26-50 days earlier than last year's Romanesco. We also have some tricks up our collective sleeve for defeating cutworms: tuna cans.
• Walla Walla Onion- Even though we feel like it's a copout to grow these from seedlings instead of seeds, these sweet onions are so worth it (we couldn't find the seeds for sale).
  
• Evergreen Hardy White Scallion- Lots of these, since we use scallions almost every day in one form or another.
• Ambition Shallot- A successful crop of these would be a huge victory, since shallots are expensive and sometimes the pickings are slim.
• Calendula- Pink, orange, and yellow blooms to bring color and bees to the yard.
• Nasturtium- The petals on these red flowers add spicy zest to salads.
• Zinnia- A Persian carpet of flowers in autumn tones.

Well-Sweep

• Genovese Basil- A must-have, the best variety for pesto and summer dishes.
• Vietnamese Coriander (Rau Ram)- A spicy substitute for cilantro. Heat resistant and also makes a good houseplant.
• Tansy- Great indigenous perennial and beneficial insect attractant. Leaves can be used for tea.
  
• Rosemary- Well known culinary herb of much esteem. We'd like to find a hardy version that can overwinter here if possible.
• Yarrow- Small, low-growing flower. Member of the aster family (asteraceae).
  
• Angelica- Perrenial flowering herb that can reach 6 ft in height. Tolerates some shade, which we have plenty of.
• Lovage- A tall, leafy green plant that can be used as a celery substitute.
  
• Lavender- Fragrant, flowering evergreen. Zone 6-hardy perennials exist.
  
• Oregano- No description needed here.
  
• Thyme- Staggeringly diverse family of perennials with tiny, delicate flowers. Perfect dual-purpose, ground-covering herb.

Packrats

We managed to save a few seeds from our plants last year. Saving seed is a priority for us because locally grown plants can pass down positive evolutionary traits to future plant generations. In other words, plants can inherit genetic improvements adopted by their predecessors, like cold tolerance, disease resistance, improved production in a new climate, etc. Besides, seeds aren't cheap, especially when you are as maniacal as we are. We try to cut costs where we can. It's also rewarding to be the tiniest bit more self-reliant this year than last. Baby steps, right? Here is a list of seeds we have kept from last year, some bought and some saved. Not too shabby!

• Holy Basil (Leftover)
• Queenette Basil (Leftover)
• Lao Green Stripe Eggplant (Leftover)
• Arugula (Leftover)
• Early Hanover Melon (Leftover)
• Burmese Okra (Saved)
• Ancho Pepper (Leftover)
• Lemon Pepper (Saved)
• Black Beauty Zucchini (Leftover)
• Nyagous Tomato (Leftover)
• Isis Candy Tomato (Leftover)
• San Marzano Tomato (Saved)
• Monnopa Spinach (Leftover)
• Harlequin Marigold (Leftover)
• Perilla (Saved)
• Lemongrass (Saved)
• Cilantro (Leftover)

Technology

January always seems like an interminable month. I’ve been thinking about gardening a lot lately since the frigid weather has forced all of us indoors. At the peril of becoming crazed with premature enthusiasm, I’ve begun laying out initial garden plans for the upcoming season.

Kate and I want to learn as much as possible from last year’s experiences. Our biggest tasks this year will be to improve our organizational skills and to not overcomplicate things. I’ve been using a fantastic online gardening tool called Plangarden to layout our vegetable plots (see screenshot below). In addition to arrangement capabilities, Plangarden allows the user to maintain a database of seed starting, transplanting, and harvesting information. So far, it has made our planning simpler and will hopefully help us accurately track our harvest later on. Now I need to place these seed orders before I lose my mind.