Garden planning time!

It's late February, and that means it's time to get out the seed starting supplies and believe that one day, it will be warm again.

My garden planning started in December, but I didn't make my seed order until January. I order most of my seeds from Territorial Seed, and last year they had sold out of a few things before I ordered, and I didn't want that to happen again this year.

For this year, I decided to focus our planting on things that we eat a lot of and/or I canned a lot of last year. Yeah, that sounds obvious, but it's kind of fun to plant something new. Luckily, my brother Chris and his family got me some yacon to plant, so that will be my fun new thing this year. While I couldn't justify it, I'm glad they provided me with an excuse! :)

We'll be planting:

• cilantro
• sunflowers
• radishes
• nasturtium
• cucumbers
• kale
• lettuce
• Swiss chard
• beets
• peppers
• black soybeans
• paste-type tomatoes
• basil
• scarlet runner beans
• onions
• long pumpkin

(I didn't link everything because it's a long list... :)

I also saved some seeds from a winter squash that I got at the market last year. I really liked it, but by the time we ate it, I couldn't remember what it was. We'll see how it goes!

We also have walking onions and strawberries in the garden from last year. I'm not holding out too much hope for the strawberries, but we'll see. If they don't produce, I'll rip them out and plant something else there.

I'm also planning on doing a few experiments with the way I plant. I've been interested in those upside-down tomato planters, but I've heard bad things about the manufactured plastic ones (the roots and stem rot). However, I saw somewhere online where someone made one out of a coir-fiber lined hanging planter. I picked up a couple of those, and I'll plant a couple slicing tomatoes in those to see how it works (I'll be trading tomato seedlings with a co-worker to get those).

Since we cut down the tree in the backyard last fall, we'll actually be able to plant in the backyard, too! This will be totally new for us, so we're going to just have to see how that goes. We've got a long, empty planting bed that we're planning to use for sunflowers, with the mystery winter squash underneath.

All in all, I'm excited about what'll happen! Now I can't wait until it warms up so I can get to work!

"Let's pretend these are healthy" cookies

(Before I forget how I made these very yummy cookies...)

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup additions, such as dried cherries, dried coconut, walnuts, hulled sunflower seeds, and/or chocolate chips. I like a bit of all of them.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, blend together flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom.

With an electric mixer, blend together butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add egg, honey, and vanilla. Blend thoroughly with the hand mixer.

Using a spoon, stir in the flour mixture. When it's almost all mixed together, add the additions.

With clean hands, roll dough into balls the size of a golfball or a little smaller. Place one to two inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a rack to cool.

Try to let them cool a bit before you eat them.