what the what?

It's no secret that I enjoy a good carrot cake. Yes, it takes a little bit of elbow grease to grate the lovely cone-shaped veggies, but what a reward for your efforts!


Imagine my surprise upon slicing into my latest production and finding that the vibrant color of those bestowers of beta-carotene had gone from orange to green!

I had no idea what could've caused such a transition (especially since this is my go-to carrot cake recipe and such a peculiarity hasn't happened before), so I did a little research on the interwebnets.

Apparently, carrots are pretty sensitive little roots and this color change happens quite frequently. The culprit is the baking soda--either the batter contains too much or it doesn't get mixed in evenly. Those pigmentation compounds don't get along too well with the mean ol' alkaline baking soda. Note to self: Incorporate baking soda more thoroughly next time.


Fortunately, this phenomenon doesn't stop the cake from being edible. Or delicious. Heck, it just adds more color to an already easy-on-the-eyes cake!

Now, about those carrots. I was recently quite fortunate to receive an amazing collection of seeds from Hometown Seeds. The package was dubbed survival seeds, meant to be stored in case a crisis were to occur. Here's what you get if you order the kit:

* An in-depth instruction booklet.
* Enough GMO-free, non-hybrid seeds to plant 3/4 of an acre!
* Double water tight packaging.
* 5-year minimum shelf life, up to 10 years if frozen.

The package contains seeds for everything from peas and corn to lettuce and pole beans--quite a tremendous medley! My family just so happens to be garden-crazy, and they were thrilled to learn that the seeds were open-pollinated. We've already ordered some squash seeds (they have oodles of varieties) from this wonderful company. Take a look, order some seeds, and get some dirt under your nails!