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I hope you're already on the whole-grain wagon. Full of protein and fiber, whole grains help keep hunger at bay, so including them in your daily diet can help you maintain a healthy weight. I am here to help you expand your whole-grain horizons, so here are my reasons you should give millet a try.

Yes, it's true that millet is the main ingredient in bird seed, but it's great for people, too. It has a texture similar to couscous and tastes slightly like corn. I do have a millet disclaimer, though: it is not a whole grain but a seed, so it's gluten-free. Millet is high in magnesium and the B vitamin niacin, which can help lower cholesterol.

If you want to see what millet looks like cooked and how it compares nutritionally to other grains, read more

When sending a hand-written note, it always pays to have cute stationery. But, what about multipurpose stationery? Why just send a card, when you can send a small packet of seeds along with it? The Lizard Press Notes to Grow On Set ($25 for 7) features beautiful green illustrations of seven different herbs reproduced from Albert Schramm’s Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke (Germany 1450-1500AD), and adhered to the back of each is a small packet of coordinating seeds. Handsome brick-red type reads the name of the herb, and script indicates the most common uses for each herb. It's a small but heartfelt token to send to your green thumb friends, but who needs presents anyway? Also, check out this plantable card set.

Perhaps taking a note from the Blooming Wrapping Paper I wrote about, the Recycled Ideas Plantable Card Set ($10) is a set of pastel cards embedded with seeds that you can plant to grow your choice of flowers. The cards themselves are simple and blank, so you can personalize them with your own message, and of course, they come with germination instructions. Since they're handmade, they have the wonderful irregularities and texture that only handmade paper has. In the spirit of Good to Grow month, I say you send one off to a friend, and plant one yourself, and you'll soon both be growing your own hollyhocks, snapdragons, or marigolds. Take that, Hallmark!

Just like you've got to learn your ABC's before you write a bestseller, or even a discount bin title, you must learn the basics of planting seeds before you attempt to grow a full-fledged vegetable garden. So, to commence Good to Grow month, I'm going to start you off with the foundations of seed growth. Then, you'll be armed and ready to grow your very own hanging Solanum lycopersicums, and perhaps some Cucurbita pepos and Abelmoschus esculentus. So, for your first kindergarten (which, coincidentally means literally "children's garden") lesson in planting seeds, and to see a jazzy video, read more

I write about food all the time, about how important it is to eat your fruits and veggies. Recently I got into a culinary conundrum about what it takes to be a fruit. Is a tomato a fruit? Well, here goes a short explanation: true fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Fruits can be fleshy such as blueberries, bananas, and oranges. They can also be dry like whole almonds and walnuts (in their shell).

Scientifically speaking then, anything containing seeds, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, and bean pods are all considered fruits.

The reason there is so much confusion about whether or not a food is a fruit or a vegetable has to do with the way it's prepared. Vegetables tend to be used in savory dishes, while fruits tend to be used for the sweeter ones.

Vegetables tend to be root crops (potatoes, carrots, beets, and turnips), bulbs (onions and garlic), stems (asparagus), leaves (lettuce and spinach), flowers (broccoli and cabbage).

So to sum it up, there are two different meanings of the word "fruit." A botanist would call a tomato a fruit, but a chef would call it a vegetable.


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