It's still not Spring here in Philadelphia. In fact, it's currently about 50 and rainy, but I've been pretending that Spring is here by planning my imaginary herb garden. Yes, my herb garden is sadly imaginary since I'm moving this year, but as a result, it's actually much greener, fragrant and exciting than any live herb garden I've ever grown for real (my thumb is not the greenest one out there). I mean, I love rosemary and mint as much as the next person, but I'm ready for a little more excitement! Here's what I'm thinking:

Chocolate Mint - I tasted this for the first time recently at a Farmer's Market, and it was delicious. The chocolate taste is slight, but definitely there, and I'll definitely be using it for imaginary iced tea, or even in cupcakes and baked goods.

Lemon Thyme - How easy it will be to make a roast chicken or even lemon-thyme frosting with these two ingredients already combined into one! Just kidding -- you apparently can't really count on it for a full lemon flavor, but it still works great for roasting anything, and for great fish and meat dishes as well.

Cuban Basil - The belle of my garden. After seeing/smelling how delightful these leaves are, I couldn't resist buying some for my mom for mother's day. Not so much into it? Check out this long list of interesting basil varieties here.

Lavender - Maybe this would be in my grandmother's garden too, but I just love the scent so much that it's going in my imaginary one as well.

Looking for more exciting herbs like juniper or fenugreek? Check out this list and these hints and tips. And if anyone has suggestions for additions to my imaginary garden, please share! It's imaginary, so no there are no limits!

I used to have a pothos plant growing on my kitchen windowsill. It never did too well, so I was surprised one day to see it had grown a long, thin new leaf. Then I figured out that my roommate had sprinkled chive seeds in the pot. The pothos didn't make it, but the chives thrived.

Fresh chives are wonderful, always good for a dash of springtime green in egg dishes, soups, cornbread, and practically any kind of veggie dish. I'm a big fan of frittatas with chives, tomatoes, and Parmesan, and don't even get me started on crispy golden Chinese chive pancakes...

Chives are easy to grow, both indoors and out, as my roommate ably demonstrated. April is a good month for planting chive seeds outdoors - seedlings should appear within ten days. Check out Garden Action for a primer on planting and caring for chives.

The strawberry milk that is sold by Horizon Organics is white, unlike the pink strawberry milks sold by some of its competitors. The company is having a hard time finding a natural, organic coloring to give it the familiar color that consumers associate with strawberry-flavored milk.

And they are not alone.

For a company to use the "USDA Organic" label, the ingredients must be organic and the colorings must be natural. The colorings must be from organic ingredients for a product to claim that it is 100% organic. Fresh produce and other products don't usually have issues with colorings, but other organic products do, which can give them a disadvantage in the marketplace because consumers expect their food items to look a certain way. Strawberry milk, for example, is generally a shade of pink.

So organic food processors are looking for natural plant sources that will produce the colors they want and trying to encourage farmers to produce organic versions. Beets are used for red, carrots for orange and turmeric for yellow in many products, but many categories are left without coloring. To help alleviate the problem and not put organics at a disadvantage, the National Organic Standards Board is planning to meet this spring "to devise a precise list of natural colors that can be used in organic foods until organic colors are commercially available."

With the opening of an exhibition about the tools used for eating at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Julia Moskin asks are we really afraid of flatware? (Of course not. We’re just saving it for a special occasion!)

The message to eat local, organic and avoid processed foods is at the core of a Berkeley nutrition professor's book What to Eat, which tells you how to shop for groceries and select the most nutritious foods.

An oyster zealot shares his passion along with the history and flavors of the oyster in the Northwest.

Foraging for wild plants in the woods is what really gets some chefs heated up in spring, though the seasonal ramps, ferns and bitter greens are not always the easiest sell to diners.

The minimalist, Mark Bittman, does a video preparation of grilled lamb with miso-chili sauce at the NY Times website.

Frank Bruni dines at August and gives it two stars.

[Image NYT]

The British Food Standards Agency estimates that there are 3.5-million vegetarians and 250,000 vegans in the UK and, after consultation with both vegetarian and vegan groups, have decided to formulate labeling guidelines to food producers to follow. There is lots of confusion about the definitions of the terms among consumers, as well as manufacturers. Generally speaking, vegetarians refrain from eating meat products and vegans avoid all animal-derived products, including dairy and eggs. The purpose of introducing such guidelines is to prevent manufacturers from incorrectly identifying products as "vegetarian" or "vegan" when they actually contain meat-based or animal derived ingredients. To be sure all their bases were covered, the also defined the term "animals." With standards in place, consumers no longer need to worry that what they are picking up might contain undisclosed ingredients. The official guidelines are:

"Vegetarian: The term 'vegetarian' should not be applied to foods that are, or are made from, or with, the aid of products derived from animals that have died, have been slaughtered, or animals that die as a result of being eaten.

Animals means farmed, wild or domestic animals, including for example, livestock poultry, game, fish, shellfish, crustacea, amphibians, tunicates, echinoderms, mollusks and insects.

Vegan: The term 'vegan' should not be applied to foods that are, or are made from, or with, the aid of animals or animal products (including products from living animals)."