If you've seen me in person recently, you've probably heard me mention Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health. This book, a science-based review of how to select and prepare food for maximum nutritional benefit, has transformed my cooking more than any other writing ever. I even taught a class based upon it for The Seasoned Farmhouse.

The basic premise is that wild foods like foraged berries, greens, and grains are far higher in nutrients than human-influenced hybrids chosen for sweetness, carbohydrate efficient production, and ease of growth and harvest. Basically, we bred the nutrition out of many wild foods and have the related health problems to show for it. But Robinson is not preachy or focused on the past - she offers forward-thinking ideas to consume more healthy nutrients by choosing foods wisely.

Some of the research-supported advice is surprising: did you know that carrots cooked whole have the most betacarotene, even more than raw? Some tips are simple: choose the most colorful foods because they most often contain the most vitamins and phytonutrients. Some techniques are habit-changing: the cancer-fighting antioxidant allicin in garlic is maximized by chopping the garlic and then letting it rest for 5 minutes before cooking.

For gardeners, Eating on the Wild Side author Jo Robinson goes a step further to offer suggested seed varieties. I already know that backyard-fresh produce contains more nutrients than truck-ripened, grocery store versions. This year I plan to move one step further and plant varietals based on Wild Side recommendations that will feed my family even more vitamins and phytonutrients.

Gardening on the Wild Side Selections

1. Atomic Red Carrots - Joseph and I have grown these carrots for Swainway Urban Farm. They're less productive than traditional orange versions but are richer in flavor and higher in anthocyanins.

2. Garlic Chives - Of all the alliums (onion, garlic, shallots, scallions, and chives), garlic chives are the most densely nutritious. Chives happen to be a green Lil likes to eat, so we'll add garlic chives to our perennial herb bed this year.

3. Cherry Tomatoes - I was shocked to learn that cherry tomatoes have up to 8 times more lycopene than beefsteak sizes. The darkest red and purple varieties contain more nutrients than lighter colors. Tomato nutrients are more bioavailable when canned, so we'll enjoy them fresh in the summer and continue to put up tomato sauce, salsa, and paste for the winter and spring.

4. Colorful Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes - This isn't a change for us - I love purple potatoes - but we will be dropping the standard white varieties and growing more rich orange sweet potatoes, red fingerling potatoes and even a purple sweet potato.

5. Bull's Blood & Detroit Beets - I've grown these solid red varieties and the pretty bullseye chioggia ones. Both produce equally well for me but the dark reds have more betalin antioxidant so I'll focus on those this year. And I'll try to eat more of the greens because Robinson points out that they're among the healthiest greens you can buy.

6. All The Berries - I feel like a new berry is classified as a 'super food' every other week. But there's good reason for the hype - berries are full of fiber, phytonutrients, and flavor. Most are easy to grow, especially perennial shrubby berries like raspberries, june berries, and currants. Like the vegetables discussed above, deeper color equals greater nutrient punch, so we're adding black and red currants, black raspberries, and red gooseberries to our gardens this year. If you are local and looking to start or expand your collection of perennial fruits, my friend Kate is selling a limited number of bareroot berry stalks by pre-order.

If you're a conscientious eater or gardener, I highly recommend Eating on the Wild Side. Read it, eat well, and grow more Wild Side varieties.

I have a confession. I feel overwhelmed by the hundreds of plant varieties available to grow. After reading the descriptions of the fourteen kinds of bush beans in one catalog, I just can't bring myself to read about more in another catalog. Every paragraph promises 'great tasting' and 'easy growing', so how's a girl to finalize seed selection?

I turn to my time-tested choosing method, one I also employ when choosing of a bottle of wine among a thousand great possibilities. I pick a pretty label or name.

If there is a variety with the name 'Rachel', 'Lillian', or 'Alexander', it's in. If the description makes me feel warm and fuzzy, I buy. If the illustration harkens a look I want to achieve, I put it in the cart.

True seed-savers are probably rolling their eyes at me. It's true - the 'buy what looks good' method does mean I pass by seeds that might be better suited to my needs or environment than the funky-named varieties that draw me in.

But there is a silver lining, or silver seed coat, if you will: my resulting garden (like my wine stash) is full of diversity. Every year, seeds from new pretty packets make their way into soil. What grows well and produces great fruit, vegetables, and flowers is saved and replanted the next year alongside new attractive varieties.

Biodiversity is important to the culture of a garden. Planting a variety of crops maintains vital nutrients in the soil. In a monoculture field, pollinators will find food for only one or two weeks and then be forced to move on while pollinators provide their plant-mating service for many months in a diverse garden. Pests cannot easily establish themselves where they cannot rely on the same nesting or egg-laying spots season after season.

Perhaps even more critically, biodiversity is necessary for the survival of our food system. Adaptive Seeds, one of the sources of this year's seed splurges, report that "according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, we have lost 75% [of agricultural biodiversity] since 1900 and continue to lose 2% every year." In the short term, humans suffer when monoculture crops fail due to weather. In the long term, we are losing seed diversity that could contribute to breakthroughs in medicine, increased individual health, and foods that adapt to climate change.

Not to mention that I find a field filled with dozens of kinds of plants beautiful. Biodiverse gardens have vegetables flowering spring through autumn and leaves of every color. The visual interest of a bed full of varying plant heights will always beat a lawn in my book. I'm not the only one who things biodiversity is beautiful - the UN declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, prompting ABC, photographer David Liittschwager, and others to wax poetic about the gorgeousness of great variety.

You might be delighted but a bit overwhelmed by seed catalogs this time of year, just like me. If so, I suggest pouring a glass or red or white and pick what appeals to your aesthetics. Your garden will be better for the introduction of new varieties.