Here's something to consider during the cold weeks ahead.  If you're a gardener, your mailbox may now be flooding with seed catalogs, and it's a traditional time to plan what you may wish to order for planting in March to get your indoor seedlings going.  Try some edible flowers this year!  If you never have, throw some in the garden for a fun experiment.  Bachelor's Buttons are edible garnishes that can be direct-sown in spring.  Calendula officianalis, or marigold, is known as "Poor Man's Saffron" and can add color to soups, spreads, pasta and rice dishes.  Dianthus, a perennial that looks like a small carnation, is sweetly fragrant, with a clove or nutmeg-like scent, flowering in spring.  Nasturtiums, my favorite, have a sweet-peppery flavor.  Flowers add color while leaves add flavor to salads --- and make great ground covers, climbing plants or for hanging baskets.  Johnny-Jump-Ups are an heirloom prized edible; the Viola tricolor has mild wintergreen-mint flavor.  Freeze them in ice cubes!  With that note, back to winter ... but dream of warmer weather to come!