Blue Corn Pancake recipe and links for growing blue food in your own Victory Garden.
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Growing blue food in your garden.

Nope, growing blue food isn’t at all weird LOL. In fact, sales of heirloom seeds in general are way up right now and many seed merchants are already selling out. Folks are feeling the stress of limited choices at groceries and are starting to consider growing their own.

Blue Jade Dwarf CornJust remember, check the growing season in your area to see if starting from seeds makes sense for you. For instance, corn is easy to start from seed by direct sowing in your garden. Yet tomatoes need to be started indoors in February for the Chicago area then transplanting after threat of frost. Check with your local state extension office for information on your growing zone before deciding what to order. And remember, everyone is impacted by shipping delays right now so factor that into your timing.

Check out a few blue options below.
We’re just loving the darling Blue Jade Dwarf Sweet Corn from Hudson Valley Seed Company (photo by Hudson Valley Seeds). The seeds listed below were still in stock at the time this email went out but things are moving fast.

Hudson Valley Seed Company:
Blue Jade Dwarf Sweet Corn
All Blue Potato
Stella Blue Squash
Blue Kuri Squash

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds:
Mini Blue Popcorn
Desiree Dwarf Blauwschokkers Garden Pea
Jagallo Nero Kale
Blue Beauty Tomato
Blue Berries Tomato
Indigo Apple Tomato

Johnny’s:
And if you want to grow something really REALLY big, say...a statement vegetable for your garden, Johnny’s still has Blue Hubbard Squash seeds at this writing. These grow up to 15 pounds so you need space to grow this squash.

Some produce keeps very well in a cool basement or even those attached sheds that some apartment balconies have. With a little planning, you'll be set for winter and it'll be interesting and fun.

photo of Cajun Black Bean Burger
Caviar Delivery service daily, 12PM to 8PM through April 7.

Caviar has extended our delivery range up to 10-miles within Chicago only, dependent upon routes, time of day, and drivers available. Please check your app to see if you're within range. 

blue corn

Blue Corn Pancakes

This recipe comes from our original cookbook and is great because it can work as sweet breakfast pancakes and with a slight change, a savory dinner course.

Yield: 8–10 servings
 
Ingredients:
1½ cups blue cornmeal
2/3 cup pastry flour
2/3 cup unbleached flour
¼ cup rice, soy, or oat flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
 
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup sugar or rice syrup
2 ¼ cups soymilk
 
Directions:
  1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir well.
  4. Spoon the batter onto an oiled griddle or skillet. When bubbles appear on the top of the pancake, flip with a spatula. Brown the other side then remove from the pan.

Baker’s Note: The mixture keeps refrigerated for a few days, or you can freeze it. After thawing, you may need to thin it out a bit by adding a little soymilk.

If you don’t have blue cornmeal, substitute yellow cornmeal. If you really want blue pancakes and only have yellow cornmeal, try adding frozen blueberries to the batter.

Variation: To serve these cakes as a dinner course, omit the sugar and add herbs of your choice. Serve with sautéed vegetables and top them off with your favorite sauce.

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Reminder of staff GoFundMe pages.

Every effort is being made to keep as many of our beloved employees gainfully employed, with as much work as possible. We’ve not only increased hourly pay for our front of house staff, but have maintained hours for back of house and kitchen staff employees. For some of our employees, it is simply best to file for unemployment and we’ve connected them with all the resources to do so. Finally, we’re matching $5,000 to each GoFundMe page set up by employees of our locations at Logan Square and Halsted and encourage you to support them as well.

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