Something about spring coming makes me crave certain flavors. There are the obvious ones like asparagus that is finally in season, but to me one of the best flavors of spring is lemon. And lately I cannot get lemon and poppy seed off the brain!

McCormick Spices was kind enough to send me some of their products and so I headed over to their website for some inspiration. They have a lovely recipe on their site. But I didn’t want to use cake mix so I decided to use that recipe as a jumping off point and kind of do my own thing. They turned out so good I can’t wait to share the recipe with you.

Lemon Poppy seed Muffins

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 1/4 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

3 eggs

2 T. poppy seeds

1 T. lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together until just moistened with either electric mixer or spoon. Line muffin tin with liners and fill with batter 2/3 full. Bake 18-24 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Makes 24 muffins.

These got the thumbs up from even the pickiest eater in our family. We had them tonight with a frittata and bacon for our favorite nighttime meal, BRINNER. But they would be a great dish to take to a brunch, shower or for a hostess gift.

I have mentioned before my love of Pinterest (you ARE following me right?). McCormick Spice is running a really fun Spring Pin-spiration contest where you can win some great pries. Here are all the details:

First you will need to follow McCormick Spices on Pinterest. Poke around their board and pick a recipe you want to try. Take a picture of your finished product and follow the instructions above to enter.

As part of your entry, you will create your own spring themed board on Pinterest. I actually have the coolest board that is a collaborative board with some of the best bloggers around. So you will for sure want to follow our Eat Your Way Through Spring board.

I find myself using Pinterest more and more for  inspiration when I cook and I know I will be using both these boards throughout the spring. And now that I know I can make up my own recipes (thank you ridiculous amounts of time watching Food Network) there is no stopping me!

What is your favorite recipe for spring?

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for McCormick. I received product samples and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Last week I had three emails in my inbox from farmers. One was from a farmer we are ordering a 1/4 cow from telling us our meat would be ready this week. One was from the farmers who run our CSA updating us on what is going on around the farm. And the last was from the coop I get the bulk of our meat and dairy from telling us the ordering cycle was open.

Three years ago I would not have known what any of those things even were. Now I like to joke that we eat like total hippies. I truly am stunned by how much differently we eat the more we know about our food system in America.

With stories of pink slime, antibiotics in our food, and tainted veggies I think people are getting more and more concerned about where the food comes from. The more I learn about our food, the more I want to know exactly where it is coming from. This obviously isn’t always possible, but buying a large portion of our food from farms is one way we do the best we can. And buying it from farmers I “know” has the added benefit of keeping my money local which is really important to me.

Another important thing to me is that our kids understand that food isn’t grown at the grocery store. That sounds like an odd thing to say but I would venture to say that a lot of kids don’t know that their hamburger comes from a cow. That their veggies are grown in giant piles of black dirt. And that cheese shouldn’t be flurescent orange. My kids once asked me where the lamb they were eating came from…… (they’re really smart, I promise)

It is pretty awesome to be able to have direct conversations with the people growing my food and meat. I know who handles it, how they handle it, what they feed it, and how it gets to me. In the case of my CSA I even get to help harvest it.

How important is it to you to know where your food comes from? How important is it to you to have conversations with the people who grow your food? Now thanks to the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance website FoodDialogues.com and Facebook page you can do just that!

I checked out their Facebook page in preparation for this post and loved the dialogue going on about GMO’s (genetically modified organisms), labeling, organic vs. natural, factory farming and more. If you don’t have access to farmers in your community and you are concerned about what is going on with our food system I think this is a great resource.

The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance wants to get the word out about this great resource. They also want to offer you a fabulous giveaway. One reader will win a Crock-Pot Programmable 6-Quart Slow Cooker and 2 reusable designer shopping bags from Envirosax (I am so in love with these sacks and use them everyday. I have even written about my love for them before).

To enter the giveaway leave a comment about what concerns you have about our current food system. The giveaway is open until Sunday, April 15th to US residents only. Winner will be chosen at random and notified via email. Good luck!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored but HELLO, I get to talk about something I am super passionate about. So obviously all opinions are my own. While I was compensated for my time, I did not get the fabulous prize package. Maybe you could share?