Minecraft – Is it possible to set up a map of the Minecraft server I can access outside of minecraft

Bukkit is a standalone replacement for minecraft_server.jar and if you want server-side plugins you need to use it. While there isn't a stable release for Minecraft 1.0, after some trial and error I found that build 1493 works and has been running my Minecraft 1.0 world successfully for a few days now.

I can't help you setup Bukkit standalone because I never did that - I installed McMyAdmin. Set it up according to the install directions, go into the control panel and select "Update/Install Bukkit" under About/Updates. It will warn about downgrading - that's OK. Once it has installed bukkit, open the MCMA\Minecraft folder and replace the craftbukkit.jar with build 1493 from the above link. Copy your world in and adjust the server.properties file as needed.

In theory, if you have a working minecraft_server.jar setup running you could just change it to point to craftbukkit.jar.

As for dynamic mapping, the plugin you want is Dynmap.

Carrots and potatoes can only be reliably found in villages, and they must be generated after the crops were added into the game.

However, they are also a rare drop from zombies, and while it's not the fastest way to get the items, it will save you quite a bit of walking.