Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs [Survival Today, an on going thread]

Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick

Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.

At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."

Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.

A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."

She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.

"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."

[LOL, Now you can stay awake, singing these ditties as you drive north....Nice WW2 posters on the page.....granny]

http://www.homesweethomefront.co.uk/web_pages/hshf_dig_for_victory_pg.htm

DIG! DIG! DIG! for Victory

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Dig for Victory’ Poster
The Ministry of Agriculture launched one month on from the outbreak of the Second World War, one of the most memorable slogans of the whole conflict - ‘Dig for Victory’.

From this point on, the whole of Britain’s home front were encouraged to transform their private gardens into mini-allotments. It was believed, quite rightly, that this would not only provide essential crops for families and neighbourhoods alike, but help the war effort by freeing up valuable space for war materials on the merchant shipping convoys. Indeed, over just a few months, Britain saw its green and pleasant land transformed with gardens, flowerbeds and parkland dug up for the plantation of vegetables.

By 1943, over a million tons of vegetables were being grown in gardens and allotments.

During the course of the war, many propagandist moves were made to promote the importance of ‘growing your own’. In addition to the circulation of familiar Ministry of Agriculture ‘food flashes’, literature and poster displays, anthems were also introduced. One such ‘Dig for Victory’ anthem went;

“Dig! Dig! Dig! And your muscles will grow big

Keep on pushing the spade

Don’t mind the worms

Just ignore their squirms

And when your back aches laugh with glee

And keep on diggin’

Till we give our foes a Wiggin’

Dig! Dig! Dig! to Victory”

Home Sweet Home Front - another ‘Dig for Victory’ Poster

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Grow your own food’ Poster

‘DOCTOR CARROT’

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Doctor Carrot’ Image

Carrots were one vegetable in plentiful supply and as a result widely utilised as a substitute for the more scarce commodities. To improve its blandness, people were encouraged to ‘enjoy’ the healthy carrot in different ways by the introduction of such characters as ‘Doctor Carrot’. Culinary delights in the form of curried carrot, carrot jam and a homemade drink called Carrolade (made up from the juices of carrots and Swede!) were suggested by the Ministry of Agriculture.

‘POTATO PETE’

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Potato Pete’ Image
Similarly to the ‘Doctor Carrot’ character, but this time using potatoes, ‘Potato Pete’ was another character introduced to encourage the population to eat home grown vegetables.

Here’s the man who ploughs the fields.

Here’s the girl who lifts up the yield.

Here’s the man who deals with the clamp, so that millions of jaws can chew and champ.

That’s the story and here’s the star,

Potato Pete

eat up,

ta ta!

As with the Dig for Victory theme, ‘Potato Pete’ also had its own song amplifying its message. Vocals by Betty Driver (known by millions today as Betty Williams in Coronation Street’), the recording was a great success and did a tremendous amount of good in getting the message across. ‘Potato Pete’ recipe books were also written to give women suggestions and advice on how best serve potatoes at mealtimes. For example, ‘scrubbing instead of peeling potatoes’ was recommended, thus avoiding unnecessary wastage. Even traditional nursery rhymes were adapted to give a ‘Potato Pete’ theme!
As one poem went;

Those who have the will to win,

Cook potatoes in their skin,

Knowing that the sight of peelings,

Deeply hurts Lord Woolton’s feelings.

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Potato Pete’ & ‘Doctor Carrot’ Image

PICTURE: A jovial Doctor Carrot and jumping Potato Pete

It was clear that as the war progressed, the Dig for Victory campaign had exceeded all expectations in terms of success.

However, as the following 1944 message from the Minister of Agriculture to all gardeners and allotment holders suggests, complacency in efforts were to be avoided despite the anticipated end of the war only being a few months away. There was clearly still a lot of work to be done, even after the war!

“We can justly congratulate ourselves in what we have achieved.

But we must on no account relax out efforts.

The war is not yet won.

Moreover, even if it were to end in Europe sooner than we expect, the food situation, far from becoming easier, may well become more difficult owing to the urgent necessity of feeding the starving people of Europe.

Indeed in many ways it would be true to say that our real tasks will only then begin.

Carry on therefore with your good work. Do not rest on your spades, except for those brief periods which are every gardeners privilege”.

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Dig on for Victory’ Poster - Click on image to enlarge!

‘WOOLTON PIE’

As a dedicated, high profile Minister of Food (April 1940 - December 1943) Lord (Frederick James Marquis, first Earl of) Woolton was responsible for selling the benefits of rationing to the British public and educating it into better eating habits. Later in the war, with plentiful vegetables being produced as a result of the success of the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, some were used as the ingredients for the legendary ‘Woolton Pie’. This particular vegetable pie recipe was made from potatoes, parsnips and herbs - click on link to see full recipe). Alas though, this particular dish never really took off with the British public.

‘MEAT and POULTRY’

Fresh eggs were also produced as people realised the value of keeping chickens in their back yards. The importance of retaining edible scraps of food for pigs was also evoked. These pigs, some of which were purchased with monies collected from organised neighbourhood schemes, once fattened with the scraps, yielded good food too. Pig schemes were often called Pig Clubs.

http://www.homesweethomefront.co.uk/web_pages/hshf_squander_pg.htm

[Has several WW2 posters on page]

Beware the SQUANDER Bug!

With the obvious shortages faced by the people of the British home front, any form of unnecessary wastage be it food or materials, was deeply discouraged.

Reminders to ‘make do’ and NOT to squander were commonplace in the form of posters, newsreels and pamphlets. The menacing ‘Squander Bug’ was one character introduced to denounce blatant waste.

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Squander Bug’ Poster

Lord Woolton also reminded civilians in one of his many broadcasts to the nation;

“If you are only eating what you need

and not what you like and as much as you like,

then you are helping to win the war”

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Better Pot-Luck than Humble Pie’ Poster

A ‘Churchillian’ reminder that in order to win the war, food was NOT to be wasted in the kitchen!

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘A clear plate means A clear conscience’ Poster

Another reminder NOT to waste food in the wartime kitchen!

‘IS YOUR JOURNEY REALLY NECESSARY?’

With petrol rationing having also been introduced resulting in fewer private motor cars on the road, a greater reliability in public transport evolved.
Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Is your journey really necessary’? Poster - Click on image to enlarge! With bus and train systems already severely restricted and undermanned, the general public were asked to consider whether or not they needed to use public transport and to bear in mind those who might need the transport more. Born from this concept was the ‘Is your journey really necessary?’ slogan.

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Go by Shanks Pony’ Poster

PICTURE: A reminder to walk short distances and leave the spaces on public transport for those who need to travel longer distances.

After all, nobody wanted to be branded a TRANSPORT HOG;

“You wonder why we make a fuss

If George decides to take a bus

but look again and you will see

that George aint all that George should be.

He’s only got a step to go

a couple hundred yards or so

while others further down the queue

have far to go and lots to do.

When George gets on we often find

that other folk get left behind.

He pays his fare and rides the stage

and off he hops and see the rage

and seeing this gives George a jog

‘Perhaps I’m Just a Transport Hog’”

MAKING DO

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Making Do’ Image

With the scarcity of so many everyday items during World War Two, Britons were encouraged to become much more self-sufficient and make greater use of the materials they had.

The phrase most associated with this British wartime drive for self-sufficiency was ‘MAKE DO and MEND’.

Some of the ingenious ways of how people got by included;
i. making wartime JEWELLERY from old beer bottle tops, cup hooks and corks

ii. supplementing a shortage of CLEANING MATERIALS by crushing egg shells for use as a scouring compound and cutting squares out of old stockings for use as dishcloths

iii. using the dregs of cold tea to clean WOODWORK

iv. varnishing the soles of CHILDREN’S SHOES to prolong the foot-wears life

and

v. cutting up old Mackintoshes to make BIBS for babies.

http://www.homesweethomefront.co.uk/web_pages/hshf_salvage_pg.htm

SALVAGE - Recycling, 1940’s style

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Girl + Kitchen Waste for Pigs’ Image

PICTURE: Officially encouraged by such characters as ‘Superintendent Salvage’ and ‘Detective Inspector Waste’, Children became willing helpers in the salvage drive.

National Salvage Drives were an important feature of the wartime years.

The patriotic housewife was told to put her Salvage into four separate containers, consisting of;

TINS and METAL (earmarked for aircraft and tanks)

BOILED BONES (to be used to make glue for aircraft or glycerine for explosives)

KITCHEN WASTE (for feeding pigs)

PAPER (for recycling)

and

RAGS (if indeed there were any to collect - often the housewife’s reply would be “we’re wearing ‘em!”).

Residents were also asked to donate scrap metal. Everything from old razor blades to iron garden railings were handed over.

A network of collection depots were created to house the items gathered. Residents would often be reminded that

“Every scrap of food stuff saved is a blow to Hitler’s U-Boats which are out to starve us.

Here is your chance to beat the enemy in your own kitchen. Put your reply to Hitler’s threat

in the waste food bin”

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Kitchen Waste for Pigs’ Image - Click on image to enlarge!

SALVAGE FOR AIRCRAFT/SAUCEPANS FOR SPITFIRES

The Minister of Aircraft production Lord Beaverbrook encouraged citizens to hand over their aluminium pots and pans to build aircraft - A war on waste was declared.

Home Sweet Home Front - ‘Boys collecting saucepans’ Image

PICTURE: Boys helping to do their bit for aircraft production

With this drive for the salvaging of household goods, many songs designed to keep up morale, were written - one such salvage song went;

“My saucepans have all been surrendered

the teapot is gone from the hob

the colander’s leaving the cabbage

for a very much different job.

So now, when I hear the wireless

of Hurricanes showing their mettle

I see in a vision before me

a Dornier chased by my kettle”.

http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=54

Dig for Victory

Friday, October 03, 2008 - Categories: food gardening price

A poster from the Second World War Dig for Victory campaign.‘Dig for Victory’ was the memorable slogan of the British government’s campaign during the last World War to encourage the nation to feed itself in a time of food shortages. Since then there have been many changes to the way the Western World feeds itself and few can deny the quantity and range of foods now available compared to those days of rationing. So it is somewhat surprising to hear many of those who influence food policy recommending a return to national self-sufficiency in food. What is behind the call for people to return to growing their own produce?

During the Second World War the reasons for increased national food production were obvious: German U-boats were blockading the flow of food imports into the country and feeding a country and army meant that you either grew your own food or survived on meagre rations. A similar Victory Garden campaign in America helped increase supply and reduce the costs of the war effort. By 1944 about 40% of all vegetables being produced in the US came from victory gardens. In Britain the land used for food production increased by an amazing 80% during the war years culminating in about 1.4 million allotments being cultivated.

So why are current conditions being compared to such austere times when food production has moved on so much since then? After the war increases in trade and wealth predictably reduced the self-sufficiency of nations such as Britain. What is alarming is that national production has continued to drop even in recent years. About 95% of fruit and 50% of vegetables are currently imported into Britain. It’s this reliance on cheap imports which many see as the heart of the problem. Rising fuel costs, an ever increasing global population, increasing water shortages in many countries coupled with land being used to grow non-food crops for biofuel all mean that imported food is unlikely to be the cheap commodity of choice that it has been.

Already we have seen sharp rises in food prices. The world bank estimates that the cost of staple foods has risen by about 83% over three years. Many experts expect the trend to continue at an alarming rate unless policies change. Tim Lang, the well-respected professor of food policy at London’s City University is predicting that good-quality food is going to become more scarce. “There has been 60 years of silence on this issue” he says, “We haven’t had any sort of overview of food policy since the end of the Second World War. I think we need to accept that food is once again in a wartime state.” He is calling for leaders to advocate a return to home food production in order to mitigate what he sees as a looming global crisis.

Even the British government is starting to change its tune. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently urged the public to cut food waste saying that the average household throws away £420 ($740) of unused food each year. He seems to be trying to use the market forces of reduced demand to keep prices from rising too steeply. But many say that simply isn’t enough. Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association which campaigns for organic agriculture, says “The impulse to form the Soil Association came just after the Second World War. The thinking was shaped out of the necessity for self-sufficiency. In a sense the Soil Association’s entire history has been a preparation for this 21st Century food crisis, which – if we prepare for – we can avert, but if we don’t could be really serious.”

Whilst government policy may take years to change there is plenty that can be done in the meantime. Professor Lang comments that “This crisis can be solved by the democratisation of gardening – opening up and encouraging everyone to grow their own produce where possible in their own back garden or local community – changing thinking from food miles to food metres.” It doesn’t have the patriotic feel of the Victory Gardens in the last century but the end result may not be so far removed if we are to avoid healthy food becoming a luxury that only the rich can afford. Who knows? In ten years time government sponsored TV programmes promoting home growing might be commonplace: ‘Dig for health and wealth’ anyone?

Comments

http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=36

Categories: gardening organic mulch

An organic mulch of poached egg plant around sweetcornMulching is the practice of covering the soil around the vegetables and plants you want to grow. This is done to boost the various natural processes that help growth and to suppress weeds. It’s something that nearly all organic textbooks recommend and is amazingly easy to incorporate into any garden system. So why do more of us not mulch around our plants?

Mulching can be done in several ways: organic matter (such as woodchip, straw or leafmould) can be placed around plants and will eventually rot down into the soil improving its structure. Alternatively, sheet mulches (such as cardboard or permeable black plastic) can be used or even more permanent materials (such as slate, stones or gravel), although the latter are only usually used for low-maintenance ornamental areas.

The benefits are:

* Mulches suppress weed growth
* Mulches retain moisture - particularly helpful in hot summers
* Mulches reduce soil erosion – useful during winters and heavy rain
* Mulches can insulate crops from extreme temperatures – especially useful for early and late crops
* Organic mulches can rot down to provide soil nutrients and encourage beneficial soil organisms and worm activity
* Mulches can be used to prevent some crops rotting (such as strawberries) by lifting them off the ground

There are some things to be aware of too:

* Mulches can be homes to pests, although combining with other good organic practices should minimise this
* Organic mulches usually need to be applied in a loose or partially-rotted state or the first stages of decomposition can lead to nitrogen being taken from the soil, or anaerobic decomposition which can lead to ‘sour mulch’ which turns acidic and damages the plants it is supposed to be protecting.
* Organic mulches usually need to be quite thick - generally a good 1 to 3 inches thick placed around plants; more if the mulch will rot down to something smaller.

I’ve been growing poached egg plant (Limnanthes Douglasii) in huge quantities this year. Apart from having wonderful flowers that attract bees and other beneficial insects, it makes an excellent ‘green manure’ to dig into poor quality sandy soil. After clearing one area I was just about to dig it into the ground when a gardening friend suggested I use it as a mulch around my sweetcorn. So, I now have most of my sweetcorn duly mulched, with a few left without to compare with (I always like to run little ‘experiments’ like this in my garden to learn from).

I have also been growing the wonder-plant comfrey next to my compost bin, which has leaves rich in nitrogen, phosphates and potash. Once harvested and dried, these will be used for mulching around hungry fruiting plants such as tomatoes and peppers to suppress the weeds and feed the soil. And finally, I have a big bin of rotting leaves turning into leaf-mould which makes an excellent cover around plants – not rich in nutrients but very good for soil structure and weed suppression.

My big problem with mulches is generating enough organic material to do it well. It’s like compost – fantastic in theory but you never seem to have enough to go round. I’d love to hear what you do to generate good mulches and what successes you’ve had, so please do add a comment below.

http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=38

Tomato Supplements

Friday, June 13, 2008 - Categories: organic gardening tomato soil

Magnesium deficiency in tomato plants shows as yellowing leavesThis week I noticed that two of my tomato plants had yellow-brown leaves at the bottom and certainly didn’t look as perky as I expected given the attention I have been giving them. Admittedly these were two of the many surplus plants I raised from seed and so they ended up outdoors in rather poor soil usually reserved for less fussy plants. But I love tomatoes and can’t bear to see plants die, so out came my reference books to find out the cause.

Just as we need a full range of vitamins from a wide variety of food, so plants need essential minerals to survive and grow well. There are a whole range of these which are usually supplied by rich soil and compost. The main ones are:

* Nitrogen (N): this is essential for plant cell growth and chlorophyll – used in leaves and all the green parts of the plant – and is therefore essential for all vegetables. In particular vegetables grown for their leaves need a plentiful supply. Lack of nitrogen results in slow or spindly growth and leaves can yellow, often the older ones first.
* Phosphorus (P): essential for healthy roots and also for fruit to ripen. Lack of phosphorus shows up when growth is poor, leaves begin to have a blue/green tint or fall off and fruit and flowers are disappointingly small or late.
* Potassium (K): vital for flower and fruit growth. When lacking, fruiting plants are unproductive and older leaves can show signs of ‘scorching’, turning brownish and rolling up inwards and downwards.
* Magnesium (Mg): A lack of magnesium shows up as discolouring of the leaves between the veins: from a healthy green to a pale yellow and eventually brown – a sort of mottled appearance called ‘intervein chlorosis’.
* Calcium (Ca): A lack of calcium shows up as young leaves curling inwards and lacking colour, and is often a problem in acid soils. ‘Blossom end rot’ in tomatoes is caused by this condition.
* Many other nutrients – Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Iron, Sulphur and Boron are also required in small quantities. Several of these can also give rise to intervein chlorosis (see Magnesium above)

It seemed most likely to me that my tomatoes were suffering from magnesium deficiency – it’s a common problem with tomatoes and potatoes, especially on light sandy soils such as mine. Now, the traditional agricultural approach to deficiencies is to identify the missing mineral and spread the corresponding fertiliser to deal with the problem, or an NPK one containing the top three minerals listed above. I’m not keen on taking that approach because it goes against the organic principles I follow when gardening. Plants need a full range of nutrients, preferably from natural sources, and overdosing them on one (even if it’s in response to a deficiency) can often reduce the availability of others. So for organic alternatives the following are good:

* Seaweed Liquid Feed: Quite expensive but full of all the required nutrients, particularly potassium which is great as tomato plants mature. You simply dilute a capful in a watering can, best applied to the leaves (a ‘foliar feed’) once a week, where it is better absorbed than being washed into the soil
* Comfrey Leaf Tea: Comfry is a great plant to have – it grows quickly bringing up nutrients from deep down in the soil and its leaves can be cut back, packed into a container with water (and perhaps some urine) to make a foul-smelling liquid that is rich in almost everything that developing plants require. It is then diluted like seaweed feed. Just make sure you place comfrey plants away from your main beds (shade is fine) as it spreads easily and is almost impossible to get rid of.
* Leaf Feeds: useful for green crops that are harvested for their leaves as they contain plenty of nitrogen. Borage tea is made in a similar way to comfrey and works well for hungry plants. Urine can also be used, well diluted, or at least added to the compost heap once in a while.
* Mulches: - see my recent GrowBlog article about this – well-rotted compost or comfrey leaves make an excellent mulch which gradually releases nutrients to the plant.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that vegetables shouldn’t be harvested for a few days after a feed has been applied and even if it is organic they should be washed well.

Prevention is better than cure – for most areas of my garden the solution is to mix in plenty of organic compost a little while before planting. But I still rely on foliar feeds such as seaweed and I’m convinced my plants look better for it and produce far more. Those tomato plants should be recovering in no time…

Comments

you say urine ! who`s urine ?
Comment by: T on Saturday, June 14, 2008 10:55 PM

Well, traditionally the gardener’s, though I don’t suppose it matters whose! It’s very rich in Nitrogen and a whole range of nutrients and works well as a compost activator (to get the decomposition going)! You’ll find a number of well-known gardeners recommending it, such as Bob Flowerdew, though only if you’re not taking antibiotics or hormone treatments etc.
Comment by: Jeremy Dore on Monday, June 16, 2008 6:45 AM

Jeremy, I’m thinking of setting up a Bokashi bucket to allow me to add cooked food to my sealed composter. I looked on the net and it appears that the system basically pickles the cooked food so that it won’t smell and attract vermin. I read that it breaks down very quickly when added to a compost heap and speeds up general composting. It uses EM liquid which is supposed to add beneficial bacteria and allow plants to take up nutrients more easily. Has anybody tried this system and what sort of experience have thay had?
Comment by: mrsmiggins on Saturday, June 21, 2008 12:46 PM

Should I cut the leaves of if they are like the picture above?
Comment by: Garden on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 4:11 PM

You only need to cut off leaves if there’s an infection (like blight which is very unlikely this early in the year.)So I would leave them on, since it’s just indicating a mineral deficiency.
Comment by: Jeremy Dore on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 4:17 PM

Two quick comments. As my daughter is potty training I have a ready supply of urine which gets added to the compost heap. Also we use “worm wee” from our wormery as a plant feed, we have had amazing tomatoes our of grow bags by this method. It must be diluted though as it is very strong, infact it works temporarily as a weed killer if you don’t
Comment by: anna on Thursday, July 17, 2008 4:14 PM

Yes, wormery liquid is another excellent source of nutrients - thanks for mentioning these!
Comment by: Jeremy Dore on Friday, July 18, 2008 3:14 PM

http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=42

The Problem with Manure

Friday, July 11, 2008 - Categories: gardening organic problems

Typical leaf-curling symptopms on potatoes grown on soil treated with manure which has traces of the weedkiller aminopyralid inManure has long been the standard way for vegetable gardeners to improve the fertility of their soil. On my local allotment gardens, manure is delivered by the truckload each year and for just a small cost large quantities can be dug into your vegetable plot ready for the next season. This cheap high-nutrient boost is the way many gardeners have been producing vegetables for years but that’s going to have to change. Over the last few months a large number of plots treated with manure have been producing warped and damaged plants and the culprit seems to be a certain weed-killer (herbicide).

Many ‘standard’ pesticides and herbicides have been withdrawn over the last few years: some due to the active ingredient being deemed as unsafe by the EU and others because the manufacturers don’t think it’s worthwhile to go through the more complex approval process that now exists. Although these withdrawals were sanctioned in 2003, EU member states were allowed to apply for a number of ‘essential use’ pesticides to remain in use until June 2007. As a result, it’s only recently that farmers have started switching to newer herbicides and we suddenly have a full-scale problem on our hands.

Gardeners up and down the UK have been reporting that many of their plants have been failing, producing curled-up leaves (see the picture above), distorted and stunted growth, mal-formed vegetables or simply no crop at all. The worst affected plants are potatoes, tomatoes, peas, beans, carrots and some salad crops. Gardeners’ helplines, such as the one run by the RHS, have been inundated with calls and there is a common theme emerging - they’ve all used manure and in many cases this has been contaminated by one particular, relatively new, herbicide.

The culprit seems to be aminopyralid – a hormone-type herbicide which goes under several trade names such as Milestone and Forefront – and is being spread through contaminated manure. It’s produced by a company called Dow AgroSciences and has cost millions of dollars to develop. Aminopyralid is attractive to farmers because it kills a number of persistent weeds in pasture, such as dock, thistles and nettles, and because it persists on plants it requires fewer-than-usual applications. Sources of manure, such as stables, regularly use straw and hay which are usually bought-in from farmers who may be using this herbicide. It’s often difficult to trace who supplied the straw that stables use and people have even reported this problem in manure from cattle who have eaten hay or silage from grass treated with aminopyralid 12 months previously.

At this point I should state that I have always been suspicious of using manure and have never put it on my own soil (although I have used an allotment plot that had years of manure applications and could clearly see how much the plants benefited from the nutrient boost!) The problem with using manure in an organic system is that it has very poor traceability: it’s almost impossible to get information about what the animals that produced the manure have been fed or what medication they may have been given. It’s for this reason that you will never find manure recommended on GrowVeg.com.

So what should you do if your crops are affected? Unfortunately no guaranteed solutions exist. The official statement on Dow AgroScience’s site says ‘we suggest damaged produce... should not be consumed’ and recommends that the area is thoroughly rotovated or dug over several times to help the chemicals to degrade, with remaining manure not being used. Other sources suggest that it’s going to take 3 years before crops will be unaffected, though much of this is speculative. A very good round-up of the situation is provided in the excellent articles on www.allotment.org.uk where you will find much active discussion about the issue. Even branded bags of manure sold in garden centres have apparently been contaminated.

Whatever the advise on dealing with this problem, many gardeners are going to feel angry and let-down by the systems that are meant to protect from problems such as these. Most people grow their own food naturally, with many sticking to strict organic principles. In the past this allowed for manure to be part of that process, yet now they find themselves with no usable crop and no certain timescale for the contamination to go away. Dow AgroSciences advise farmers not to sell manure that might contain the weed-killer to gardeners but how do the farmers know what was sprayed on the grass products they bought in? I can only conclude that manure is no longer a safe option for gardeners, due to the poor traceability of sources of animal silage, hay and potentially other problems with animal medication. With large numbers of the public now taking up vegetable growing, the problem is only going to get worse unless the regulations are tightened. Indeed, I believe that nothing short of a ban on the sale of aminopyralid-based products will eradicate this problem.

The only viable solution is to switch to non-animal methods of organic gardening, such as green manures and home-produced compost. For consumers the new Stockfree Organic Certification from the Vegan Organic Network is a guarantee that animal products have not been used in the production of crops and their website contains useful information sheets on improving soil fertility by these means. For those concerned with pesticide residues in gardening, there are excellent tips available on the Pesticide Action Network website in their monthly Gardening Tips.

Please note that due to the potential for legal action by a large corporation such as Dow AgroScience, we have to ask that unsubstantiated comments against the company or its products are not made in our comments section and we reserve the right to edit comments where applicable. However we still welcome comments on this important issue.

[Several comments, one says that the chemical was withdrawn from sale in England, is it for sale in the U.S.
granny

http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=49

Green Manures – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Friday, August 29, 2008 - Categories: gardening organic green manure soil

Phacelia is an almost-perfect green manure: grows easily, lots of lush growth and attracts beneficial insects.How to improve the fertility of your soil is a question that all good gardeners take seriously. One of the most under-used methods of soil improvement is the use of green manures (called ‘fall cover crops’ in America), plants grown specifically to be dug back into the soil to improve it. In principle this sounds pretty easy – just sprinkle some seed on the ground after the main crop has been harvested and then dig the plants in after a few weeks. But in practice there’s a lot more to it, so I thought I would do a little experimenting to find the perfect green manure.

As regular readers of GrowBlog will know, I live in an area with very sandy soil: great for digging and growing carrots but not at all good at retaining nutrients which are easily washed away. I’d love to say I can produce enough compost for my garden but despite my best attempts at bins of rotting organic material and leaf-mould there just never seems to be enough. The charity Garden Organic recently found that growing green manure can reduce the loss of the key nutrient nitrogen in the soil by up to 97 percent compared to soil left bare. So green manures seem to be the perfect solution.

Green manures work by drawing goodness out of the soil and storing it in the plant’s cells and root nodules. When the plants are then dug back into the soil they rot down and gradually release these nutrients to the next crop in a more readily-available form. Regular use of green manures improves the soil structure, breaking down hard soils and adding organic matter to light soils like mine. Green manures can have other benefits as well. Many of them provide good soil cover, suppressing weed growth and preventing erosion. Others attract beneficial insects to the garden such as bees and hoverflies which prey on pests like aphids.

So how do you choose a green manure to sow? The following types are readily available:

* Legumes, such as winter field beans (like fava beans), lupins and fenugreek which fix nitrogen into the roots (as long as they are dug in before flowering when the nitrogen is lost). Other peas and beans, such as sweet peas, can also be used. I have used winter field beans very successfully when planting a late green manure since they will even grow when temperatures are starting to take a dive during mid-autumn.
* Clovers, red or crimson clover being the best as it dies down, also in the legume family.
* Winter tares, also known as vetches, are also winter-hardy but like rye they can be difficult to dig in. Again, part of the legume family so they fix nitrogen into the soil.
* Rye, such as Hungarian grazing rye, will grow well at low temperatures but can be difficult to dig in and get rid of.
* Mustards, can be very effective but, as they are part of the brassica family, they can interfere with your crop rotation.
* Buckwheat and Phacelia are both excellent at attracting beneficial insects and are easily dug in.
* Winter-hardy salad crops, such as corn salad and miner’s salad (Claytonia) are easily dug in once used and can provide some extra salad leaves while growing.
* Others which are not normally regarded as green manures can also do a great job. Poached-egg plant (Limnanthes Douglassii) is a great example – bright flowers, grows well over winter and digs in easily. I regularly plant this in my garden and leave a few to flower to attract hoverflies.

[The above list includes most of the available green manures in the UK. For a US-list, see the article on the National Garden Association website]

Whilst this looks like a wide variety of options, there are some important factors to consider. Firstly, many green manures are great for farmers with machinery to dig in the plants but are not half as easy for gardeners who have to do it by hand. Well-known author Bob Flowerdew recommends that you avoid ryes, tares and vetches, fodder radish, and many clovers for exactly this reason. Secondly, not all green manures grow well on all soils. Tares don’t do well on dry or acid soils, clovers prefer light soils and beans prefer heavier ground.

This year I set apart an area where I could grow three of the best as a trial: fenugreek, phacelia and buckwheat. I’ve written previously about how important I think it is to experiment in the garden and this test really proved the point. For me, both the buckwheat and the fenugreek struggled to provide much ground cover and were relatively poor at germinating. Phacelia was the complete opposite and you can see how well it did in the picture above. It required little weeding, quickly producing lush growth up to about 40cm (16 inches) high and even attracted a range of bees and insects if left to flower. I shall be sowing more of it before the end of the season and plan to incorporate it in several places across my garden next year, particularly because it’s from the waterleaf family of plants and doesn’t interfere with crop rotation.

So if I was asked to name my top three green manures they would be phacelia, poached-egg plant and winter field beans. I’m still on the lookout for other good green manures though, so please do share your experiences below.

http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=56

Currant Bushes

Friday, October 17, 2008 - Categories: gardening fruit currant shade propagating cuttings

New currant bushes like this one are easy to propagate from cuttings.It is around this time of the year that I like to start one of my favourite gardening activities –dreaming about next year! As the garden starts to slow down for the approaching winter, catalogues appear through the letterbox at an ever increasing rate and looking through them helps distract my attention from dismal weather and lack of daylight. I particularly like pictures promising huge harvests of fruit from perfectly pruned bushes. The only problem is the cost of buying in the new bushes and trees. But there is one type of fruit that comes to the rescue... currant bushes.

Currants are the forgotten treasure of productive gardens. If you had to weigh up the amount of harvest against the effort, space and expense of many edible plants then I think currents would come near the top of the list. Black currant, red currant and white currant bushes all yield copious clusters of berries which are rich in vitamin C as well as having a high pectin content which makes them ideal for jams and jellies.

Their fruit are so flavoursome and require so little work that I think every garden should include a currant bush. OK, so I am rather biased: I have fond memories of blackcurrant and apple crumble with custard, redcurrant jelly and fruit compote that I can still taste from my childhood. Plus I love the smell of currant bushes and the berries freeze very well for use right through winter. But there is more: they are one of the few productive plants that grow well in semi-shaded or damp conditions which makes them ideal for those unproductive corners of a garden where other plants struggle. As long as the soil is reasonably good quality and not alkaline they will usually do well.

In the catalogues currants are usually bought bare-rooted to be planted during the dormant season from late autumn/fall to early spring. There are wonderful varieties to choose from but once you have one thriving bush (or know someone who has) you don’t even need to pay for the rest as they are so simple to propagate. Take 30cm (12”) cuttings from the one-year old stems and you have all you need for new plants. Simply stick them into the ground in early spring and let nature do the rest.

These cuttings are often made when pruning the plant, which is commonly done in early spring. Although they have productive lives of ten or more years, currants need to have the older branches thinning out to ‘open up’ the bush in order to get the best crop. One year old branches are left as they will bear fruit next year. Some two and three-year old branches should also remain and the rest are pruned back, especially those that might touch the ground since mosaic disease can spread this way.

Last year I took four such cuttings and stuck them into a fairly shady part of my garden with not-the-best soil. To my delight three of the four took root, one even producing enough crop to make a delicious desert when stewed with apple. Having spent their first year rooting, they are now ready for transplanting to their final position in my garden – three healthy plants and for no more effort than pruning the bush they came from. So, whilst I love looking through the catalogues at their wonderful fruit collections I also have to smile at the three new bushes of one of my favourite fruits which cost me absolutely nothing!

[NB: In America, currant bushes were banned for many years as they can host white pine blister rust which affects the timber industry. Although the federal ban was lifted in 1966 some states still prohibit cultivation of black currants]

Comments

I also love currants. I used to have two fabulous red currant bushes that produced tons of fruit as well as three black currant bushes that I turned into wonderful fruity and powerful blackcurrant wine.
Comment by: Pumpking on Friday, November 14, 2008 6:45 PM

I am new to currents this is my second Year and only have two bushes but after reading your articul l will have many more in the future as for using them in cooking a tried and tested receipy or two would be helpful.
Comment by: Peaches on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 6:27 AM

Lidl’s recently had currants and gooseberry bushes for sale for just a few quid,on a promotion that was supposed to be on all week. I duly went down there about lunchtime expecting to buy a few of each, but they had all gone. When I asked the manager he said it was crazy people were buying them by the dozen and they all went in three hours.”Perhaps we should have rationed them out” he said. I went back several more times that week but there were no more to be had so a few customers had got them all and It left me wondering how many of those lucky but greedy people will actually bother planting and growing them.
Comment by: David on Thursday, November 27, 2008 11:10 AM

‘Peaches’ - most of my recipes for currants involve gently stewing them with a little sugar and perhaps apple or gooseberry for about 20 minutes. You only need to add a tablespoon or so of water as long as the heat is not up too high and you have a lid on the saucepan. Then you can add crumble toppings, or use them as a sauce with yoghurts, ice-cream etc. One of the great things about currants is that they cook just as well from frozen so you can keep a good supply going for many months.
Comment by: Jeremy Dore on Friday, December 05, 2008 11:50 AM

http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/perennialvegetables

Perennial Vegetables
From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-Grow Edibles
by Eric Toensmeier

“Eric Toensmeier has comprehensively filled a huge gap in the sustainable landscape. Perennial Vegetables lets you put away your tiller, and covers everything you need to grow, harvest, and eat vegetables and greens that will keep coming back year after year.”

—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden

The garden that never stops giving.

There is a fantastic array of vegetables you can grow in your garden, and not all of them are annuals. In Perennial Vegetables the adventurous gardener will find information, tips, and sound advice on less common edibles that will make any garden a perpetual, lowmaintenance source of food.

Imagine growing vegetables that require just about the same amount of care as the flowers in your perennial beds and borders—no annual tilling and planting. They thrive and produce abundant and nutritious crops throughout the season. It sounds too good to be true, but in Perennial Vegetables author and plant specialist Eric Toensmeier (Edible Forest Gardens) introduces gardeners to a world of little-known and wholly underappreciated plants. Ranging beyond the usual suspects (asparagus, rhubarb, and artichoke) to include such “minor” crops as ground cherry and ramps (both have found their way onto exclusive restaurant menus) and the much sought-after, antioxidant-rich wolfberry (also known as goji berries), Toensmeier explains how to raise, tend, harvest, and cook with plants that yield great crops and satisfaction.

Perennial vegetables are perfect as part of an edible landscape plan or permaculture garden. Profiling more than a hundred species, with dozens of color photographs and illustrations, and filled with valuable growing tips, recipes, and resources, Perennial Vegetables is a groundbreaking and ground-healing book that will open the eyes of gardeners everywhere to the exciting world of edible perennials.

About the Author
Eric Toensmeier

Eric Toensmeier calls himself a “socially engaged plant geek.” He has spent much of his adult life exploring edible and otherwise useful plants and how they can be used in designed ecosystems. He is also co-author with Dave Jacke of the two-volume permaculture design manual Edible Forest Gardens. Eric has worked as a small farm trainer at the New England Small Farm Institute (Belchertown, MA) (www.smallfarm.org) and currently manages the Tierra de Oportunidades new farmer program of Nuestras Ra ces (www.nuestras-raices.org) in Holyoke, MA. There he is designing and installing a permaculture landscape in concert with immigrant farmers ...

View Eric’s full profile page >

http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/index.php?p=973

From the book:

Perennial vegetables can be hard to find. The nurseries and seed companies that stock them are usually small and run by highly dedicated enthusiasts. In some cases only one or two companies in North America offer the species you are looking for. Be prepared for some quirky or technical catalogs—but ones that are chock-full of fascinating plants. Someday perennial vegetables may be available through mainstream companies. While this will help many more people grow them, please don’t forget the pioneering companies and organizations that first made these crops available to you.

During the course of writing this book two of the finest perennial vegetable nurseries—Oregon Exotics and Future Foods—went out of business. This should be a lesson to us all not to hold back on ordering something rare, because it may be very difficult to find it again if a company goes under.

AgroHaitai Ltd.
P.O. Box 78051
Hamilton, Ontario L9C 7N5
Canada
(519) 647-2280
www.agrohaitai.com
Asian vegetables including fragrant spring tree, water spinach, and winged bean.

J. D. Andersen Nursery
2790 Marvinga Ln.
Fallbrook, CA 92028
(949) 361-3652
www.jdandersen.com
Tremendous banana selection for California.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
2278 Baker Creek Rd.
Mansfield, MO 65704
(417) 924-8917
www.rareseeds.com
Many perennial vegetables including such rarities as ‘Day Length Neutral’ winged beans, green hyacinth beans, and goldenberry.

Bamboo Garden Nursery
1507 Southeast Alder St.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 647-2700
www.bamboogarden.com
Hardy bamboos.

Bamboo Headquarters
(866) 293-2925
www.bambooheadquarters.com
Excellent selection of bamboos for California.

The Banana Tree
715 Northampton St.
Easton, PA 18042
(610) 253-9589
www.banana-tree.com
Specializing in unusual tropical plants including many banana varieties as well as air potato.

Edible Plant Project
www.edibleplantproject.com
Volunteer-run nursery propagating useful perennials adapted to northern Florida. Sales through Gainesville farmers’ market.

Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO)
17391 Durrance Rd.
North Fort Myers, FL 33917
(239) 543-3246
www.echonet.org
ECHO is one of the best sources for tropical perennial vegetables. Their seed company ships anywhere, but unfortunately to get plants from their nursery you need to go there in person. ECHO has a wider selection of rare useful plants that are shipped free to development projects in developing countries, but are not available elsewhere due to limited seed availability.

Evergreen YH Enterprises
P.O. Box 17538
Anaheim, CA 92817
(714) 637-5769
www.evergreenseeds.com
Asian vegetable seeds including many perennials.

Fedco Seeds
P.O. Box 520
Waterville, ME 04903
(207) 873-7333
www.fedcoseeds.com
Sunchokes, shallots, good king Henry, and more.

Florida Bamboo Company
Gainesville, FL
(352) 665-2175
www.floridabamboo.com
Clumping bamboos for tropical and subtropical Florida. Not mail order.

G&N Ramp Farm
Box 48
Richwood, WV 26261
(304) 846-4235
Specializing in ramps; also offering several booklets on growing and cooking with ramps.

Heronswood Nursery
7530 Northeast 288th St.
Kingston, WA 98346
(360) 297-4172
www.heronswood.com
Fascinating collection, including udo and fuki.

Horus Botanicals
HCR Route 82, Box 29
Salem, AR 72576
Fascinating collection of useful plants, including many rare tropical vegetables.

J. L. Hudson
Star Route 2, Box 337
La Honda, CA 94020
www.jlhudsonseeds.net
“Native plants from around the world,” including chufa and others. Authors of Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds
955 Benton Ave.
Winslow, ME 04901
(207) 861-3900
www.johnnyseeds.com
Wide range of vegetables, including many perennials.
[Ed. Note: Works closely with our author Eliot Coleman, of Four-Season Harvest and The New Organic Grower]

Karchesky Canna Collection
(724) 466-0979
www.karcheskycanna.com
Offering achira (edible canna), which they call “anchiras.”

Lilypons Water Gardens
6800 Lilypons Rd.
P.O. Box 10
Adamstown, MD 21710
(800) 999-5459
www.lilypons.com
Aquatic vegetables like water celery and arrowhead.

Moore Water Gardens
P.O. Box 70
4683 Sunset Rd.
Port Stanley, ON N5L 1J4
Canada
(519) 782-4052
www.moorewatergardens.com
Fine selection of edible aquatic plants.

Mountain Gardens
546 Shuford Creek Rd.
Burnesville, NC 28714
(828) 675-5664
www.mountaingardensherbs.com
Large collection of useful plants.

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
15290 Coleman Valley Rd.
Occidental, CA 95465
(707) 874-1557
www.oaec.org
Many species adapted to California, including tree collards and Andean root crops. On-site sales only.

Peace Seeds
2385 Southeast Thompson St.
Corvallis, OR 97333
(541) 752-0421
Numerous interesting plants, including achira.

Perennial Pleasures
P.O. Box 147
East Hardwick, VT 05836
(802) 472-5104
www.perennialpleasures.net
Hardy perennials, including a superior skirret clone.

Peters Seed and Research
P.O. Box 1472
Myrtle Creek, OR 97457
(541) 874-2615
www.psrseed.com
They breed their own unique varieties of perennial vegetables including perennial grains and brassicas.

Plant Delights Nursery
9241 Sauls Rd.
Raleigh, NC 27603
(919) 772-4794
www.plantdelights.com
“Tropicalesque” hardy plants for colder climates.

Pond Plants and More
P.O. Box 155
Bentleyville, PA 15314
(724) 239-6673
www.pondsplantsandmore.com
Aquatic vegetables including water mimosa and water chestnut.

Richters Herbs
P.O. Box 26
Goodwood, ON LOC 1AO
Canada
(905) 640-6677
www.richters.com
Fantastic catalog offering many perennial vegetables.

Rivenrock Gardens
c/o John & Vickie Dicus
P.O. Box 196
Nipomo, CA 93444
www.rivenrock.com
Specializing in spineless nopale cactus varieties.

Sand Hill Preservation Center
1878 230th St.
Calamus, IA 52729
(563) 246-2299
www.sandhillpreservation.com
Many neat crops, including incredible diversity in sweet potato varieties.

Seeds of Diversity Canada
P.O. Box 36, Station Q
Toronto, ON M4T 2L7
Canada
(866) 509-SEED
www.seeds.ca
Sea kale, skirret, groundnut, and more.

Seed Savers Exchange
3094 North Winn Rd.
Decorah, IA 52101
(563) 382-5990
www.seedsavers.org
Grassroots network of seed savers sharing seeds and plants by mail. The “Miscellaneous” section of their annual yearbook includes many rare perennial vegetables. Joining SSE is highly recommended! SSE also has a much more limited commercial catalog of seed varieties for sale; don’t confuse this with their full listing of thousands of varieties, which is only available to members. Listing an astounding 11,848 varieties in 2006.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
P.O. Box 460
Mineral, VA 23117
(540) 894-9480
www.southernexposure.com
Collection of varieties adapted to the hot, humid South, including multiplier onions.

Sow Organic Seed
P.O. Box 527
Williams, OR 97544
(888) 709-7333
www.organicseed.com
Andean tubers and more.

Taro and Ti
Lakeland, FL
(877) 889-5088
www.taroandti.com
Specializing in edible taro varieties including low-oxalate “luau leaf” types needing only minimal cooking.

Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants
Monticello
P.O. Box 316
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(804) 977-9821
www.monticello.org/shop
Crops grown by Jefferson, including edible hibiscus and heirloom lima and scarlet runner varieties.

Tripple Brook Farm
37 Middle Rd.
Southampton, MA 01073
(413) 527-4626
www.tripplebrookfarm.com
Great selection of useful cold-hardy plants, many perennial vegetables.

Underwood Gardens
1414 Zimmerman Rd.
Woodstock, IL 60098
(815) 338-6279
www.underwoodgardens.com
Many interesting plants, including cranberry hibiscus.

USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN)
www.ars-grin.gov
National collection of plant materials for hundreds of crops and
thousands of wild crop relatives. Free seeds and plants available
for research purposes (including backyard research). Includes rarities
like saltbush and earthnut pea.

Van Bourgondien
P.O. Box 1000
Babylon, NY 11702
(800) 622-9997
www.dutchbulbs.com
Source for the day-length-neutral mashua cultivar ‘Ken Aslet’.

Van Engelen Inc.
23 Tulip Dr.
P.O. Box 638
Bantam, CT 06750
(860) 567-8734
www.vanengelen.com
Bulk bulb purchases; excellent camass prices.

Agrinom LLC
Box 174, 31–469 Mamalahoa Hwy.
Hakalau, Hawaii 96710
(808) 963 6771
www.agrinom.com
Authors of the excellent Tropical Perennial Vegetable series. On-site sales only.

Fukuda Seed Store, Inc.
1287 Kalani St.
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 841-6719
Sole legal source of water spinach seed in the United States.

Gaia Yoga Nursery
RR2 No. 3334
Pahoa, HI 96778
(808) 965-5664
www.gaiayoga.org/nursery
Breadfruit, bamboos, perennial leaf crops, and more.

La‘Akea Gardens
P.O. Box 1071
Pahoa, HI 96778
(808) 443-4076
www.permaculture-hawaii.com
Permaculture nursery featuring many perennial vegetables.

Agroforestry Research Trust
46 Hunters Moon
Dartington, Totnes
Devon, TQ9 6JT
England
+44 (0) 1803 840776
www.agroforestry.co.uk
Research center with nursery and seed company, featuring useful plants for cool temperate climates.

B&T World Seeds
Paguignan
34210 Aigues-Vives
France
00 33 (0) 4 68 91 29 63
www.b-and-t-world-seeds.com
Unbelievable seed company offering 35,000 listings. If no one else has it, B&T usually does, though it may take them awhile to track it down.

Chiltern Seeds
Bortree Stile
Ulverston
Cumbria LA12 7PB
England
www.chilternseeds.co.uk
Many species including good king Henry and sea kale.

Doubleday Research
Heritage Seed Library
c/o Garden Organic
Ryton Organic Gardens
Coventry
Warwickshire CV8 3LG
England
www.gardenorganic.uk.org
Rare seeds available to members, including branching bush kales like ‘Dorbenton’.

Earthcare Enterprises
P.O. Box 500
Maleny, Queensland 4552
Australia
07 5499 9599
www.earthcare.com.au
Great bamboos, achira, taro, cassava, water chestnut, and more.

Herb Garden and Historical Plants Nursery
Pentre Berw, Gaerwen
Anglesey LL60 6LF
Wales
01248 422208
www.historicalplants.co.uk
Many interesting plants, including saltbush and wild cabbage.

Poyntz field Herb Nursery
Black Isle
By Dingwall IV7 8LX
Ross & Cromarty
Scotland
+44 (0) 1381 610352
www.poyntzfieldherbs.co.uk
Offerings include sea kale, oca, mashua.

How can any man made ingredients you can’t pronounce be better for you than a natural product that comes from an animal?<<<

A question that I have asked many times.

Milk and Karo syrup worked for many babies, when for some reason mothers milk could not be used......as I had to stop nursing at 10 days old, it was making her sick.

When my younger sister had her 3, they went on soy, and were puny weak kids.

Had they have been plant seedlings, we would have weeded them out and left the growing space for the strong ones.

And to me, that is what we have done with the young, grown a weak bunch of kids and then stood back and said, “gee they sure are puny in the head too”.

If there is a dollar to be made, then there is an ad to sell the product and if the dollars are rolling in, it has to be good for you.

Scott has a hard time shopping for me, as I refuse to buy it if it is advertised on tv, and he buys only name brands for himself, so does not understand what I want.

I don’t understand, or maybe I do, it is called brainwashing.

This recession will do much for the education of our people, we have been blessed with no all out wars on our soil, and most had only rationing to fuss about in WW2.

That is not talking about our warriors, we sent to fight an die,
as they did, while we fussed over one egg cakes.

There was in the 1950’s a “program of the future, before the fancy star wars programs, it was quite good and and showed what was coming.

Pop a pill, and that was your food.

At 15, a girl had to choose from a book, which type she would be, as for looks and God help you if you wanted to be your own person, you must do as all the others did.

The greatest sex scene that I have ever seen, was Jane Fonda in Barbarella, they took a pill, put their finger tips together and set side by side on the couch....and LOL, that was the sex act, finger tips touched and lots of sweating......and don’t we almost have that today?

Today having sex is not needed to make a baby.

Each year there are fewer people, such as yourself, who cans, cooks and can sew, and more who order it sight unseen from the internet.

OK, you can have the soapbox back. LOL

[This site will make one stop and think, and cuss, and want to fight back...granny]

http://bittergreensgazette.blogspot.com/

Dominant traits: Can the seed trusts be busted?
According to a recent study by ETC Group, the world’s ten-largest seed vendors control about half of the global seed market.

By the standards of late capitalism, that’s a modest concentration level. In the United States, for example, the top four beef packers pack more than 80 percent of the nation’s beef. Microsoft famously owns more than 90 percent of the world’s computer operating system market. Consolidation of suppliers is as American as the SUV and the Apache helicopter.

Nevertheless, seeds lie at the heart of all organized food production, and thus at the heart of human culture for the past 10,000 years. Perhaps the seed trade deserves a closer look.

At the top of the seed pile, the above-linked ETC report shows, we find Monsanto, the former “life-sciences” giant that mutated into a gene-splicing agribusiness behemoth . It vaulted over rival Dupont as the world’s largest seed supplier in March, when it snapped up fruit-and-vegetable seed titan Seminis for $1.4 billion. Below Monsanto and Dupont we find Syngenta, the Swiss agribusiness firm. The three companies, like genetic experiments they might conjure up in one of their labs, share at least two sinister traits.

The first is that they are all among the world’s largest pesticide companies. I’ll address that topic another time.

The other shared trait is this: In addition to peddling physical seeds, they also peddle what’s known in the business as “traits.” This is the precise genetic coding that’s artificially inserted into a seed’s germoplasm to create a desired characteristic—say, the ability to withstand herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup, which otherwise obliterate all plant life on contact. These companies can and do license these “triats” and sell them to other seed purveyors.

To put it in computer terms, we’re looking at a kind of software/hardware model: the seeds are the hardware and the traits are the software.

In the computer world, these functions tend to be distinct: Microsoft dominates desktop software; Dell tops the market in PCs. Even Bush’s Justice Department and SEC, both of which operate squarely under the heel of Wall Street in anti-trust matters, might squack if those two behemoths merged. In seeds, however, the giants perform both functions without raising a regulatory eyebrow.

At first glance, comparing the the seed market to the PC market looks like a stretch. Microsoft owns nearly 100 percent of the desktop software market, while Monsanto, Dupont, and Syngenta together control only about a quarter of the seed market.

But a closer look at individual at the fast-emerging genetically modified (GM) seed market shows Monsanto weilds a Microsoft-like heft. The ETC report reveals that 88 percent of the world’s GM crop acreage is planted with seeds containing Monsanto-owned traits. More than 90 percent of the world’s genetically modified soybean crops contain Monsanto’s genetic goodies. For maize (field corn, the stuff that’s ground into industrial-food inputs like high-fructose corn syrup or fed to confined livestock, not the food you eat off the cob), that number is 97 percent.

As for cotton, Monsanto traits account for 61 percent of the GM seed market. In April of this year, Monsanto spent $300 million to snap up Emergent Genetics, the third-largest cotton seed company in both India and the US.

Let’s think about what that deal means. Before its sellout, Emergent, like many independent seed purveyors, could buy GM traits from the three giants: Monsanto, Dupont, and Syngenta; it could shop around for the best price. Now, it will presumably only use Monsanto traits.

By selling both physical seeds and traits—hardware and software—Monsanto puts itself in the position of cornering individual markets. That’s the sort of thing that used to set an attorney general’s teeth on edge. Our last couple of AG’s though, have been much more interested in spying on citizens and justifying torture of suspected enemies of the state.

Now, so far, Monsanto’s dominance extends only to the largest, most lucrative, and (not coincidentally) heavily subsidized crops: soybeans, cotton, corn. What happens if it turns its R&D attention to fruits and vegetables? Can the debut of GM bitter greens be far off? (Rather than sue me, maybe Monsanto should corner the market on the seeds of arugula, watercress, Tokyo bikuna, etc. That would bring Maverick Farms to its knees!)

Here we run against the sinister implications of Monsanto’s Seminis buy. To date, attempts to genetically alter fruits and vegetables have failed miserably. A few years ago, Monsanto magnanimously bestowed upon Kenya the gift of a GM sweet potato, designed in a lab to increase yield. It was easy, then, to paint GM opponents as racist. The trouble was, the Monsanto sweet potato proved a bust in the field, as this article shows.

And Seminis itself grew out of the dashed GM hopes of a Mexican plutocrat named Alfonso Romo, whose late 1990s buying binge eventually made Seminis the world’s largest fruit and vegetable seed company. (Romo is part of that generation of Mexican businessmen, the leading figure of which is the telecom baron Carlos Slim, who attained lavish wealth in the 1990s aided by a great burst of state-sponsored cronyism applauded by the IMF, Wall Street, and Washington.) Here’s how the Wall Street journal described Romo’s GM dreams in 1999:

[Romo] envisions creating utopian vegetables: non-browning lettuce, broccoli with enhanced cancer-fighting properties, and produce of all kinds that won’t wrinkle, spoil or blemish. Whether his own scientists or others develop the means to accomplish those goals, he believes he will benefit. “Seeds are software,” he says. “And we have the seeds.”

The above-linked article hails a joint venture between Romo’s company and Monsanto to create Roundup Ready lettuce—an effort that seems, thankfully, to have gone bust. Romo’s company claims responsibility for those ignominious and flavorless “baby carrots” one finds stuffed into bags on supermarket shelves, and it brought to market seeds for a “cucumber that yields a hamburger-size pickle slice designed to lie perfectly between a pair of buns,” the Journal reports.

That’s bad stuff; but what I really found offensive was that “Mr. Romo’s company lowered the heat factor of the jalapeno pepper, helping salsa pull even with ketchup in the U.S. in dollar sales.” The man seems intent on breeding any flavor at all out of American food.

Luckily, to my mind, the market eventually frowned on Romo’s efforts. Within two years of the Journal article, the U.S. business press had knocked Romo from his pedestal. His biotech schemes faltered on the supermarket shelf or on the petri dish, and his company became sodden with debt.

Here is Business Week in 2001:

Today, it’s a chastened Romo who surveys the wreckage of his worldwide empire. The 50-year-old, hailed as a visionary seven years ago when he first invested in agricultural biotechnology and seed companies, now is struggling to pay creditors and remain afloat. An agreement restructuring Romo’s corporate debt is expected with the banks any day. But Romo’s problem remains: He grew too big, too fast.

Eventually, Romo restructured his seed holdings and created Seminis, which, as stated above, he recently sold to Monsanto for $1.4 billion. A corporate tightrope walker, he managed to stay on as chief of the division.

The deal immediately posed moral problems for small-scale farmers, including Maverick Farms. Both of our main seed suppliers—Johnny’s and Fedco—buy and resell seeds from Seminis. As this thoughtful articleby Matthew Dillon of the Seed Alliance shows, Johnny’s and Fedco will likely have to continue buying certain seeds from Seminis; its market heft is so great that it essentially holds a monopoly position in certain varieties, including heirlooms like Early Girl tomatoes.

And it’s that market heft, combined with Monsanto’s R&D muscle, that conjures a dire picture: What if Monsanto plunges seriously into GM vegetables? Many Wall Street analysts thought Monsanto wildly overpaid for Seminis, a slow-growing business with loads of debt. The only way the deal made sense was if Monsanto really thought it could cash in on GM veggies. Will it be allowed to dominate both the vegetable seed market and germoplasm market?

Today’s Senate approval of the pro-industry zealot John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court bodes ill for the future of U.S. antitrust law.

Ladies and gentlemen of the small-scale sustainable-farming world, it’s time we got more serious about seed saving.

posted by Tom Philpott

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.