Sustainable Urban Gardens ... the blog

Michael Pollan: From the Soil

2012-01-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

Eating offers us an intimate connection with the soil.
Food journalist Michael Pollan describes the nutrient cycle that starts and ends with dirt.

The first "BEST reason for composting"....start a pile today! (remember, no animal stuff and no dairy...but egg shells are good) It is easy to get started now!!!

How to Make a Wreath

2011-12-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

How to make a wreath, a Christmas wreath, any wreath, for any occasion, or that special wreath that has meaning and imparts a special message.

In this video, Tricia gathers greenery and makes a holiday wreath in her garden. Whether you want a Christmas wreath, a solstice wreath, or a wreath for other seasons, watch and see how easy it is to create your own unique decoration.
If you’re going to construct your own wreath, make it as personal as possible. Here are things to consider:
* Choose plants that have special significance.
* Use branches from your own garden.
* Pick foliage and needle colors to coordinate or contrast with your house or front door.

DISCOVER THE “LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS” MEANING OF YOUR EVERGREENS

The Language of Flowers was in full bloom during the Victorian era but many of the plant meanings have ancient origins and still sound familiar in the 21st century.
Blue Spruce = Hope in adversity
Boxwood = Constancy
Cedar = Strength
Cypress = Mourning
Holly = Domestic happiness
Juniper = Protection
Laurel = Glory
Mistletoe = I surmount all difficulties
Olive = Peace
Pine (black) = Boldness
Rosemary = Remembrance
Strawberry tree = Esteem

Make a wreath with a message
* Have you persisted through a challenging year? Celebrate your resilience with cedar (strength), pine (boldness), and mistletoe (I surmount all difficulties).
* Is your home an especially happy one this season? Highlight that with boxwood (constancy) and holly (domestic happiness), and add some juniper (protection) to keep it that way.
* To honor loved ones who are no longer with you, weave a solemn wreath of cypress (mourning) and rosemary (remembrance).
* Show hope for the year ahead with blue spruce (hope in adversity) and olive (peace).

USE BRANCHES FROM YOUR OWN GARDEN

English laurel is so vigorous that it can lend you branches in any month. If you have this in your garden you will have a source for wreaths to celebrate each season. If you grow holly you already know how useful that is, but don’t overlook any greenery in the garden.

As Tricia says in the video, test new greenery by cutting and then leaving it for 24 hours in the environment where you will hang the wreath. If the greenery droops, don’t use it. If it stays fresh, you have another wreath ingredient.

CHOOSE FOLIAGE AND NEEDLE COLORS

Evergreens are more than true green. Tricia mixed the blue-greens of blue spruce, eucalyptus, juniper and lavender for an unusual “blue” effect.

A “white” combination she used was variegated box with the white berries and green leaves of young nandina.
Go “red” with the red berries in your climate, such as strawberry tree, holly, winterberry, pyracantha, or mature nandina.

ENJOY EVERGREEN WREATHS YEAR-ROUND

Your garden offers you a range of evergreens. For even more choices, get together with friends and swap branches.

Thank you to Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply for this great video and instructions about wreath making.

Nursery stores will carry the essential items for making your wreath if you don't have them at home already.

Have you always just bought wreaths at the local store, or ordered gorgeous wreaths online? If so, then you can save the wire frame from old wreaths to make your own. Old greens can easily be taken off the frame, so it can be used again. Recycling at its best!!!

Enjoy creating your own masterpiece!

Hay Bale Garden, Waist Height Raised Bed and more at the Orange County Great Park

2011-12-10T19:08:00.000-08:00

John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com/ goes on another field trip to visit the Orange County Great Park to learn more about what's growing on at the Great Park. The Great Park was a former military base now partially converted to a great park. After watching this video you will learn more what's growing in their raised bed gardens, see their waist height raised bed garden and learn about the hay bale garden and more.

This video demonstrates many vegetables and herbs growing in various types of raised beds. Raised beds can make gardening easier because it breaks up the work into doable parts.

A raised bed that is 12" or even 16" high is nice so you can sit next to it or on the edge to plant and fill with mulch etc. The mulch is a key factor to gardening because it feeds the soil and helps build a healthy environment full of microorganisms, protects from hot and cold and temperature fluctuations, and helps to retain water, yet allows for drainage of too much water.

Raised beds built higher, around 3 feet high are good for those with physical limitations, and/or just a bad back.

Personally, I would not have paint on the structure of my raised beds anywhere near my soil. I have built raised beds mostly using redwood and even some Douglas fir which breaks downs much faster, but yet will last for years and is cheaper than redwood. One thing that will protect the exterior of the wooden raised beds is "used" cooking oil. It really works and looks good too. I have used it on a potting bench and the shingles of a tool shed. I don't bother putting it on my raised beds because they last so long anyway. In the Sacramento CA area redwood raised beds will last for a good 20 years usually.

Now, there are many synthetic materials on the market for building raised beds, which may be healthy or not in contact with your soil and the food you are going to eat. Any material should be investigated before using for this purpose.

Garlic Basics - Fall is Garlic Planting Time!!!

2011-11-25T04:44:00.000-08:00

The article below is from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply

Aug. 04, 2008 - GrowOrganic

Garlic is easy to grow since most of its time in the ground is during our rainy season and, after you mulch it for winter, can pretty much be ignored.

About the time the scapes (flowers) begin to develop in spring, the weeds start to grow and need to be removed as garlic does not develop well with all that competition. Have you ever eaten garlic scapes? Since you have to remove them when they begin to curl, you might as well cook them. Grilled or sautéed, they have a nice, mild garlic flavor. Just use the tender part as you would asparagus and they store in the fridge at least a month.

Back to the garlic bulb, here are the basics. We sell 2 types of garlic – hardneck & softneck. Hardneck garlic usually has larger cloves, which are easier to peel, but they don’t store a tremendously long time. Softneck garlic has a larger quantity of smaller cloves, they’re a bit harder to peel, but they keep a long time. These are also the ones you can braid & hang in your kitchen. I usually plant both types, using the hard necks first.

Garlic is planted in the fall. Separate the cloves but you don’t need to remove the papery skin around each clove. Plant, pointy end up, within 5 days, at a depth about double the size of the clove. Deeper if you’re in a very cold location. Water-in and moisten frequently till the rain starts. Once the soil cools off, mulch with a few inches of rice straw. That’s it for fall.

When the soil begins to warm in spring, watch for the growing tips. (Sometimes they’ll start in the fall if you plant early and the soil is still warm.) Cover with more straw to protect from frost – you may need to do this 3-4 times. This is also the best way to keep the weeds down.

Harvest when about ½ the leaves turn yellow or brown. This usually happens in my yard about the end of June, but this year its about 2 weeks later. Stop watering so the soil can dry a little. Don’t leave them in the ground too long after you stop watering as the papery skin will start to deteriorate and the bulbs won’t store as well. Try not to poke them with your digging fork as this can introduce disease and again, affects storage.

Place them in a cool, darkish location to cure, usually about a month. We have a huge, low-limbed butternut that shelters our garlic. If curing outside, be prepared to cover your garlic with plastic if it rains. It seems like it always rains once in July, after we’ve harvested. If you want to taste your garlic while its still green, you can, just not with Elephant Garlic. Once cured, keep in a cool, dry location, inside. Yes, garlic freezes and turns to mush.

Enjoy your garlic. Not only does it taste good, but it’s good for you!

http://groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/garlic-basics

Good Hips: Roses in the Autumn Garden

2011-11-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

By Jennifer Jewell

Roses are like people – some just have nicer hips than others. Some have pretty faces, some have great legs, great shoulders. Some have good hips - especially in October. And I like good hips. To me, they speak of strength, fertility and beauty.

Autumn is the best time for the widest variety of fully-formed, voluptuous and vibrantly-colored rose hips in the garden, in arrangements, in recipes and in photographs.

Roses will set fruit throughout the growing season, as evidenced by wild roses, if given the chance. However, we rose growers can be so vigilant about picking flowers or deadheading to encourage repeat bloom, that it’s often not till the end of the season when we’re advised to stop picking in order to harden our plants off for winter that we give our plants a chance to form their lovely hips. Autumn’s cooler nights, cooling soil, and shorter daylight hours likewise signal to all of our plants that it’s close to the end of their seasonal chance to get the job (reproduction) done and set seed if at all possible.

Rose hips are, after all, the fruit and seed of the rose and two things are required in order for a rose to produce hips. The first requirement is that your rose is not a sterile cultivar, which would preclude it being able to produce seed. The second requirement is that your fertile rose is successfully pollinated, which is what will trigger fruit/seed formation.

As seed structures, much like their relatives the apples, rose hips are a mass of small flatish individual seeds, called ‘achenes’, all bound together in the soft, sweet flesh of the colorful hip. The flesh of the hip serves multiple purposes, both protecting and even nourishing the seeds inside while they are developing. Furthermore, brightly-colored-when-ripe hips stand out, providing an attractive offering to birds and mammals (such as bears and people). The colorful fruit entices animals to pick and eat or process the flesh. Because the seeds inside are fibrous and hard, they pass through the intestines of most birds and mammals, and are by- and -large discarded by people.

When a seed passes through a bird or mammal’s digestive tract, the highly acidic conditions help to process the durable protective layer surrounding the inner seed. This ‘stratification’ or ‘scarification’ allows the seed to germinate more easily once it finds itself in welcoming ground. Finally, if not picked and processed by hungry, predatory creatures, the ripening and then breaking down of the hip’s nutrient-rich flesh over the course of the seasons will also serve to stratify the inner seeds. Whether the seeds have been passed through the gut of a bear, through the crop of a bird, spat out by a person, or been allowed to age on its stem or on the ground nearby, all of these pathways lead to the hip’s whole intended purpose: the safe dispersal of the seed.

While all seed-bearing plants, which roses are, are genetically designed to set seed and attempt to reproduce, some roses do in fact set hips more easily and abundantly than others. Species roses – including the rugosa roses, which are famed for their fat, fleshy, apple-like hips – produce perhaps the best hips. Single, and more open-flowering doubles and semi-doubles are also likely to produce good hips because they are pollinated with relative ease.

According to some sources, very tightly and profusely-petaled rose forms can be difficult for insects to pollinate well, can have that dense-petal formation at the expense of stamen and other reproductive parts, and are more likely to be sterile hybrids, and therefore might not produce hips consistently. Although, according to Karl Bapst, American Rose Society Master Rosarian, some of the rugosa hybrids are the most densely -petaled and produce the best hips, so dense-petals equaling poor hips is not a hard and fast rule.

Successful pollination triggers good fruit set. If you want good hips, then you need good bugs. So your best bet is to avoid pesticides – particularly broad-spectrum pesticides. Although you might want to only harm insects you worry are damaging your roses, any pesticides are also likely to be killing or impairing your pollinators.

Cut stalks of hips can make wonderful displays – combined with more complex floral arrangements, or on their own. Placed in water, stalks of fresh hips will generally remain plump for about a week. Dried hips are also very attractive and will hold on the stem for a very long time.

Rose hips have a rich history of culinary and ritual use. Noted by nutritionist as being a “good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Calcium and Magnesium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Manganese”, many cultures have used rose hips to make tea, jelly, wine and even to eat as a dried fruit.

The term rose hip linguistically comes to us from the Old English “heope” or “hiope” and alternative forms are rose hep and rose haw. It is said that early Catholic monks used dried hips of wild rose to create the first rosaries – using each hip to keep track of their required number of prayers said.

I like the idea of marking spiritual significance and prayer through the nurturing beauty of rose hips in the autumn garden - a spot full of grace indeed.

Arrangement and photos include hips from the following roses:

R. rugosa sp. – (first photo) fat, squat-round, reddish orange
R. ‘John Cabot’ – climber – noticeably oblong deep orange
R. ‘La Belle Sultane’ – large, round burgundy, dull-rough sheen
R. ‘The Endeavor’ – round, shiny, apple-like orange to red on single hip
R. ‘Shropshire Lad’ – round, mid-sized, dull orange
R. californica – multi-clustered, oblong, bright orange to red
R. ‘Crown Princess Margareta’ – slightly oblong, pale orange to red
R. ? white spray shrub rose – name unknown – small, squat round, greenish to brown

For more information:

Butte Rose Society: www.butte-rosesociety.org
Shasta Rose Society: www.shastarosesociety.org/Shasta_Rose_Society/Home.html
Bidwell Heritage Roses: http://bidwellheritagerosesgroup.com/
Sacramento Historic Rose Garden, Sacramento Old City Cemetery: http://www.oldcitycemetery.com/roses.htm
American Rose Society: http://www.ars.org/

This article originally appeared in the Butte Rose Society’s October 2011 Newsletter.
http://jewellgarden.com/blog/2011/10/20/good-hips-roses-in-the-autumn-garden-butte-rose-societys-festival-of-roses-oct-22-in-chico/

Making Sun-Dried Tomatoes in a Solar Food Dehydrator

2011-11-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

11/3/2011 10:22:53 AM
By Jennifer Kongs

Sun Dried Tomatoes Begin

I love all forms of foodpreservation. I also love reducing my environmental footprint wheneverpossible. I’ve often thought about the energy involved in canning, freezing andusing my electric food dehydrator to save my summer garden harvest forwintertime eats. For me, a solar food dehydrator is the best of both worlds: Ican dry food using the free, renewable energy of the sun (unlike the energyneeded to boil water for my canner or run my electric food dryer), and myresulting dried food can be stored without any added energy (unlike the frozenfoods in my freezer). A solar food dehydrator would allow me to literally savea bit of summer’s sunshine for the short, dark days of winter.

I’ve studied and dreamed about the plans on our site to build a solar food dehydrator for a couple of years now, but I was always stymied by my lack of DIY skills. Luckily, I got the opportunity to try my hand at building a SunWorks Solar Food Dryer Kit. All the pieces came in one large box, I had step-by-step instructions at hand and a short list of other tools (all with names I recognized and could find at home) to help bridge my DIY-skills gap.

All told, building this solar food dehydrator took me about 5 hours. (Let me be totally honest here: I had never used a staple gun, changed the bits on a drill or used a spline roller before, so it could take someone with these skills already under their belt less time.) I only had minor confusions while reading the instructions, which were easily cleared up by our resident DIY editor, Robin Mather, and Hank Will, Editor-in-Chief of Grit magazine and super-experienced handyman. I still swell up with pride just looking at the completed food dryer, a sentiment many of you DIYers are familiar with, I’m sure.

Solar Food DehydratorAnxious to test out my handiwork, and hopeful despite the short, cool days we were already experiencing here in mid-October, we set the solar food dehydrator out on Oct. 24, at 10 am. Fellow editor Heidi Hunt and I halved a large bowl of cherry tomatoes (snacking on a few in the process), loaded the dryer racks, tilted the back vent open and left the food dryer facing South toward the sun and warmth. Within only an hour, the food dehydrator reached an internal temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, a high enough temperature to start turning our cherry tomato halves into delicious sun-dried tomatoes. It continued to warm throughout the day, reaching over 140 degrees by 1 pm. The tomatoes were visibly drier at the end of the first day, and by the end of the second day we were well on our way to a successful batch of sun-dried tomatoes.

The third day, however, rain, clouds and much colder temperatures set in, and by the end of the fourth day (still cold and somewhat overcast), we saw the beginnings of the end: mold spots.

I’m still excited to put our solar food dehydrator to worknext summer, when the warmer, longer days with much more direct sunlight willkick our solar food dryer into high gear. Plus, the few bites of nearlysun-dried tomatoes that we snuck throughout the process were well worth thelate-season attempt!

Photos by Jennifer Kongs

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/hands-on-how-to/solar-food-dehydrator-zb0z11zkon.aspx#ixzz1cgQb3KJ1

WHY LEAVES CHANGE COLOR

2011-10-31T18:55:00.000-07:00

If you are lucky, you live in one of those parts of theworld where Nature has one last fling before settling down into winter's sleep.In those lucky places, as days shorten and temperatures become crisp, the quietgreen palette of summer foliage is transformed into the vivid autumn palette ofreds, oranges, golds, and browns before the leaves fall off the trees. Onspecial years, the colors are truly breathtaking.

How does autumn color happen?

For years, scientists have worked to understand the changes that happen to trees and shrubs in the autumn. Although we don't know all the details, we do know enough to explain the basics and help you to enjoy morefully Nature's multicolored autumn farewell. Three factors influence autumnleaf color-leaf pigments, length of night, and weather, but not quite in theway we think. The timing of color change and leaf fall are primarily regulatedby the calendar, that is, the increasing length of night. None of the otherenvironmental influences-temperature, rainfall, food supply, and so on-are asunvarying as the steadily increasing length of night during autumn. As daysgrow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in theleaf begin to paint the landscape with Nature's autumn palette.

Where do autumn colors come from?

A color palette needs pigments, and there are three typesthat are involved in autumn color.

Chlorophyll, which gives leaves their basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to manufacture sugars for their food. Trees in the temperate zones store these sugars for their winter dormant period.

Carotenoids, which produce yellow, orange, and brown colors in such things as corn, carrots, and daffodils, as well as rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas.

Anthocyanins, which give color to such familiar things as cranberries, red apples, concord grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and plums. They are water soluble and appear in the watery liquid of leaf cells.Both chlorophyll and carotenoids are present in thechloroplasts of leaf cells throughout the growing season. Most anthocyanins areproduced in the autumn, in response to bright light and excess plant sugarswithin leaf cells.

During the growing season, chlorophyll is continually being produced and broken down and leaves appear green. As night length increases in the autumn, chlorophyll production slows down and then stops and eventually all the chlorophyll is destroyed. The carotenoids and anthocyanins that are present in the leaf are then unmasked and show their colors.

Certain colors are characteristic of particular species. Oaks turn red, brown, or russet; hickories, golden bronze; aspen andyellow-poplar, golden yellow; dogwood, purplish red; beech, light tan; andsourwood and black tupelo, crimson. Maples differ species by species-red mapleturns brilliant scarlet; sugar maple, orange-red; and black maple, glowingyellow. Striped maple becomes almost colorless. Leaves of some species such asthe elms simply shrivel up and fall, exhibiting little color other than drabbrown.

The timing of the color change also varies byspecies. Sourwood in southern forests can become vividly colorful in latesummer while all other species are still vigorously green. Oaks put on theircolors long after other species have already shed their leaves. Thesedifferences in timing among species seem to be genetically inherited, for aparticular species at the same latitude will show the same coloration in thecool temperatures of high mountain elevations at about the same time as it doesin warmer lowlands.

How does weather affect autumn color?

The amount and brilliance of the colors that develop in anyparticular autumn season are related to weather conditions that occur beforeand during the time the chlorophyll in the leaves is dwindling. Temperature andmoisture are the main influences.

A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out. These conditions-lots of sugar and lots of light-spur production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments, which tint reds, purples, and crimson. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year.

The amount of moisture in the soil also affects autumn colors. Like the weather, soil moisture varies greatly from year to year. The countless combinations of these two highly variable factors assure that no two autumns can be exactly alike. A late spring, or a severe summer drought, can delay the onset of fall color by a few weeks. A warm period during fall will also lower the intensity of autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors.

What triggers leaf fall?

In early autumn, in response to the shortening days and declining intensity of sunlight, leaves begin the processes leading up to their fall. The veins that carry fluids into and out of the leaf gradually close off as a layer of cells forms at the base of each leaf. These clogged veins trap sugars in the leaf and promote production of anthocyanins. Once this separation layer is complete and the connecting tissues are sealed off, the leaf is ready to fall.

What does all this do for the tree?

Winter is a certainty that all vegetation in the temperate zones must face each year. Perennial plants, including trees, must have some sort of protection to survive freezing temperatures and other harsh wintertime influences. Stems, twigs, and buds are equipped to survive extreme cold so that they can reawaken when springheralds the start of another growing season. Tender leaf tissues, however, would freeze in winter, so plants must either toughen up and protect theirleaves or dispose of them.

The evergreens-pines, spruces, cedars, firs, and so on-areable to survive winter because they have toughened up. Their needle-like orscale-like foliage is covered with a heavy wax coating and the fluid insidetheir cells contains substances that resist freezing. Thus the foliage ofevergreens can safely withstand all but the severest winter conditions, such asthose in the Arctic. Evergreen needles survive for some years but eventuallyfall because of old age.

The leaves of broadleaved plants, on the otherhand, are tender and vulnerable to damage. These leaves are typically broad andthin and are not protected by any thick coverings. The fluid in cells of theseleaves is usually a thin, watery sap that freezes readily. This means that thecells could not survive winter where temperatures fall below freezing. Tissuesunable to overwinter must be sealed off and shed to ensure the plant'scontinued survival. Thus leaf fall precedes each winter in the temperate zones.

Whathappens to all those fallen leaves?

Needles and leaves that fall are not wasted. They decomposeand restock the soil with nutrients and make up part of the spongy humus layerof the forest floor that absorbs and holds rainfall. Fallen leaves also becomefood for numerous soil organisms vital to the forest ecosystem.It is quite easy to see the benefit to the treeof its annual leaf fall, but the advantage to the entire forest is more subtle.It could well be that the forest could no more survive without its annualreplenishment from leaves than the individual tree could survive withoutshedding these leaves. The many beautiful interrelationships in the forestcommunity leave us with myriad fascinating puzzles still to solve.

Where can Isee autumn color in the United States?

You can find autumn color in parks and woodlands, in the cities, countryside, and mountains - anywhere you find deciduous broadleaved trees, the ones that drop their leaves in the autumn. Nature's autumn palette is painted on oaks, maples, beeches, sweetgums, yellow-poplars, dogwoods, hickories, and others. Your own neighborhood may be planted with special trees that were selected for their autumn color.

New England is rightly famous for the spectacular autumn colors painted on the trees of its mountains and countryside, but the Adirondack, Appalachian, Smoky, and Rocky Mountains are also clad with colorful displays. In the East, we can see the reds, oranges, golds, and bronzes of the mixed deciduous woodlands; in the West, we see the bright yellows of aspen stands and larches contrasting with the dark greens of the evergreen conifers.

Many of the Forest Service's 100 plus scenic byways were planned with autumn color in mind. In 31 States you can drive on over 3,000 miles of scenic byways, and almost everyone of them offers a beautiful, colorful drive sometime in the autumn.

When is the best time to see autumn color?

Unfortunately, autumn color is not very predictable, especially in the long term. Half the fun is trying to outguess Nature! But it generally starts in late September in New England and moves southward, reaching the Smoky Mountains by early November. It also appears about this time in the high-elevation mountains of the West. Remember that cooler high elevations will color up before the valleys. The Forest Service's Fall Color Hotline (1-800-354-4595) can provide you with details as the autumn color display progresses.

Persons of any race, color, national origin, sex, age, or religion, or with any handicapping condition are welcome to use and enjoy all the facilities, programs, and services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Discrimination in any form is strictly against agency policy and should reported to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250.

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/pubs/leaves/leaves.shtm

Blueberries Planted In A Container

2011-10-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

For the best results, containerize your blueberry plants. We show you the proven way to do it.
Dave Wilson Nursery

Ed Laivo demonstrates planting a Southern Highbush Blueberry called a Revielle in a pot. The planting steps are detailed out.

The California Ballot Initiative: Standing Up to Monsanto

2011-10-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

By Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, Oct 7, 2011

"If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it." - Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto, quoted in the Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994

Monsanto and Food Inc.'s stranglehold over the nation's food and farming system is about to be challenged in a food fight that will largely determine the future of American agriculture. A growing corps of organic food and health activists in California - supported by consumers and farmers across the nation - are boldly standing up to Monsanto and its minions, taking the first steps to expose the widespread contamination of non-organic grocery store foods with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and moving to implement mandatory GMO labeling through a grassroots-powered Citizens Ballot Initiative process.

This month, lawyers representing a broad and unprecedented health, environmental, and consumer coalition, including the Organic Consumers Association, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, Center for Food Safety, Mercola.com, Nature's Path, Natural News.com, LabelGMOs.org, Food Democracy Now, and the Institute for Responsible Technology, are filing papers with the California Attorney General's office to place a Citizens Initiative on the Ballot in November 2012 that would require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods and food ingredients. If California voters pass this ballot initiative in 2012, it will likely be the beginning of the end for Monsanto and genetically engineered food in the U.S.

According to Zuri Star, a Southern California field organizer for the Organic Consumers Association, "The California Ballot Initiative is perhaps our last chance to stop the Biotech Express, to overthrow Biotechnology's dictatorial regime and build a safe and sustainable food and farming system based upon the ethical principles of consumer choice and BioDemocracy."

Moving the Battleground

After twenty years of biotech bullying and force-feeding unlabeled and hazardous genetically engineered (GE) foods to animals and humans, a critical mass of food and health activists has decided it's time to move beyond small skirmishes and losing battles and go on the offensive. It's time to move the food fight over labeling GE food from the unfavorable terrain of Washington D.C. and Capital Hill, where Monsanto and Food Inc. exercise near-dictatorial control, to California, the heartland of organic food and farming and anti-GMO sentiment, where 80-85% of the body politic, according to recent polls, support mandatory labeling.

The trillion-dollar biotech, supermarket, and food industry are acutely conscious of the fact that North American consumers, like their European counterparts, are wary and suspicious of genetically engineered food. Consumers understand that you don't want your food safety or environmental sustainability decisions to be made by out-of-control chemical and biotech companies like Monsanto, Dow, or DuPont - the same people who brought us toxic pesticides and industrial chemicals, Agent Orange, carcinogenic food additives, PCBs, and now global warming. Biotech, food, and grocery corporations are alarmed by the fact that every poll over the last 20 years has shown that 85-95% of American consumers want mandatory labels on genetically engineered foods.

Europe Shows Labels Drive GMOs off the Market

Why are there basically no genetically engineered foods or crops anywhere in Europe, while 75% of U.S. supermarket foods - including many so-called "natural" foods - are GE-tainted? The answer is simple. In Europe genetically engineered foods and ingredients have to be labeled. In the U.S. they do not. Up until now, in North America, Monsanto and the Biotechnocrats have enjoyed free reign to secretly lace non-organic foods with gene-spliced viruses, bacteria, antibiotic-resistant marker genes, and foreign DNA-mutant "Frankenfoods" shown to severely damage the health of animals, plants, and other living organisms in numerous scientific studies.

Monsanto and their allies understand the threat that truth-in-labeling poses for GMOs. As soon as genetically engineered foods start to be labeled in the U.S., millions of consumers will start to read these labels and react. They'll complain to grocery store managers and companies, they'll talk to their family and friends. They'll start switching to foods that are organic or at least GMO-free. Once enough consumers start complaining about GE foods and food ingredients; stores will eventually stop selling them; and farmers will stop planting them.

Genetically engineered foods have absolutely no benefits for consumers or the environment, only hazards. This is why Monsanto and their friends in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations have prevented consumer GMO truth-in-labeling laws from ever getting a public discussion, much less coming to a vote in Congress. And this is why activists are launching the California Ballot Initiative. By moving the battle from the federal level to the state level, by employing one of the last remaining tools of direct grassroots democracy in the USA, the ballot initiative, concerned consumers can bypass Washington and regain their fundamental right to know what they are eating.

Passing mandatory GMO labeling in just one large state, California, where there is tremendous opposition to GE foods as well as a multi-billion dollar organic food industry, will ultimately have the same impact as a national labeling law.

If California food and health activists succeed in putting a GMO labeling initiative on the ballot in 2012 and the voters pass it, the biotech and food industry will face an intractable dilemma. Will they dare put labels on their branded food products in just one state, California, admitting these products contain or may contain genetically engineered ingredients, while withholding this ingredient label information in the other states? Will they allow their organic and non-GMO competitors to drive down their GMO-tainted brand market share? The answer to both of these questions is likely no. What most of them will do is start to shift to organic and non-GMO ingredients, so as to avoid what the Monsanto executive 16 years ago aptly described as the "skull and crossbones" label.

California Label Laws Have National Impact:
Proposition 65

A clear indication of the impact of warning labels on consumer products was established in California in 1986 when voters passed, over the strenuous opposition of industry, a ballot initiative called Proposition 65, which required consumer products with potential cancer-causing ingredients to bear warning labels. Rather than label their products sold in California as likely carcinogenic, most companies reformulated their product ingredients so as to avoid warning labels altogether, and they did this on a national scale, not just in California.

This same scenario will likely unfold again in California in 2012. Can you imagine Kellogg's selling its Corn Flakes breakfast cereal in California with a label that admits it contains or may contain genetically engineered corn? This would be the kiss of death for their iconic brand. How about Kraft Boca Burgers admitting that their soybean ingredients are genetically modified? How about the entire non-organic food industry (including many so-called "natural" brands) admitting that a large proportion of their products are GE-tainted?

Once food manufacturers and supermarkets are forced to come clean and label genetically engineered products, they will likely remove all GE ingredients, to avoid the "skull and crossbones" effect, just like the food industry in the EU has done. In the wake of this development American farmers will convert millions of acres of GE crops to non-GMO or organic varieties.

Finally consumers will be able to tell the difference between organic food (labeled as "organic" and thereby GMO-free); natural food (which will not have a GMO label), and bogus "natural" food (which will be required to display the label "contains or may contain GMOs").

What Now? The Campaign Needs Volunteers and Money

Monsanto, the Farm Bureau, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association are already gearing up to fight against the California Ballot Initiative. They will literally spend millions to spread lies and disinformation that GMO foods and crops are perfectly safe; and that we need more, not less GMO food and biofuel crops in this era of climate change and growing population, etc. As the campaign progresses, they will lie and say that GMO labels will be costly to the food industry and raise food prices. We'll have to counter these lies of course, now and throughout the campaign, but first of all we must make sure that the 2012 GE Food Labeling Initiative actually gets on the ballot.

When corporations like Monsanto decide to launch a ballot initiative in California, or other states, one of the first things they do is hand over a couple of million dollars to a professional petition gathering business. Since, unlike Monsanto, we don't have a couple of million dollars to spare, we're going to have to rely on an army of volunteers to gather signatures. These volunteers can be trained and coordinated by our small, but highly dedicated and experienced, paid campaign staff and consultants, but for the most part we must drive this campaign forward with volunteer labor.

In order to hit the ground running in December, gathering 500-700,000 petition signatures of registered voters to put this measure on the ballot, we need your help now. We need an army of thousands of volunteer petition gatherers to step forward in California. And we need money. OCA and our allied lobbying organization, the Organic Consumers Fund, estimate that we need to raise at least $60,000 over the next month in order to effectively play our part in the California Ballot Initiative Campaign, to pay our staff, consultants, and other campaign expenses.

If you want more information, or if you are willing to volunteer to collect petition signatures, or donate money to this campaign click here: http://www.organicconsumersfund.org/label/

It's time to take back control over our food and farming system. It's time to stand up to Monsanto and the Biotech Bullies. Join us!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_24074.cfm

Why Eating Organic is the Single Greenest Thing You Can Do

2011-09-26T04:23:00.000-07:00

By Marc Gunther
Published September 15, 2011

"If you do just one thing -- make one conscious choice -- that can change the world, go organic.... No other single choice you can make to improve the health of your family and the planet will have greater positive repercussions for our future."

That's a bold statement. Is eating organic more important than avoiding meat, stopping coal plants, biking instead of driving or donating to worthy causes?

Yes, declares Maria Rodale, the CEO of the Rodale Inc. publishing empire (Mens Health, Prevention, Runners World) and author of the aptly named Organic Manifesto: How Organic Food Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World and Keep Us Safe (Rodale Books), from which the quote is drawn.

"There's so many benefits that come from that one choice," Maria explains. "You've removed a bajillion pounds of dangerous, synthetic, disease-causing environment-destroying chemicals from the soil, the water our bodies. We would all immediately be healthier. Our children would be healthier."

Farmers and their families and farm workers would be better off, too, she goes on: "And our kids would be smarter. There are actually studies that show that a lot of these chemicals do reduce intelligence."

I arranged a phone interview with Maria after meeting her last spring during Cooking for Solutions, a great conference and food fest on sustainable agriculture and fishing organized by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I'd read her book and wanted to delve deeper into the issues surrounding organics. Tomorrow, I'll offer a dissenting view from Steve Savage, an agricultural consultant who is dubious about many of Maria's claims.

Maria, who is 49, is the scion of America's first family of organics. Her grandfather, J.I. Rodale, started Organic Farming and Gardening magazine, which is now known as Organic Gardening, in 1942. He put his ideas into practice on a 60-acre farm near Emmaus, Pa. She was raised nearby. "I grew, I weeded, I picked, I cooked," she said. "I was very aware that we were a little different from everyone else, at least once I started going to school." The family farm became a tourist destination. "For many people, it was like a pilgrimage," she remembers. Those were the days when organic food could be purchased only in health or natural food stores.

Today, while the acreage farmed organically remains small -- less than 1 percent of U.S. farmland -- organics are a big business. U.S. sales of organic food and beverages have grown from $1 billion in 1990 to $26.7 billion in 2010, according to the Organic Trade Association. Organic fruits and vegetables represent more than 10 percent of all sales of fruits and vegetable, the group says.

Conventional foods are worse for us than we realize, Maria argues. The government responds to problems after the fact and is overly influenced by big agricultural firms, which also shape university research. In her book, she writes:

• There is enough evidence to know now that synthetic chemicals are destroying our health and our ability to reproduce and, thus, our ability to survive as a species. Agricultural chemicals have statistically and significantly been implicated in causing all sorts of cancers, behavioral problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, Parkinson's disease, reduced intelligence, infertility, miscarriage, diabetes, infant deformities and low birth weight.

No specific studies are cited in the book, so I asked Maria for a couple of references. She sent me a link to Beyond Pesticides, website, where a blog with headlines like Low Doses of Pesticides Put Honey Bees at Risk. Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York provides a fact-sheet about pesticides here which says, among other things, that

• Pesticides have been shown to cause a wide range of adverse effects on human health including acute and chronic injury to the nervous system, lung damage, injury to the reproductive organs, dysfunction of the immune and endocrine systems, birth defects, and cancer; these effects can manifest as acutely toxic effects, delayed effects, or chronic effects.

For its part, the agricultural industry says pesticide residues on food are harmless and regulated by the government.

The picture is darker when it comes to farm workers. A long-term government study of more than 80,000 farmers and their wives from Iowa and North Carolina, called the Agricultural Health Study, offers some warnings. While the farmers studied are generally healthier than the general population, pesticide exposure has been linked to Parkinson's disease, prostate cancer, lung disease and some brain disorders. (Details here.) One study found that farmers who "used pesticides longer and more often said they had more neurological symptoms than those who had not used pesticides or had used them less frequently and for fewer years."

What's more, anecdotal evidence on the impact of synthetical chemicals on birth defects is downright scary, as Barry Estabrook reported in Tomatoland. [See my July blogpost, Rotten tomatoes.] Tom Philpott of Mother Jones recently reported on methyl iodide, which is sprayed on strawberry fields and has been called "reliably carcinogenic" by the Pesticide Action Network.

That's probably reason enough, for many of us, to choose organic. But what about the costs? Maria makes a couple of good points in that regard. First, she says: "If you can, grow a garden, which is fun and good. It's great exercise, and kids love it." If not, shop carefully and cook more: "Eat less processed food. Do more cooking. Every step of processing food add more cost." In Maria's Farm Country Kitchen, she offers gardening tips, recipes and political commentary:

Stop wasting American tax dollars supporting, subsidizing, and encouraging the toxic chemical and GMO farming that are promoted by unethical companies who spread lies and poison around the world in order to line their own pockets. We've been ripped off and contaminated long enough.

I asked Maria about evidence that organic growers are less productive that conventional farmers. That's not so, she says, noting that most big farms in the U.S. produce corn and soy for non-food use.

"Most people don't eat that corn and soy," she says. "It's made into high fructose corn syrup. It's made into feed for factory grown animals. It's made into biofuels that do not feed people." She's right about that -- more than a third of the US corn crop goes into the making of ethanol. Something's wrong, she says, when "a farmer who is growing chemical corn is getting subsidized and a farmer who switches to growing food that people need to eat gets no help whatsoever."

What do you think? Should we be subsidizing organic farmers? Or not?

Come back tomorrow to learn why Steve Savage believes that organic food, whatever its virtues, can't meet the world's growing demand for food.

Maria Rodale photo by Cedric Angeles Photography.

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/09/15/why-eating-organic-single-greenest-thing-you-can-do?page=0%2C0

Working in Harmony with Nature

2011-09-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

This video shows a wonderful example of man working in harmony with the natural environment.

In this video "called The Living Bridge" we see extreme examples of natures forces and the beautiful solution developed from only natural living materials. This same set of problem solving steps could be used in less extreme situations. We can envision and create beautiful and natural living solutions like these. - Landscaping in complete unison with Mother Nature - I would call this true Sustainability!

Vegetable Gardens Are Booming in a Fallow Economy

2011-09-16T03:04:00.000-07:00

Sarah G. Fannin adds a red pepper to pickings she gathered with Linda Frisby for sale in West Liberty, Ky.

By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: September 8, 2011

WEST LIBERTY, Ky. — As the economy continues to stagnate in towns and cities across the country, here in eastern Kentucky it is causing things to sprout.

Garden plots are dug into the green hills, laid out in fuller force than people have seen in years. People call them sturdy patches of protection in uncertain times.

“You see a lot more people turning up ground,” said Wanda Hamilton, 61, a lifelong gardener who sells her surplus vegetables at the farmers’ market in West Liberty, a small town in the Appalachian foothills. “It’s the economy. You just can’t afford to shop at the store anymore.”

It is not just eastern Kentucky. Vegetable gardening has been on the rise across the country, according to Bruce Butterfield, research director at the National Gardening Association, driven by rising food prices and a growing contingent of health-conscious consumers. Garden-store retailers have reported increased sales over the past two years, he said, and many community gardens have waiting lists.

“Our sales have skyrocketed,” said George Ball, chief executive of Burpee, one of the largest vegetable-seed retailers. The jump, he said, began around the time Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, when anxiety about money started to rise.

In urban areas, the words “locally grown” conjure images of affluent shoppers in pricey farmers’ markets. But in rural America, consumers are opting for locally grown food — from their own gardens and neighboring farmers — largely because it is cheaper.

Credit: Luke Sharrett for The New York Times
Rebecca Frazier, a teacher here, said she had cut her food bill in half by growing her own and preserving and by buying in bulk from local farmers. She recently paid $10 for 40 pounds of sweet potatoes, a fraction of the store price.

“I’m getting twice the food for a whole lot less money,” she said.

Credit: Luke Sharrett for The New York Times
Timothy Woods, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky who has studied the evolution of farmers’ markets in the state, said more rural residents were selling surplus out of their gardens for supplemental income, a pattern that has helped double the number of farmers’ markets in eastern Kentucky since 2004.

Those markets are geared to shoppers who want to buy in bulk at the lowest possible price in order to pickle, can, dry and freeze, Mr. Woods said — unlike urban markets, where customers pay double rural prices and typically eat what they buy right away.

“You won’t see certified organic products or any fancy marketing,” he said of rural markets. “It’s a very different world.”

Ms. Hamilton began selling about 10 years ago when her garden produced more than she could handle. She knows she could charge more but doesn’t, because her customers “are struggling just like me.” Nearly two-thirds of her sales are to elderly residents who are using government food vouchers.

Another motivation for bigger gardens: the financial uncertainty that comes with retirement.

Brenda Engle, 56, an apparel factory employee, and her husband, Leon, 64, a former telecommunications company employee who works at Wal-Mart, are trying to squeeze their budget down to the size of their future retirement check.

They grew a year’s worth of beans. “We want to be self-sufficient,” said Ms. Engle, who has even started making her own laundry detergent.

Her garden is also therapy.

“When I’m in the garden,” she said, “the world is gone.”

Sarah G. Fannin, an agriculture educator who works with the University of Kentucky’s cooperative extension service to take research to people in the county, said calls for gardening assistance had doubled in the past three years, many from young people. Gardening classes have been full, she said, as has a class on canning taught by a colleague.

At J. A. Oldfield & Son, a country store in the area, vegetable seed sales have doubled in recent seasons.

And eastern Kentucky has a keen interest in cooking. Mr. Woods said residents were more likely to watch food shows on television than people in the more affluent, western part of the state, citing a survey he conducted in 2009.

“Ten years ago, we hadn’t really been thinking about where our food was coming from other than the drive-through or the grocery store,” Ms. Fannin said. “Now there’s more concern.”

That is because — at least in the opinion of Ms. Frazier, the teacher — health has become a bigger issue for more people here, partly as a hedge against rising health care costs. She said she planted her garden in 2008 after her daughter started having health problems.

Gardening doesn’t necessarily lead to better health, of course. But Bridget C. Booske, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, said Morgan County, where West Liberty is, seemed to be better off than its neighbors.

Credit: Luke Sharrett for The New York Times

Wendell Williams, 73, waits to sell his homegrown tomatoes to customers at the farmers’ market.

People in the county live longer, and fewer babies are born underweight, she said, citing County Health Rankings, a ranking of American counties, published this summer, that she helped compile. Better trauma care in the county would contribute but not entirely account for better rates, she said.

Still, the rates of obesity and diabetes remain high, and a significant improvement in health will be possible only when the joblessness and poverty here ease, locals said.

Credit: Luke Sharrett for The New York Times
Ms. Fannin holds a handful of freshly picked heirloom green beans on her farm in West Liberty, Ky.

Ms. Fannin said vegetables could be part of this area’s economic future. She has urged farmers to start growing sweet potatoes, a hardy crop in vogue in urban kitchens. Robert Bradley, a coal worker turned farmer, said he had been laughed at when he first planted them, but his crop turned out so well that other farmers want to try.

His ultimate insurance policy, however, is his own garden.

“When I go to my cellar and get my own green beans and potatoes, I know I won’t go hungry,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/us/09gardening.html

Sacramento City Council passes backyard chicken ordinance

2011-09-12T17:22:00.000-07:00

5:12 AM, Aug 31, 2011

SACRAMENTO, CA - The Sacramento City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that would allow citizens to raise chickens in their backyard.

The issue was first brought up to the city council two years ago by members of a group called CLUCK, campaign for legalizing urban chicken keeping.

Sacramento city residents will be able to raise chickens, no more than three, if the owners pay an annual fee and keep them at least 20 feet from a neighboring home.

CLUCK argues that wild eggs are better than store-bought eggs. Others said backyard chickens allow Sacramento to be a sustainable city.

Opponents said chickens will bring noise, smell, and disease.

FACEBOOK: Legalize backyard chicken keeping?

Some councilmembers admit they're not completely sold on the idea, but were willing to give it a shot and reevaluate the effects in a few months.

Chicken owners were relieved the ordinance passed.

"I think the folks who are concerned about it, who testifid against it, who don't want chickens in their neighbors yards-- I'm think their fears are going to be unfounded in 6 months. They're gona come back and it's not going to be that big of a deal in terms of problems," said Joseph Calavita, a CLUCK member.

The new ordinance goes into effect Nov. 1.

News10/KXTV
http://www.news10.net/news/article/152475/2/Sacramento-city-council-passes-backyard-chicken-ordinance

Organic farming can be more profitable in the long-term than conventional agriculture

2011-09-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
September 01, 2011

Organic farming is more profitable and economically secure than conventional farming even over the long-term, according to a new study in Agronomy Journal. Using experimental farm plots, researchers with the University of Minnesota found that organic beat conventional even if organic price premiums (i.e. customers willing to pay more for organic) were to drop as much as 50 percent.

"Doing an economic study like this, it’s important to get as complete a picture of the yield variability as we can," explains Timothy Delbridge, lead author of the study and a doctoral student studying agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota. "So, the length of this trial is a big asset. We’re pretty confident that the full extent of the yieldvariability came through in the results."

Conducted over 18 years, the study found that a conventional farm, rotating corn, soy, oat, and alfalfa over 4 years brought in $273, while an organic farm netted $538. Even if the organic premium dropped by half, it would still be more profitable given that the cost of production was lower for organic, since organic farmers would spend nothing on chemicals.

"What we’re looking at here are results between an established organic and an established conventional system. This research doesn’t take into consideration the issue of the transition itself: how difficult or costly that may be," cautions Delbridge.

Organic farming—which excludes the use of pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs—is considered better for environment, including less pollution, better use of water, and biodiversity-friendly practices. Findings vary,but studies have shown that organic farming is capable of producing similar yields to conventional farming. Organic farms also withstand natural disasters—such as droughts and hurricanes—better than conventional farming, which may be increasingly important in a world undergoing climate change.

Organic farm in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

http://www.mongabay.com/jeremy_hance.html

Planting Blueberries & Growing Blueberries

2011-09-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

From Grow Organic

Tricia shows you how to plant and grow delicious, nutritious blueberries in containers and in the garden. Tips on soil, fertilizing, and pruning.

Get more info plus organic gardening supplies at Peaceful Valley, GrowOrganic.com http://www.groworganic.com.

Learn more in our five blueberry blog posts about pruning, warm climates, containers, FAQs, and health benefits.
http://intheloop.groworganic.com/category/gardening-wisdom/blueberries-garden...

High Density Fruit Tree Growing

2011-09-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

Ed Laivo of Dave Wilson Nursery discusses high density fruit tree plantings at the Fair Oaks Horticultural Center's Demonstration Gardens and Orchard.

What Is Backyard Orchard Culture?

The objectives of Backyard Orchard Culture are:

The prolonged harvest of tree-ripe fruit from a small space.
Many fruit varieties may be be planted close together.
The trees should be kept small by summer pruning.

— Summer Prune For Size Control —

Backyard Orchard Culture Is Not Commercial Orchard Culture

For years, most of the information about growing fruit came from commercial orchard culture: methods that promoted maximum size for maximum yield but required 12-foot ladders for pruning, thinning and picking, and 400 to 600 square feet of land per tree. Tree spacing had to allow for tractors.

Most people today do not need or expect commercial results from their backyard fruit trees. A commercial grower would never consider using his methods on a 90 ft. x 100 ft. parcel, so why should a homeowner?

Backyard Orchard Culture Is High Density Planting And Successive Ripening

Maximize the length of the fruit season by planting several (or many) fruit varieties with different ripening times.

Because of the limited space available to most homeowners, this means using one or more of the techniques for close-planting and training fruit trees; two, three or four trees in one hole, espalier, and hedgerow are the most common of these techniques.

Four trees instead of one means ten to twelve weeks of fruit instead of only two or three.

Close planting offers the additional advantage of restricting a tree's vigor. A tree won't grow as large when there are competing trees close by. Close-planting works best when rootstocks of similar vigor are planted together.

For example, using a four-in-one-hole planting, four trees on Citation rootstock would be easier to maintain than a combination of one tree on Lovell, one on Mazzard, one on Citation, and one on M-27.

In many climates, planting more varieties can also mean better cross-pollination of pears, apples, plums and cherries, which means more consistent production.

Backyard Orchard Culture Means Accepting The Responsibility For Tree Size

Small trees yield crops of manageable size and are much easier to spray, thin, prune, net, and harvest than large trees.

If trees are kept small, it is possible to plant a greater number of trees, affording the opportunity for more kinds of fruit and a longer fruit season.

Most semi-dwarfing rootstocks do not control fruit-tree size as much as you might expect.

Rootstocks can help to improve soil and climate adaptation, pest and disease resistance, precocity (heavy bearing in early years), tree longevity, and ease of propagation.

To date, no rootstocks have been developed which do all these things, plus fully-dwarf the scion.

Pruning is the only way to keep most fruit trees under twelve feet tall.

The most practical method of pruning is Summer Pruning.

Tree size is the grower's responsibility. Choose a size and don't let the tree get any bigger. A good height is the height you can reach for thinning and picking while standing on the ground, or while standing on a low stool.

Two other important influences on tree size are irrigation and fertilization practices. Fruit trees should not be grown with lots of nitrogen and lots of water. Some people grow their fruit trees the way they do their lawn, then wonder why the trees are so big and don't have any fruit!

Backyard Orchard Culture Means Understanding The Reasons For Pruning

It's much easier to keep a small tree small than it is to make a large tree small.

Most kinds of deciduous fruit trees require pruning to stimulate new fruiting wood, to remove broken and diseased wood, to space the fruiting wood, and to allow good air circulation and sunlight penetration in the canopy.

Pruning is most important in the first three years, because this is when the shape and size of a fruit tree is established.

Pruning at the same time as thinning the crop is strongly recommended.

By pruning when there is fruit on the tree, the kind of wood on which the tree sets fruit (one year-old wood, two year-old wood, spurs, etc.) is apparent, which helps you to make better pruning decisions.

This information about high density planting is from Dave Wilson Nursery at:
http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOC_explained.html

High Density Landscape

2011-08-31T05:08:00.000-07:00

Tour a house with 50 varieties of fruit in less than 2,500 square feet of plantable yard.

By terracing the hill in her backyard and espaliering her trees, this home orchardist converted her yard into a high-density Victory Garden.

This garden is in Southern CA, but the same edible garden would do well in many other parts of the central valley, including Sacramento.

Growing Blueberries in your backyard

2011-08-24T01:45:00.000-07:00

Dave Wilson Nursery's Ed Laivo invites you into his backyard and gives you years of blueberry growing advise, in less than seven minutes.

<p>&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;</p>

This is a great video where Ed Laivo shares his knowledge about growing different varieties of blueberries that bear in early, mid-season and late season. All these healthy plants are being grown in pots. Very informative!

The Color Purple

2011-08-18T03:56:00.000-07:00

Purple carrots have all the tasty benefits of their orange counterparts, and then some.

By Denise Foley

Photography by Matthew Benson

Purple carrots aren't simply a novelty. Their unique color reflects their healthy phytochemical constituents. Not only does 'Purple Haze' have the vitamin A and beta-carotene of ordinary carrots—evident in its orange center—it's also rich in anthocyanins, the antioxidant compounds that give blueberries their distinctive color and superfood health benefits. Studies have found that these blue and purple pigments can improve memory, enhance vision, protect against heart attacks, act as anti-inflammatories, and even help control weight.

'Purple Haze' mirrors the original color of carrots cultivated in Afghanistan 5,000 years ago. It grows well in most zones but prefers soil temperatures of 59°F to 68°F to create its spectacular purple skin. Otherwise grow as for other imperator (tapering) carrots. 'Purple Haze' matures in 65 to 70 days. Pull the roots (wet the ground to make harvest easier) when the shoulders are deep purple.

In cold climates, carrots can be left in the ground even through winter, beneath a deep mulch of hay or straw. In warm climates, however, carrots left in the ground are vulnerable to insect pests, so it is best to make successional sowings and harvest carrots as they mature. Store them in the refrigerator, in a plastic bag, with the foliage trimmed off. Don't store them near apples or pears, which give off gases that turn carrots bitter.

Cooking Suggestions

'Purple Haze' carrots are sweet and delicious raw or cooked, but they lose much of their gorgeous color when boiled. For that reason, serve them fresh from the garden whenever possible. Slice 'Purple Haze' into medallions, mix with other colorful carrots, and serve with dill dip, or grate and toss with white cabbage and orange carrots for a colorful coleslaw. Coat whole or sliced carrots with a little olive oil, sprinkle with fresh or dried thyme, and roast until soft, which enhances their inherent sweetness. For a sweet side dish, saute carrots lightly in olive oil and serve them with a maple glaze; for a savory twist, add yellow or purple onions that have been sauteed until soft.

Other Colorful Carrots

'Purple Dragon'. 65 to 70 days. 6 inches.

'Atomic Red'. 76 days. Rich in the anti-oxidant lycopene. 9 inches.

'Solar Yellow'. 63 days. Totally yellow, crunchy and sweet; high levels of lutein, which can improve eye health. 7 inches.

'Lunar White'. 60 days. Almost entirely coreless; has a mild flavor, especially when picked small. Crunchy. 8 inches.

Court rules organic farmers can sue conventional, GMO farmers whose pesticides 'trespass' and contaminate their fields

2011-08-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 03, 2011
by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Purveyors of conventional and genetically-modified (GM) crops -- and the pesticides and herbicides that accompany them -- are finally getting a taste of their own legal medicine. Minnesota's Star Tribune has reported that the Minnesota Court of Appeals recently ruled that a large organic farm surrounded by chemical-laden conventional farms can seek damages for lost crops, as well as lost profits, caused by the illegal trespassing of pesticides and herbicides on its property.

Oluf and Debra Johnson's 1,500-acre organic farm in Stearns County, Minn., has repeatedly been contaminated by nearby conventional and GMO farms since the couple started it in the 1990s. A local pesticide cooperative known as Paynesville Farmers Union (PFU), which is near the farm, has been cited at least four times for violating pesticide laws, and inadvertently causing damage to the Johnson's farm.

The first time it was realized that pesticides had drifted onto the Johnson's farm in 1998, PFU apologized, but did not agree to pay for damages. As anyone with an understanding of organic practices knows, even a small bit of contamination can result in having to plow under that season's crops, forget profits, and even lose the ability to grow organic crops in the same field for at least a couple years.

The Johnson's let the first incident slide. But after the second, third, and fourth times, they decided that enough was enough. Following the second pesticide drift in 2002, the Johnson's filed a complaint with the Minnesota Agriculture Department, which eventually ruled that PFU had illegally sprayed chemicals on windy days, which led to contamination of the Johnson's organic crops.

PFU settled with the Johnson's out of court, and the Johnson's agreed to sell their tainted products as non-organics for a lower price, and pull the fields from production for three years in order to bring them back up to organic standards. But PFU's inconsiderate spraying habits continued, with numerous additional incidents occurring in 2005, 2007, and 2008, according to the Star Tribune.

After enduring much hardship, the Johnson's finally ended up suing PFU in 2009 for negligence and trespass, only to receive denial from the district court that received the case. But after appealing, the Johnson's received favor from the Appeals Court, which ruled that particulate matter, including pesticides, herbicides, and even GM particulates, that contaminates nearby fields is, in fact, considered illegal trespass, and is subject to the same laws concerning other forms of trespass.

In a similar case, a California-based organic farm recently won a $1 million lawsuit filed against a conventional farm whose pesticides spread through fog from several miles away, and contaminated its fields. Jacobs Farm / Del Cobo's entire season's herb crop had to be discarded as a result, and the court that presided over the case acknowledged and agreed that the polluters must be held responsible (http://organicfood.einnews.com/arti...).

Precedent has now been set for organic farmers to sue biotechnology companies whose GMOs contaminate their crops

The stunning victories of both the Johnson's and Jacob's Farm / Del Cobo against their chemical-polluting neighbors is huge, in that it represents a new set legal precedent for holding conventional, factory farming operations responsible for the damage their systems cause to other farms. And with this new precedent set, many more organic farmers, for instance, can now begin suing GMO farmers for both chemical and genetic pollution that drifts onto their farms.

Many NaturalNews readers will recall the numerous incidents involving lawsuits filed by Monsanto against non-GMO farms whose crops were inadvertently contaminated by GM material. In many of these cases, the defendants ended up becoming bankrupted by Monsanto, even though Monsanto's patented materials were the trespassers at fault.

Be sure to check out the extensive and very informative report compiled by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) entitled Monsanto vs. U.S. Farmers for a complete history of Monsanto's war against traditional American agriculture: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/...

But it appears that the tables are now turning. Instead of Monsanto winning against organic farmers, organic farmers can now achieve victory against Monsanto. In other words, farmers being infringed upon by the drifting of GM material into their fields now have a legal leg to stand on in the pursuit of justice against Monsanto and the other biotechnology giants whose "frankencrops" are responsible for causing widespread contamination of the American food supply.

Genetic traits are highly transmissible, whether it be through pollen transfer or seed spread, and organic and non-GMO farmers have every right to seek damages for illegal trespassing when such transmission takes place. It is expected that many more organic farms will step up and begin seeking justice and compensation for damage caused by crop chemicals, GM materials, and other harmful invaders.

For too long, Monsanto has been getting away with suing farmers whose crops have become contaminated by Monsanto's patented genetic traits and chemical materials, and winning. Thankfully, the justice system seems to now recognize the severe error in this, and is now beginning to rightfully hold polluters and trespassers responsible. Monsanto, your days are numbered.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.startribune.com/local/12...

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/033216_GMO_contamination_lawsuits.html

Blossom Drop on Tomatoes

2011-08-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

July 13, 2011
by High Mowing Organic Seeds

Due to the hot and humid weather, lately many gardeners are noticing “blossom drop” on their tomato plants. Blossoms are drying up and dropping off before the tomato fruit sets.

As explained by J.M. Kemble, Extension Vegetable Specialist and associate Professor, Alabama Cooperative Extension System:

“This condition is NOT related to any nutritional disorder, or any disease or insect damage. It is related to temperature. Despite the fact that tomatoes evolved in the tropics, flowering in tomato is sensitive to temperature. When day temperatures exceed 85°F and night temperatures exceed 72°F, tomato flowers will abort. An important factor involved with temperature is time of exposure. The longer the plants are exposed to these high temperatures, the longer the condition will last and the more serious the effect on flowering. Short exposures such as a week or less should not cause much of a problem. It is interesting to note that although the combination of high day and night temperature causes blossom drop, high night temperatures alone can be detrimental to flowering even if day temperatures are not over 85°F.

Older or heirloom, home garden varieties are more sensitive to high temperatures than many of the newer hybrids that are presently available. When fruit do not set and all other conditions are otherwise favorable (sufficient water and fertilizer, good pest control, appropriate pH) plants generally become vigorous and dark green. Even new hybrids, however, are susceptible to blossom drop.

Commercial growers in the southeastern US have suffered with this problem for many years until the recent advent of “heat set” tomato varieties. These varieties have been bred for tolerance to high day and night temperatures common in the summer and early fall. In fact, many of these varieties set fruit under poor growing conditions – extended cool, rainy periods as well as during extended periods of hot weather.

What to do: For this year or for an existing planting, keep the plants healthy. Keep plants well watered. Maintain fertility levels and control any pest problems as any additional stress will make the condition worse. The plants will produce flowers and set fruit when temperatures become more favorable.”

High levels of humidity can “gum” up the pollen in the flowers, preventing the pollen from moving from the anther to the stigma, which would normally result in pollination. Some gardeners have suggested shaking the plants to help the pollen move around.

Blossom drop is a frustrating, but (if the weather co-operates!) temporary problem. You will likely still be enjoying a beautiful crop of tomatoes by the end of the summer!

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/blog/blossom-drop-on-tomatoes

Monsanto Nation: Taking Down Goliath

2011-07-31T04:01:00.000-07:00

By Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, July 27, 2011

"If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skulland crossbones on it." - Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., asubsidiary of Monsanto, quoted in the Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994.

After two decades of biotech bullying and force-feeding unlabeled and hazardousgenetically engineered (GE) foods to animals and humans, it's time to movebeyond defensive measures and go on the offensive. With organic farming,climate stability, and public health under the gun of the gene engineers andtheir partners in crime, it's time to do more than complain. With over 1/3 ofU.S. cropland already contaminated with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs),with mounting scientific evidence that GMOs causecancer, birth defects, and serious food allergies and with new biotech mutants like alfalfa, lawn grass,ethanol-ready corn, 2,4 D-resistant crops, and genetically engineered trees andanimals in the pipeline, time is running out.

Living in Monsanto Nation there can be no such thing as "coexistence." It is impossible to coexist with a reckless industry that endangers public health, bribes public officials,corrupts scientists, manipulates the media, destroys biodiversity, kills thesoil, pollutes the environment, tortures and poisons animals, destabilizes theclimate, and economically enslaves the world's 1.5 billion seed-saving smallfarmers. It's time to take down the Biotech Behemoth, before the living web ofbiodiversity is terminated.

But, to bring down Goliath and build an organic future, we need to bestrategic, as well as bold. We must take the time to carefully analyze ourstrengths and weaknesses and critique our previous efforts. Then we mustprepare to concentrate our forces where our adversary is weak, like a chessmaster, moving the field of battle from Monsanto's currently impregnableterritory into more favorable terrain. Given the near-dictatorial control ofMonsanto, the Farm Bureau, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association over theCongress, the White House, regulatory agencies, and state legislators, we haveno choice in the present moment but to revert to "asymmetrical"guerrilla tactics, to seek out the Achilles heel or fundamental weakness of thebiotech industry.

Consumers' Right to Know: Monsanto's Achilles Heel

The Achilles heel of Monsanto and the biotech industry is consumers' right toknow. If GE-tainted foods are labeled in supermarkets and natural food stores,a massive rejection of chemical and GMO foods will take place, transforming themarketplace and supercharging the organic and local foods revolution. Thebiotech industry has been aware of their tremendous vulnerability in the UnitedStates ever since Monsanto forced their controversial recombinant Bovine GrowthHormone on the market in February 1994. In the wake of nationwide"Frankenfood" protests and milk dumps, industry made sure that nofederal labeling or safety testing would be required. As the biotechnocratsunderstand full well, mandatory GE food labels will cripple the industry:consumers will not buy gene-altered foods, farmers will not plant them,restaurants and food processors will avoid them, and grocery stores will notsell them. How can we be certain about this? By looking at the experience ofthe European Union, the largest agricultural market in the world. In the EU,there are almost no genetically engineered crops under cultivation or GEconsumer food products on supermarket shelves. And why is this? Not because GEcrops are automatically banned in Europe. But rather because under EU law, allfoods containing genetically engineered ingredients must be labeled.

European consumers have the freedom to choose or not to choose GE foods; whilefarmers, food processors, and retailers have (at least legally) the right tolace foods with GMOs, as long as these gene-altered are safety-tested andlabeled. Of course the EU food industry understands that consumers, for themost part, do not want to consume GE foods. European farmers and foodcompanies, even junk food purveyors like McDonald's and Wal-Mart, understandquite well the concept expressed by the Monsanto executive quoted above:"If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put askull and crossbones on it."

The biotech and food industry are acutely conscious of the fact that NorthAmerican consumers, like their European counterparts, are wary and suspiciousof GMO foods. Even without a PhD, consumers understand you don't want your foodsafety or environmental sustainability decisions to be made by out-of-controlchemical companies like Monsanto, Dow, or DuPont - the same people who broughtyou toxic pesticides and industrial chemicals, Agent Orange, carcinogenic foodadditives, PCBs, and now global warming. Industry leaders are definitely awareof the fact that every poll over the last 20 years has shown that 85-95% ofAmerican consumers want mandatory labels on genetically engineered foods. Whydo consumers want labels? So that we can avoid buying these mutant foods,gene-spliced with viruses, bacteria, antibiotic-resistant marker genes andforeign DNA. Gene-altered foods have absolutely no benefits for consumers orthe environment, only hazards. This is why Monsanto and their friends in theClinton, Bush, and Obama administrations have prevented consumer GMOtruth-in-labeling laws from ever getting a public discussion, much less comingto a vote, in Congress.

Although Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) perennially introduces abill in Congress calling for mandatory labeling and safety testing for GEfoods, don't hold your breath for Congress to take a stand fortruth-in-labeling. Especially since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in theso-called "Citizens United" case gave big corporations, millionaires,and billionaires the right to spend unlimited amounts of money (and remainanonymous, as they do so) to buy media coverage and elections, our chances ofpassing federal GMO labeling laws against the wishes of Monsanto and Food Inc.are all but non-existent.

Perfectly dramatizing the "Revolving Door" between Monsanto and theFederal Government, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, formerly chiefcounsel for Monsanto, delivered one of the decisive votes in the Citizens Unitedcase, in effect giving Monsanto and other biotech bullies the right to buy thevotes it needs in the U.S. Congress.

With biotech and industrial agriculture's big money controlling Congress, theWhite House, and the corporate mass media, we have little choice but to shiftour focus and our campaigning to more favorable terrain: the state level andthe marketplace.

Besides boycotting non-organic foods likely containing GMOs (even thosemarketed as "natural") and demanding that natural food stores adopttruth-in-labeling practices, we've got to push for mandatory GE food labelinglaws in the legislatures of those few remaining states like Vermont whereMonsanto and corporate agribusiness do not yet have total control. Of the 18states where GE food labeling legislation has been introduced over the past twoyears, only in Vermont does our side seem to have the votes to push labelingthrough, as well as a Governor who will not cave in to Monsanto.

State Ballot Initiatives: Monsanto and Biotech's Greatest Weakness

Although passing a mandatory GE foods labeling law in Vermont is a distinctpossibility, and something we should all support, the most promising strategyfor restoring consumers' right to know lies in utilizing one of the mostimportant remaining tools of direct citizen democracy, state ballotinitiatives. A state ballot initiative is a means by which a petition signed bya certain minimum number of registered voters can bring about a public vote ona proposed statute or constitutional amendment, in this case a law requiringmandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. Ballot initiativesare also called, depending on the state, "popular initiatives,""voter initiatives," "citizen initiatives" or just "initiatives."

Twenty-four states, mainlywest of the Mississippi, allow ballot initiatives. Each state has its ownrequirements for how many signatures are required, how many days can be spentcollecting the signatures, and when petitions must be turned in. States alsovary on the average amount of money spent by initiative committees to supportor oppose ballot measures.

The essential advantage of state ballot initiatives is that they enable thegrassroots (in our case the 85-95% of consumers who want labels on GE-taintedfoods) to bypass corrupt politicians, industry lobbyists, and special interestlegislative practices. In addition, the very strategic point to keep in mind isthat it will not be necessary to pass GMO labeling ballot initiatives in all 24of these states. In fact, passage in just one large state, for example,California, where there is tremendous opposition to GE foods as well as amulti-billion dollar organic food industry, will likely have the same impact asa national labeling law.

If Vermont passes a state labeling law though its legislature in 2011, orCalifornia voters put a GMO labeling initiative on the ballot in 2012 and passit, the biotech and food industry will face an intractable dilemma. Will theydare put labels on their branded food products in just one or two states,admitting these products contain genetically engineered ingredients, whilestill withholding label information in the other states? The answer is verylikely no. Withholding important and controversial information in some states,while providing it to consumers in other states, would be a public relationsdisaster.

A clear precedent for this situation was established in California in 1986 whenvoters passed, over the strenuous opposition of industry, a ballot initiativecalled Proposition 65, which required consumer products with potentialcancer-causing ingredient to bear warning labels. Rather than label theirproducts sold in California as likely carcinogenic, most companies reformulatedtheir product ingredients so as to avoid warning labels altogether, and theydid this on a national scale, not just in California.

This same scenario will likely unfold if California voters pass a ballotinitiative in 2012 requiring labels on food containing genetically engineeredingredients. Can you imagine Kellogg's selling Corn Flakes breakfast cereal inCalifornia with a label that admits it contains genetically engineered corn? Orlabeling their corn flakes as GE in California, but not divulging this samefact to consumers in the other 49 states or Canada? Of course not. Howabout Kraft Boca Burgers admitting that their soybean ingredients aregenetically modified? How about the entire non-organic food industry (includingmany so-called "natural" brands) admitting that 75% of their productsare GE-tainted? Once food manufacturers and supermarkets are forced tocome clean and label genetically engineered products, they will likely removeall GE ingredients, to avoid the "skull and crossbones" effect, justlike the food industry in the EU has done. In the wake of this developmentAmerican farmers will convert millions of acres of GE crops to non-GMO ororganic varieties.

The biotechnocrats and their allies have indeed used their vast resources tobuy off Congress, the White House, and most state legislatures with campaigncontributions. Monsanto, DuPont, and other corporate giants have used theirenormous clout to send their lawyers and scientists through the revolving doorinto jobs as government regulators. Biotech's financial power has pollutedstate and federal governments, along with trade associations, universities,research institutions, philanthropic organizations, and media outlets.

But there are two things Monsanto's money can't buy: Our trust, and our votes.

Polls Show Consumers Overwhelmingly Support GE Food Labels

Poll after poll has shown that most consumers want to know whether their foodincludes engineered ingredients.

The results of a recent MSNBC poll that posed the question, "Do youbelieve genetically modified foods should be labeled?" indicate thatnearly all Americans believe that foods made with genetically modifiedorganisms should indeed be labeled.

Of the more than 45,000 people who participated in the poll, over 96% answered"Yes. It's an ethical issue - consumers should be informed so they canmake a choice."

It's not news that most Americans support labeling of GMO foods. Sincegenetically modified foods were first introduced in mid-1990s, scores of publicopinion polls have shown that the vast majority of consumers want mandatorylabeling of all genetically modified foods. These include recent polls by CBSNews/New York Times, NPR/Thomson Reuters and the Consumers Union.Unfortunately, Congress and the White House have ignored these polls, acceptinginstead the claims of lobbyists and indentured scientists that geneticallyengineered foods are perfectly safe, and that uninformed and scientificallyilliterate Americans must not be given the choice to buy or not to buy GMOs,because they will reject them.

Monsanto spent more than $1 million on the 2010 election cycle, splitting itscontributions evenly between state and federal candidates. It spends much moreon lobbying - more than $8 million in each of the last three years. Monsanto'smoney has bought it influence and allowed it to move its lawyers and scientiststhrough the revolving door into roles within the regulatory agencies. The USDA,FDA and State Department are full of appointees with connections to Monsanto.Monsanto's efforts have successfully stifled attempts in Congress and statelegislatures to pass GMO labeling legislation.

The Slingshot that Can Bring Down Goliath

The most important advantage or weapon in a ballot initiative (or in agrassroots legislative lobbying campaign) is to have the overwhelming supportof the people, especially registered voters. As poll after poll has shown,85-95% of Americans support mandatory GE food labels. No matter how much moneyMonsanto and their allies spend to defeat a ballot initiative, it is verydifficult to turn back overwhelming public sentiment. Monsanto has become oneof the most hated corporations on earth.

The second requirement for a successful ballot initiative is to have the activesupport of a massive grassroots movement, like the growing anti-GE foodmovement and OCA's Millions Against Monsanto campaign. This grassroots movementcan gather petition signatures, mobilize public opinion, and get out the vote.No matter how much money Monsanto and their allies spend, it will be verydifficult to defeat a volunteer grassroots army of organic consumers who enjoythe massive support of the public.

The third prerequisite for victory is to have the ability to raise significantsums of money. Not only do we have millions of organic consumers in the U.S.who are passionately opposed to GMOs, and willing to donate to a labeling campaign, but we also have arapidly growing $30 billion organic food industry that depends upon keeping GMOcontamination out of the organic sector. We probably won't be able to raiseenough money to outspend Monsanto, the Farm Bureau, and the GroceryManufacturers Association, but we can raise enough money to defend our popularposition and maintain majority support.

Just like everything in U.S. politics, ballot initiatives have a price tag.

According to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center:

"The chances of victory are directly correlated with the amount of money raised and are almost always proportional to the amount of money the opposition spends."
"People power is equally important to factor in. Particularly for Citizen-based ballot initiative efforts, it is imperative to have people on the ground across the state that are connected and invested in the initiative."

Biotechnology or BioDemocracy?

Restoring consumers' right to know and driving genetically engineered foods offsupermarket shelves are not going to solve all of the life and death issuesthat are currently staring us in the face: the climate crisis, endless wars,economic depression, corporate control over government, and the health crisis.But cutting Monsanto and the biotechnocrats down to size and restoring consumerchoice are a good first step to move us toward sustainability and a healthyfood and farming system. Just as important, in political terms, by defeatingthe Biotech Bullies and indentured politicians, we can begin to restore thetattered self-confidence of the American body politic. A resounding victory bythe organic community and OCA's Millions Against Monsanto campaign will proveto ourselves and the currently demoralized public that we can indeed take backcontrol over the institutions and public policies that determine our dailylives. Now is the time to move forward.

Donate to support the campaign: http://www.organicconsumers.org/donations.cfm

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_23693.cfm

In defense of organic

2011-07-30T02:36:00.000-07:00

Organic Food

by Tom Laskawy
21 Jul 2011 5:14 PM

As Grist readers know, "mythbusting" ScientificAmerican blogger Christie Wilcox took on organic agriculture recentlyin "Mythbusting101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture." Now, I do agreethat there should be no sacred cows -- we should examine everything with acritical, if not jaundiced, eye. And indeed Wilcox brings up issues surroundingorganic ag about which many people may not be aware. But sadly, her analysisgoes quickly and seriously off the rails.

First the good points: Organic agdoes use pesticides, sometimes in large quantities. This is not a newrevelation: There are a set of pesticides approved for organic use, includingcopper and sulfur anti-fumigants and the naturally occurring Bt toxin. Copperand sulfur in particular are often overused, especially among fruit growers.While these chemicals can be used by any scale of farmer, it's a particularproblem among so-called "industrial organic" farmers.

As the organic industry has takenoff, many large-scale farmers have in essence adapted the industrialagriculture mindset -- with its monocropping, its focus on inputs and outputsand maximizing productivity -- if not all its techniques. Tom Philpott has written about the problematic nature of thisphenomenon; for a deep dive on the subject, I recommend SamFromartz's excellent Organic, Inc.

Wilcox should also be commended forher point that the main criteria for allowed organic pesticides are simply thatthey be "naturally occurring" rather than synthetic. As she says,"just because something is natural doesn't make it non-toxic orsafe." Too true.

So far so good. Next up, she knocksdown health claims about organic food; this is where the problems start. Whilethis issue is actually very much in flux, Wilcox doesn't treat it as such.Instead, she cites a 2010 review paper that concludes "anyconsumers who buy organic food because they believe that it contains morehealthful nutrients than conventional food are wasting their money." Wow-- pretty clear cut, right?

But science isn't nearly at a placewhere anyone can definitively make that claim. Some evidence shows conventionallygrown food is decreasing in nutritional quality, and we've collectedcredible data showing organic food is more nutritious. Wilcox might havementioned arecent study from Washington State University that examined conventionalvs. organic strawberries. AsGrist reported, "organic methods resulted in strawberries withincreased antioxidants, vitamin C, and total phenolics ... The study emphasizedthe importance of vitamin C and antioxidants in relation to human health."There was also arecent study in the Journal of Dairy Science that showed clearevidence that organic milk was more nutritious than conventionally producedmilk.

It's simply going too far to suggestthe science on the matter is settled, and thus unfair to call the healthevidence "mythical."

But Wilcox's worst offense came withan attempt to bust the "myth" that "Organic Farming Is BetterFor The Environment." Her bizarre claim defies even a cursoryunderstanding of how agriculture (conventional or organic) works, but ratherthan attempt to defend it, Wilcox immediately declares that the"solution" to all our problems lies with GMOs:

GMOs have the potential to up cropyields, increase nutritious value, and generally improve farming practiceswhile reducing synthetic chemical use ...

And with that, Wilcox moves fromscience to science fiction. Grist hasdocumented the hype and the risks of GMOs before, and it pains me to haveto do it again. But here goes.

None of the fabulous features sheclaims for GMOs exist commercially -- and most don't even exist in the lab. Infact, strong evidence demonstrates that, despite Wilcox's claims, even GMOs'basic productivity lagsbehind non-GMO crops. She does not observe (or perhaps know) thatconventional, advanced breeding techniques can achieve similar or betterincreases in yield and even nutritional quality than GMOs. Moreover, shedoesn't even acknowledge the debate surrounding one of her key examples ofGMOs' promise: "golden rice" -- rice genetically modified to containVitamin A. This BBCreport from 2003 does just that, suggesting that its benefits are a"mirage." It quotes Richard Horton, editor of the British medicaljournal The Lancet, who says, "Seeking a technological food fix forworld hunger may be ... the most commercially malevolent wild goose chase ofthe new century."

And her embrace of"therapeutic" food is chilling. In her vision, genetic modificationis all benefit and no risk. And if recent history has taught us anything, it'sthat there is no such thing as the elimination of risk. It's crucial we fullyunderstand the implications of futzing with animal and plant genes before weintroduce them into the environment, much less feed them to people. And wesimply don't know as much as industry and government want us to think we know.

In fact, the reason that the sciencebehind GMOs is shockingly thin is that it's almost entirely performed by thebiotechnology industry or by industry-funded scientists. Independent scientistsare either notallowed access to the patented technology behind GMOs or are restricted in whatthey can study, e.g. they can't get access to the seeds unless they promisenot to look at the human health effects of these seeds.

And even the things that GMOs can do-- like produce pesticides or resist herbicides -- are beginning to fail. This reportfrom India shows that the country's cotton crop is being devastated byinsects -- even genetically engineered Bt cotton, which produces its ownpesticide. (So much for the "magic" of a GMO seed that needs noadditional chemicals.) Even scarier: The pesticide produced by these kind ofcrops is turningup in the blood of women, despite biotech industry promises that such athing simply could not happen.

While we're at it, check out the latest issue of WeedScience, which researches the rise of superweeds -- a phenomenonresulting in large part from the broad planting of GMO crops resistant toMonsanto's herbicide glyphosate. Their "success" in the marketplacehas led to a massive increase in the application of glyphosate and, asevolution dictates, the weeds that survived the chemical have taken over farmfields across America. If this is the future of agriculture, we're all in deepdoo-doo.

Don't get me started on her"feeding the world" argument, given that conventional ag, which hasalready almost entirely made the transition to GMOs (especially where grainsare concerned) has utterly failed to do so. In fact, that BBC report ongolden rice contained this brutal quote from Steve Smith, a Syngentabiotechnology scientist who died in 2003. "If anyone tells you that GM isgoing to feed the world, tell them that it is not ... To feed the world takespolitical and financial will -- it's not about production anddistribution."

I am not one to argue that thefuture lies solely with "organic" ag as we practice it here, and inthat way I agree with Wilcox's point that it's not "all or nothing."That said, the true experts in the field would argue that the future lies in"agro-ecological" techniques, not in high-tech, patented technologywith unknown risks. (The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's new Save and Grow programforcefully advocates this.) Agro-ecology does allow some use of pesticides butfundamentally relies on natural, ecological systems that enhance productivityand combat pests. Evidenceis strong that these practices represent our best way forward.

Perhaps that's the ultimateagricultural myth to be busted: that the true future of food production liesalong any other path.

Tom covers food and agriculturalpolicy for Grist. Follow him on Twitter.

http://www.grist.org/organic-food/2011-07-21-in-defense-of-organic?ref=se

Did This Woman Go to Jail for Planting a Vegetable Garden in Her Yard? (VIDEO)

2011-07-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

by Max Follmer

(Photo: EatDrinkBetter)

A week ago, we told you about Julie Bass, the Michigan homeowner facing jail time for having the audacity to plant a vegetable garden in her own front yard.

You see, Julie thought the price of organic food had climbed just a tad too high for her pocketbook. So she thought she'd take a hint from our grandparents—and our current locavore friends and neighbors—and grow her own food.

Unfortunately, the code enforcement officers at City Hall in her Detroit suburb didn't think Julie's new garden project was such a great idea. Her mistake? Planting her veggies in her front yard, rather than the back.
They threatened to throw Julie behind bars because, in the words of City Planner Kevin Rulkowski, "that's not what we want to see in a front yard."

So is Julie Bass headed for the Big House? Find out her fate, after the jump:

For the time being, no, reports the Detroit News. But that doesn't mean Julie is out of the woods just yet:

Charges against Julie Bass over her garden have been dropped, but other charges remain for failing to license her two dogs, officials said Thursday.

"I want to look at it, I want to see the facts, I want to see where this vegetable garden is going and make a determination of whether or not to prosecute under the existing ordinance, write a new ordinance and (examine) the public welfare," Lumberg said.

Asked if that meant this case could be resurrected, Lumberg said he couldn't predict what would happen.

MyFoxDetroit, the station that broke Julie's story, has a follow-up interview with her. You can watch the video below:

Oak Park Drops Charges Against Julie Bass and Her Vegetable Garden: MyFoxDETROIT.com

http://www.takepart.com/news/2011/07/22/did-this-woman-go-to-jail-for-planting-a-vegetable-garden-in-her-yard-video?fb_js_fbu=0

Keeping Bees Using the Top-bar Beekeeping Method

2011-07-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Use this less expensive method to raise bees that will pollinate your crops and provide tasty honey fresh from the comb

By Phil Chandler
October/November 2009

The comb attached to a top bar must be handled carefully so it doesn’t break away from the bar.
PHIL CHANDLER

Beekeeping is a great hobby, whether you keep bees for pollination, honey, profit, medicinal uses or all of the above. But getting started with bees can be expensive if you use conventional hives. A basic setup with bees can cost more than $200, and building conventional hives and frames is time-consuming. But there’s a simpler, less-expensive and more natural option: top-bar hives. The top-bar method of beekeeping allows you to make simpler, inexpensive hives. Build them now and you can start keeping bees next spring.

In the top-bar system, you build simple box hives with slats (bars) of wood laid across the top, to which the bees attach their wax comb.

With growing concerns about colony collapse disorder and the resulting decline in the number of pollinators, gardeners might consider maintaining a top-bar hive of honeybees simply to increase vegetable and fruit yields through better pollination.

Top-bar beekeeping is for both urban and rural dwellers who want to keep bees on a modest scale, producing honey and beeswax. Above all, top-bar beekeeping is for people who love bees and understand and appreciate their role in the pollination of many wild and cultivated plants.

If your goal is to obtain the absolute maximum amount of honey regardless of all other considerations, top-bar beekeeping is not for you. This style of beekeeping can produce adequate amounts of honey, but the emphasis is on sustainability and keeping healthy bees rather than maximizing honey crops.

Natural vs. Industrial Beekeeping

Beekeeping does not have to be complicated. And you need none of the stuff in those glossy supply catalogs to keep healthy, happy and productive bees.

Nearly all conventional beehives in use in the United States and Europe are similar. They consist of rectangular wooden boxes containing removable wooden frames holding preformed “foundation” for the bees to build wax comb on, plus a floor and a roof. The queen bee lays eggs in this comb, and the bees store some pollen (their protein source) and honey in the comb. Other wooden boxes, called “supers,” with (usually) smaller frames, are stacked on top to store most of the honey crop.

In some ways, this box-and-frame hive is right for the job — at least from the beekeeper’s point of view. It’s a simple matter to lift individual frames out of the hive to see what the bees are doing and, if you have a strong back, it’s relatively easy to remove the honey crop. The uniform shape of the honeycomb in the frames makes it easier to extract the honey with a centrifuge.

For the bees, however, this conventional system has several disadvantages. Bees naturally build comb in deep, catenary curves (the shape made by a chain or rope suspended by its ends). But the use of preformed foundation inside rectangular frames forces bees to build comb according to our requirements, not theirs. Bees prefer to adjust the size of cells according to their needs.

In a top-bar hive, the bees are encouraged to build their wax comb (which holds the cells they fill with honey or developing bees) from a thin strip of “starter wax” applied to the wooden bars, which simply rest across the top of the box that forms the hive. To extract honey from this wax comb, you crush it in a strainer and allow the honey to drain into a jar.

Top-bar beekeeping requires only one of the simple, versatile hives described below and a sharp knife. Instead of using a smoker to calm the bees when you open the hive to inspect bees or harvest honey, you can use a hand-held spray bottle containing water and, perhaps, a few drops of a mixture of essential oils or cider vinegar.

Top-bar Hive Design

Top-bar hives have been used for thousands of years and are still popular in developing countries. I created a top-bar hive design with sloping sides and side entrances. The hive boxes are 36 to 48 inches long. The hives are 18 inches wide (outside measurement at the top) by 12 inches deep, measured at the ends. The trapezoidal shape is close to the natural shape of the comb. It’s strong and virtually eliminates attachment of comb to the sides of the hive — a useful feature for the beekeeper. This top-bar hive is simple to construct using inexpensive or recycled materials — just be certain the wood hasn’t been treated with chemicals that would harm the bees or you. For example, do not use green, pressure-treated lumber or lumber that may have been sprayed with a pesticide.

Bees build their wax combs from the bottoms of wooden bars that are 17 inches long, 1 3/8 inches wide and about three-quarter-inch thick. The bars rest on the upper edges of the sides of the hives, giving an internal width of 15 inches. A central groove, about one-eighth-inch deep, is cut along the length of each bar using a circular saw and is filled with molten wax to provide a guide and anchor point for the bees to build their comb. Alternatively, a strip of thin wood can be fixed along the center of the bar and rubbed with wax. Two inches on each end is left free of wax to discourage the bees from building comb attached to the sides of the hive.

The floor can be either solid or mesh, the latter being preferable in summer and hotter climates in general. The mesh allows ventilation and prevents the buildup of debris inside the hive. But it’s a good idea to have some method of closing the bottom of the hive during winter if your bees will be exposed to strong winds.

This long top-bar hive is strong, versatile and easy to build, even for someone with only basic woodworking skills. It’s also easy to manage. After the hive is in place, the heaviest lifting you will need to do is to remove the roof.

For free, detailed plans, see How to Build a Top-bar Hive.

Managing a Top-bar Hive

In many ways, managing a top-bar hive is easier than managing a framed hive — but you can’t ignore the bees completely.

To get started, you can capture a swarm and put it in the hive or buy a package of bees (about $80) from a beekeeping supply company.

Sometimes, bees will naturally swarm to an empty top-bar hive and populate it. To attract a swarm to the hive, put it out during the swarming season, which is late spring through midsummer. Baiting the hive with a few drops of lemongrass oil will improve your chances of attracting a swarm.

The actual process of harvesting honey is simple: Take one comb at a time, cut it from the bar and replace the bar for the bees to build more comb. Take only a few bars of honey in summer, leaving a surplus for winter. Then harvest more the following spring after winter is over.

If you want at least some honey in liquid form, toss the comb into a stainless steel bucket, thoroughly mash it with a paddle, and strain it through muslin. But you probably won’t get all the honey out of the wax. To clean the wax, put it near a hive for the bees to reclaim any remaining honey. After they’ve cleaned it up, you can use the wax for candles or other projects.

— This article is an excerpt from The Barefoot Beekeeper by Phil Chandler

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/Top-Bar-Beekeeping-Method.aspx

If you're having trouble downloading the plans on our site, you can find them on biobees.com. Scroll down to the section "Free beekeeping articles."

Nourish: Food + Community Trailer

2011-07-19T01:29:00.000-07:00

What's the story of your food? With beautiful visuals and inspiring stories, Nourish: Food + Community traces our relationship to food from a global perspective to personal action steps. Narrated by actress Cameron Diaz, Nourish features interviews with author Michael Pollan, sustainable food advocate Anna Lappé, eco-chef Bryant Terry, pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke, and organic farmer Nigel Walker. Stay tuned for new videos by connecting with Nourish:
Website: http://nourishlife.org

Imprelis: Another Deadly Herbicide, This Time From DuPont

2011-07-17T00:55:00.000-07:00

GROW IT!

You put your seeds in there, man.

7/12/2011 11:16:26 AM

By Barbara Pleasant and Cheryl Long

Since 2008, we have reported on the dangers of pyralid herbicides (including Milestone, Forefront and other trade names) which turn grass clippings, manure, or hay into killer compost or mulch that can ruin gardens and farmland for years. Despite ample evidence that these deadly herbicides are damaging fields and gardens, and despite our calls for the companies and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to solve this problem, we were angered to learn that another deadly pyralid herbicide, Imprelis (aminocyclopyrachlor), was widely sold in the spring of 2011, following its approval by the EPA in August 2010.

Invented by a team of scientists at DuPont, aminocyclopyrachlor is marketed to control weeds in cool-season lawn grasses, especially bluegrass (it is not generally sold in warmer climates, where bluegrass lawns are rare).
DuPont never denied that Imprelis-treated lawns would create killer compost. Lost in a 19-item bulleted list on Page 7 of the 9-page Imprelis label, we found this language:
“Do not use grass clippings from treated areas for mulching or compost, or allow for collection to composting facilities. Grass clippings must either be left on the treated area, or, if allowed by local yard waste regulations, disposed of in the trash. Applicators must give verbal or written notice to property owner/property managers/residents to not use grass clippings from treated turf for mulch or compost.”

Come on, people! How likely is it that users will even read this 9-page label, let alone give notice to others “to not use clippings for mulch or compost”? Despite ample evidence of the severe problems these herbicides are causing, the EPA continues to allow chemical companies to sell them and hide behind “the label is the law” by putting unrealistic instructions and a liability release on the product labels.

Now for more really bad news. Following its first spring of use, Imprelis has been implicated in the injury and/or death of thousands of Norway spruce and white pine trees throughout the Midwest. Conifers that are growing in or near grassy areas treated with Imprelis, and are showing new growth that is brown and twisted, have been reported in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, Delaware , Indiana, Nebraska , Wisconsin, and several other states. Michigan State has published an advisory on What to Do With Imprelis-Affected Trees, and Purdue University in Indiana has set up channels for Imprelis related herbicide complaints, as have Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, DuPont has sent this letter to turf management professionals, asking for help as they “continue their work.” The letter says “to be careful that no spray treatment, drift or runoff occurs that could make contact with trees or shrubs … And stay well away from the root zone of trees and shrubs” when applying Imprelis. It also says to “Consult a certified arborist if you are uncertain about the root zone of specific tree species.” Tree roots often spread three times as wide as the branches, so few properties could be treated with this herbicide in keeping with these guidelines.

On July 5, 2011, DuPont issued a new advisory for handling trees affected by aminocyclopyrachlor. Their justification for selling this deeply flawed, under-tested product is that it was approved by the EPA. We believe DuPont should not have to be forced by the government to do the right thing. We are calling on DuPont to cease selling Imprelis immediately, before more damage is done. What will happen when the chipped wood from already injured trees ends up at compost facilities? As Michigan State’s Bert Cregg commented this week, “Might be good to fasten your seatbelts, this could be a bumpy ride.”

The world is running out of oil, and that means we are running out of chemical fertilizer, and that means we MUST expand our systems to capture and recycle organic materials if we hope to maintain the fertility of our soils. Herbicides that can enter and persist for years in compost and soil should be banished from the planet.
Maybe somebody should treat the White House lawn with Imprelis, and when their historic tree collection starts dying, Washington will take action.

Photo: Purdue University Extension

Related Reading:
Oct 2008: Watch Out For Killer Compost
July 2009: Milestone Herbicide Creates Killer Compost
September 2009: Contaminated Compost — Coming Soon to a Store Near You

Alice Waters: Edible Education

2011-07-14T02:42:00.000-07:00

What's a "delicious revolution"? Edible Schoolyard founder Alice Waters talks about the value of garden and kitchen experiences in transforming students' relationship to food.
Visit http://nourishlife.org.

This is what I am trying to do with the students I work with in Sacramento. To experience is to gain an understanding and appreciation for quality food. Having the knowledge and skills to grow one's own food is empowering in times when food security the food safety are unfortunately common issues.

Combat To Compost: Soldiers Learn Organic Farming

2011-07-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

All Things Considered

Listen to the Storyhttp://www.npr.org/2011/04/07/135216393/from-combat-to-compost-soldiers-learn-organic-farming

by Gloria Hillard
April 7, 2011

Some veterans and active duty personnel are learning to navigate a new type of terrain. Their tough military training and attention to detail are proving to be assets as they learn the skills needed for organic farming.

Transcript:
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
On a small farm in Southern California, a group of veterans and active duty Marines is learning about planting, harvesting and sustainable agriculture. The program, taught by one of their own, is meant to give them a place to heal and the skills to cultivate a new career.

Reporter Gloria Hillard has the story.
GLORIA HILLARD: Tucked away in these rolling green hills north of San Diego is a small organic farm called Archi's Acres. It's an avocado orchard peppered with wildflowers and hydroponic gardens of basil, kale, rainbow chard.

Mr. COLIN ARCHIPLEY: We have red leaf lettuce. So what we have up here, although in about a week's time, over here we'll have heirloom tomatoes.

HILLARD: Before becoming an organic farmer, Colin Archipley served three tours in Iraq as a Marine Corps infantry sergeant, and it's not surprising, perhaps, that he chose this particular patch of land.

The helicopters heard overhead are from Camp Pendleton, just over the hill from this 3-acre farm. Today, Archipley is training vets and active duty personnel returning to civilian life for careers in organic farming. It's not an easy job, he says, but veterans are up to the task.

Mr. ARCHIPLEY: We're a type of population that needs more than just a dollar. We need a purpose, and this is one way to give us purpose.

HILLARD: The six-week course called Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training has been approved by Camp Pendleton's Transition Assistance Program. One of the new students, veteran Ron Vaughn(ph) is taking great care to harvest a live bouquet of basil in one of the farm's greenhouses.

Mr. RON VAUGHN: You can plant this right in the water, and it will still keep growing.

HILLARD: The Marine sergeant did two tours in Iraq and was wounded in Fallujah. And the farm, Vaughn says, has given him a new sense of purpose.

Mr. VAUGHN: I went in the Marine Corps so I could serve my country, you know? Now that I've gotten out, guess what? I still want to serve, and you go small-scale organic farming, that is me being able to serve the community.

HILLARD: Vaughn was able to attend this program with a scholarship from the Farmer-Veteran Coalition. Michael O'Gorman is a longtime farmer and the organization's executive director.

Mr. MICHAEL O'GORMAN (Executive Director, Farmer-Veteran Coalition): And the more we work with the veterans and the more we work in this process, the more we understand that there's healing in being needed.

HILLARD: O'Gorman says his organization works with farmers across the country.

Mr. O'GORMAN: Our goal is to mobilize this entire community, then welcome with open arms the returning veterans and look to them for a source of new, young talent going into our industry.

HILLARD: One of those new farmers may be Cory Pollard. Growing up in San Diego, he enlisted in the Marine shortly after high school. He served three tours in Iraq as a rifleman. Today, he's cradling a seedling in his hands.

Mr. CORY POLLARD: Before I got here, I didn't know what chard was, didn't know what kale was, but, you know, nonetheless, I've been here and I never thought I would see myself farming.

HILLARD: Working alongside Pollard in the greenhouse is 26-year-old Carlos Rivera. Both men went to Camp Pendleton and ended up serving in Iraq together. After leaving the Marines, Rivera says he got a job in the city, but it stressed him out.

Mr. CARLOS RIVERA: This is different. You're working outdoors and working with other vets. And I have my own little garden out there in my patio where I live. And I love going out here.

HILLARD: He says it's his dream to one day have his own small farm, something like what he has found here.

Mr. RIVERA: The sounds of trees and the birds singing and leaves falling down.

HILLARD: Rivera has been working on the farm for a year. He says he's not only found the job he loves, but a certain peace of mind. For NPR News, I'm Gloria Hillard.

Copyright © 2011 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Clean Your Entire Home with Baking Soda and Vinegar

2011-06-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

NATURAL HOME LIVING
Robyn Griggs Lawrence on green homes, natural health, comfortable and uncluttered living spaces, wabi sabi simplicity philosophy, and more.

6/7/2011 4:55:19 PM

By Robyn Griggs Lawrence

I had such a great time talking with attendees at the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup, Washington, this weekend about how to make green cleaners. As always, I learned a new trick or two, and I promised everyone that I’d recap our conversation here for easy access. Today let’s examine one of my workshop’s premises--that you can clean your entire home with vinegar and baking soda.

Acidic vinegar kills some germs and microbes and inhibits their growth; cuts grease, lime deposits and soap buildup; disinfects and deodorizes; removes stains, shines and polishes. I use white vinegar for practically everything I clean, from my wood floors to my toilets. I mix about ½ cup of vinegar with a cup of water and add a little orange or lemon essential oil to make a wonderful, all-purpose sanitizing spray. I also like to put a little in a small bowl and place it on a high shelf to absorb odors, and I use vinegar scented with essential oils to wash garbage cans and remove pet stains.

During the workshop, we talked about the importance of checking the label before you buy white vinegar to make sure it’s made from natural ingredients. If the label says “grain alcohol,” “neutral grain spirits” or “wine,” it’s made from natural ingredients such as corn, apples or grapes. Avoid anything that says “synthetic alcohol,” as it’s likely petroleum-based.

Baking soda is an effective (and cheap) deodorizer that also scours and removes smudges or scuffs from floors. When my dog has an accident inside (which, in her defense, is almost always my fault), I add a few drops of lavender essential oil to baking soda, sprinkle it on the rug, let it dry and vacuum. This formula is much more pleasant smelling and healthier than the chemical formulas that are sold for this purpose. I also use a thick paste made from baking soda and water to clean my oven—simply apply the paste, let it sit overnight, remove and follow with a swipe of vinegar-water solution. (You can play with the ratios. One of the great things about cleaning with these simple ingredients is that it doesn’t have to be an exact science.)

The real fun happens when you combine baking soda and vinegar in to clear sluggish drains. Pour in ½ cup of baking soda and chase it with ½ cup of vinegar, then watch it fizz as the acid and alkaline react to each other. It’s so much fun that my kids beg to clean the drains!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, on natural and scientifically proven ways to fight germs and viruses—without nasty chemicals.

Common baking soda deodorizes, scours and removes scuffs and smudges. Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison

My Potato Project; The Importance of "Organic"

2011-06-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

A child's experiment turns into a lesson on the toxins in our food supply.

Did you notice the differences between the three sweet potatoes?

Which sweet potato would you rather eat?

Summer Pruning and Thinning

2011-06-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Summer Pruning and Thinning of Fruit Trees

Keep your trees to size with summer pruning. Thin the fruit crops to get high quality fruit and improve next year's harvest. Tricia shares her tips on how and when to get it done.

REASONS FOR SUMMER PRUNING FRUIT TREES

Jun 14, 2011 - Charlotte from Peaceful Valley

TREE & FRUIT HEALTH ARE AFFECTED BY TREE SIZE

Summer pruning fruit trees controls undesirable growth on a tree by removing energy-wasting water sprouts. Summer is also a good time to remove leafy upper branches that excessively shade fruit on lower branches. After the lower branches are exposed, protect them from sunburn by painting them with a 50/50 mixture of water and white latex interior paint.
Winter pruning is meant to stimulate the tree. Summer pruning uses thinning cuts (where the branch is cut off at its point of attachment, instead of part way along the branch) and these cuts do not encourage new growth. By removing leaves with the limbs, the tree is also getting less energy.
Summer pruning is a technique to train young fruit trees, with thinning cuts to build your ideal tree limb structure. If you want to keep your mature fruit trees at an easy-to-harvest height, summer pruning is essential.

INSECTS

Pest control can be a benefit of summer pruning too. If you prune off fruit with damage from codling moths, mites or aphids, be careful with your orchard sanitation. Dispose of the fruit and branches promptly, and don’t compost them.

SPECIAL CASES: APRICOT & CHERRY TREES

Experts advise pruning apricots and cherries only in the summer. They are susceptible to Eutypa dieback, a branch-killing disease, if pruned during rainy weather. With this in mind, the most cautious gardeners do no dormant pruning on apricot and cherry trees. The University of California authorities in The Home Orchard say, “[I]t is best to prune apricot and cherry trees in the summer (July or August) so that at least 6 weeks of rain-free weather are likely to follow the pruning.”

HOW MUCH TO PRUNE

Some stone fruits (peaches and nectarines) grow quite rapidly and should have 50% of their new growth removed after harvest.
Apricots and plums grow more slowly and only need to have 20% of their new growth pruned away.
Experts differ on summer pruning of cherry trees. Mario Moratorio, former Farm Advisor in El Dorado County, suggested summer pruning cherry trees only for the first five years. Chuck Ingels, Sacramento County’s Farm Advisor, recommends pruning 10% off mature cherry trees.

THE MUST-HAVE BOOK

Do you have fruit trees on your property? If so, we hope you have The Home Orchard on your bookshelf. This primer from the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources is as essential as sharp loppers and pruners. With all those tools in hand you can become an expert at summer pruning fruit trees.

Organic Eggs Not Created Equal, Says New Scorecard

2011-06-02T03:04:00.000-07:00

Organic Eggs Not Created Equal, Says New Scorecard

ENN.com: Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment

Next time you're at the grocery store aisle picking out eggs, you might need to think twice before assuming one organic brand is interchangeable with another. According to the Cornucopia Institute (CI), a non-profit which promotes economic justice for family scale farming, all organic eggs are not alike. They recently released the report Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production from Authentic Organic Agriculture.

The report contains an Organic Egg Scorecard that rates 70 name brand as well as additional private label organic egg producers based on 22 factors that the organization deems critical to the typical organic consumer. The main rating criteria include outdoor access, outdoor management, indoor quality of life and welfare, and organic principles of farm interdependence and ecological sustainability.

The highest rating, five eggs, goes to companies CI considers ethical family farms, companies that go beyond national organic standards. Most of these companies are small, local distributors. The producers given the lowest rating, one egg, are those CI believes are in violation of organic standards of animal welfare and/or were not transparent with their practices during CI's research. Sadly, many of the single-egg brands are the ones most easily available to consumers. Whole Foods' 365 brand, Trader Joe's brand, O Organic by Safeway, and Costco’s Kirkland brand all received a single egg for their sup-par performance.

The report, conducted over a one year period, details how organic egg producers vary greatly in their interpretation of the Federal USDA Organic Standards, "Paths are diverging in the organic-egg-producing community: One path affords more outdoor access and more diversity on the farm; and another path has led to large-scale industrialization motivated by profit."

Article continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/organic-eggs-created-equal-new-scorecard/

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/42756

Best Brands of Organic Milk

2011-06-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

Best Brands of Organic Milk
Find the best milk for your family using this new scorecard.

By Alison Rogers
October/November 2007

You'll enjoy that tall glass offresh, cold milk even more when you're sure it came from a well-managed organicdairy.

TABITHA ALTERMAN

The ever-growing popularity of all things organic has encouraged a boom in organic and hormone-free dairy products. While this trend gives us more healthy and affordable options at the grocery store, it also has given rise to a number of dairies willing to bend the rules for a share of the profit. But the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit small farm advocacy group, has developed a way to enable consumers to identify the best dairy brands. The report, Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk, includes a scorecard that rates 68 different organic dairy brands against a set of criteria central to true organic standards. Check out the milk brand scorecard.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Best-Organic-Milk-Brands.aspx

Today I Found Out . . . 10 Facts about Worms

2011-05-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

Source: TodayIFoundOut

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/05/10-facts-about-worms/

RASPBERRIES

2011-05-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

Raspberries

Growing, picking, preparation and cooking advice for these tasty berries, and recipes for raspberry-surplus salsa.

By Kris Wetherbee
October/November 2002

With today's choice of varieties, you can enjoy fresh raspberries from early summer to fall whether you grow them yourself or buy them by the basketful. Raspberries can easily be grown throughout the country and come in a diversity of delicate hues including red, purple, black and yellow.

The richest flavored are varieties of black and purple raspberries. Black raspberries (sometimes called blackcaps) are firmer than red raspberries and somewhat bolder in taste. Purple raspberries are a hybrid of the red and black types, yielding large and richly flavored berries. Yellow raspberries develop a light pink blush when fully ripe, and are sweeter and more tender than the red types. All colors are highly aromatic and deliciously sweet with floral undertones.

Raspberries are high in fiber and vitamin C, and are a rich source of the anticancer compound ellagic acid. Black raspberries are especially fruitful in antioxidant and cancer preventive agents. Fresh raspberries are highly perishable and are best used within one to two days for peak quality, flavor and nutrient content. Rinse berries with cold water just before using.

If your raspberry patch only provides enough berries for fresh eating, you can buy larger quantities for preserving at local produce stands or farmer's markets. Prices will vary, but you can usually find flats (12 pints) priced around $14 per flat. The best way to preserve berries for winter use is by freezing, drying into fruit leather, or turning into jams or preserves.

Freezing is simple: Freeze whole berries on a tray or cookie sheet, then pack loosely in freezer bags. To freeze raspberries packed in sugar, gently mix 1/2 cup sugar to each quart of raspberries and fill freezer containers to within 1 inch of the top. To freeze raspberries packed in syrup, fill freezer containers with berries (leave a headspace) and cover with a syrup made of equal parts honey and water, or 3 cups sugar and 4 cups water.

Use frozen berries in pies, tarts, cobblers and muffins. Sprinkle over hot cereal, stir into yogurt or make a quick raspberry spread by mixing 2 tablespoons crushed berries with 1/3 cup soft margarine and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cook them into puddings and sauces, or make jam during winter after garden chores have died down.

For a quick and delicious jam, add 1 cup frozen raspberries and Y cup sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for five minutes. Pour berry mixture into a blender and process for 15 seconds or until thick. For more fruit flavor and fewer calories, why not make a low-sugar or no-sugar jam? Pomona's Universal Pectin, available in supermarkets or natural food stores, makes it simple with easy-to-follow, instructions and recipes.

Raspberry-Surplus Salsa

Easy to make, this recipe is a wonderful way to preserve fresh raspberries as a ready-made fruit salsa you freeze now and serve later. It's great for dipping, as a condiment for barbecue, or as a topping for baked or grilled chicken, turkey, fish and pork.

This salsa also does double-duty as a sauce to serve over sweet potatoes, squash or rice.

4 cups fresh raspberries 1/2 cup chopped sweet or red onion 1 garlic clove, minced 1 to 2 serrano peppers, seeded and minced 1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced 1 red or orange bell pepper, cored and diced 1/3 cup fresh lime juice 1/3 c up chopped fresh basil 1 teaspoon sugar (optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional) 1/2 teaspoon ginger (optional).

In a medium-sized bowl, mix raspberries together with remaining ingredients. Leave raspberries whole for a chunkier salsa, or mash raspberries lightly with a fork before adding other ingredients.

Let stand for one hour to blend flavors. Depending on use, freeze remaining salsa in 1/2 to 1 cup portions. Makes about 5 cups.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2002-10-01/Raspberries.aspx

Nourish Means . . .

2011-05-14T00:23:00.000-07:00

What does "nourish" mean to you? Jamie Oliver, Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and other voices explore this question in this video from Nourish.

What does NOURISH mean to you???

Michael Pollan: Don't Eat What You See on TV

2011-05-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Best-selling author Michael Pollan explains how food marketers have turned his critiques (like don't eat anything with more than five ingredients) into another way to sell consumers more food. His new rule of thumb? "Don't eat any foods you've ever seen advertised on television."

Michael Pollan, one of the best-known names in food-related issues, offers a guide about health and food. Food Rules: An Eater's Manual is a set of memorable ideas for eating wisely. Many of them are drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is for people who would like to become more mindful of what they are eating.

Pollan is the author of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. - Book Passage

Michael Pollan is the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, a New York Times bestseller. His previous books include The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (2001); A Place of My Own (1997); and Second Nature (1991). A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism.

Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harper's Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing 2004, Best American Essays 2003, and the Norton Book of Nature Writing.

He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, the painter Judith Belzer, and their son, Isaac.

Michael Pollan: Twinkie vs. Carrot

2011-05-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why a bunch of carrots costs more than a package of Twinkies?

Food journalist Michael Pollan connects the dots between food policy, high-fructose corn syrup, and our health.

Jamie Oliver: Try Something New

2011-05-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tasted a purple potato or a golden beet? Chef Jamie Oliver, star of TV's Food Revolution, invites us to explore a world of new tastes.

Have you watched his show on TV where he is trying to get our children to appreciate and eat food that is better for them by working to develop healthy school lunches in several school districts and states?

Jamie works hard trying to get across a very important message, that the nutritionally poor diet that our kids and many adults are eating is literally making them sick.

These vegetables can be grown easily at home in your backyard, front yard, patio, deck, in raised beds, wood and other large pots, planters, half wine barrels or any other creative container you can come up with.

It is fun to nurture and grow vegetables and then eat what you grew. When gardening we are exposed to a bacteria in the soil that actually generates Serotonin in our brains that causes us to feel happy. It is supposed to be better than taking Prozac!

And we also get to eat healthy food from our own hand.

Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!!!

Garden Art by Debbie

2011-04-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Very creative ideas for your garden plants. Debbie is a big-time home gardener who has expanded into creating and selling her garden art. Enjoy this video and maybe it will inspire you to let your creative juices flow!

The Worldwide 'Thirst' For Clean Drinking Water

2011-04-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

Listen to the Story

Fresh Air from WHYY

iStockphoto.com

"We use purified drinking water to flush our toilets and water our lawns. That doesn't make any sense," says Charles Fishman. "In an era of scarcity, we won't need to limit whether we have water to boil pasta or take a bath. But we will think differently about a whole portfolio of water. There will be different kinds of waters for different uses. And water itself will get smart."

The typical American uses 99 gallons of water a day for activities like washing clothes, bathing, toilet-flushing and cooking. But that amount doesn't even come close to the amount of water used on a daily basis by electrical power plants.

Each day, coal, nuclear and natural gas plants use about five times the amount of water used on a daily basis by all American households combined — including 250 gallons of water per American per day to generate our daily electricity usage.

"So your flat-screen TV has a little hidden water spigot running to it," says investigative reporter Charles Fishman. "[We use] 10 gallons of water an hour every hour of every day just to power our computers and our refrigerators and our washing machines at home."

The Big Thirst: The Secret Life
and Turbulent Future of Water
By Charles Fishman

In a Fast Company cover story published in 2007, Fishman examined how the bottled water industry turned what was once a free natural resource into a multibillion-dollar business. He expands his investigation of the water industry in the new book The Big Thirst, which examines the future of a natural resource that, Fishman says, we can no longer take for granted.

"The last 100 years has been the golden age of water in the developed world: water that has been safe, unlimited and essentially free," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "But that era is over. We will not, going forward, have water that has all three of those qualities at the same time: unlimited, unthinkingly inexpensive and safe."

Currently, one out of six gallons of water acquired, treated and pumped by water utilities in the U.S. leaks back into the ground before it can be used by a home or business. This, says Fishman, will change — but only if technology at water utility companies starts to improve.

"Water utility companies are run the same way they were 30 or 40 years ago," he says. "They don't understand what's going on in their own pipes. As technology allows us to see what's happening to the water in the water system — whether it's in a factory, university or whole ecosystem — we'll be able to manage that water much more smartly."

Viva Las Vegas
In The Big Thirst, Fishman examines different areas of the world already grappling with water shortages. He profiles parts of Delhi, India, where people line up twice a day with buckets for clean water, and Las Vegas — which, despite having all forms of water entertainment for visitors, is currently dealing with one of the biggest water shortages in the nation.

"Thirty years ago, Las Vegas was run much the way every other city in America was run — people watered their lawns whenever they wanted [and] they washed their cars whenever they wanted," Fishman says. "But then a woman [Patricia Mulroy] became the head of water [management] in Las Vegas, and she looked at the pace of growth of the city ... and she started working on rules that would, over time, change the culture in Las Vegas."

Las Vegas now pays residents $40,000 an acre to take out their lawns and replace them with rocks and native plants. That's much cheaper, Fishman says, than figuring out how to pump more water into the city, which takes 90 percent of its water from a lake plagued with drought issues. And, he says, by implementing stringent water usage rules — it's illegal in Las Vegas to spray a sidewalk with a sprinkler, for instance — the city has saved millions, both in dollars and in gallons.

"Las Vegas, over time, has come to recapture almost all of the water used anywhere [in the city] indoors," he says. "Although Las Vegas has what was, for a long time, the largest fountain on Earth and shark aquariums and lagoons that re-create the canals of Venice right on the strip, over the last 20 years, per-person water use in Vegas has fallen 100 gallons."

The city's public golf courses have also cut their water usage. Angel Park, which used to use almost 2 million gallons of water a night, has cut its water usage in half over the past 15 years.

"They have pulled out a third of the turf in the golf course," Fishman says. "You now tee off from a grassy green and your ball heads for a hole that is a grassy green, but in between [are] dessert ravines and arroyos landscaped as desert landscape. And that's all different than the desert used to be. ... They've gone from using more than 600 million gallons of water a year down to about 376 million gallons of water a year."

Charles Fishman is a senior writer at Fast
Company and the author of The Wal-Mart Effect.
He has twice received the UNCLA Gerald Loeb
Award for outstanding business writing. -Free Press

The Private Sector
But cities with water shortages aren't the only places looking to conserve water, Fishman says. Both IBM and GE have recently reconfigured their facilities to reduce their water use and save money, he says.

"Over 10 years, [IBM] reduced their water use by a third while they increased their chip production by a third," he says. "So they increased the efficiency of their water productivity by about 80 percent."

In the next 30 years, Fishman predicts, private companies will develop the technology to make water utility plants more efficient. But, he cautions, it's important to make sure water remains a public resource.

"You don't want to let companies end up in control of the resource itself," he says. "We need to be careful not to cede those rights ... while we also take advantage of the innovations. That's a question of making sure that we understand the economics and policies on a community-by-community basis. There's nothing wrong with companies innovating [solutions for] water as long as the water remains a public resource. And that's really important."

Interview Highlights

On the antiquated municipal water systems in the United States

"The average U.S. home pays an average of $34 a month. So our always-on, unlimited, almost universally reliably safe water costs us about $1 a day. Our water bill is less than half what our cable TV bill or our cell phone bill is. So cities are starved for financial resources and water utilities are often in terrible shape. In Philadelphia, there are 3,300 miles of water mains in the city, and they replace 20 miles a year. They're on 160-year replacement cycles. One of the officials from the Philadelphia water utility said to me, 'We want to make sure we get the 20 miles right.' That's not a question of money, it's a question of public resistance to digging up streets."

On taking the water system for granted

"One of the big problems of water is that the success of the golden age of water has created an invisible system. We don't even take [water] for granted because taking it for granted would suggest we pay attention to it. That hidden system is corroding, and as it corrodes, it even corrodes our support for public water. We think, 'Why should I pay more for water? I'll just go buy bottled water.' But, in fact, we don't actually spend that much money supporting the system. In the U.S., we spend $21 billion a year buying bottled water, and we spend $29 billion a year maintaining the entire water system — pipes, treatment plants, pumps. We spend almost as much on crushable plastic bottles of water as we do maintaining the water system."

On his own water habits

"We use a lot less bottled water in our house than we used to. We're always promoting bringing the refillable bottle of water to the soccer game or the dance lessons. There are still water bottles kicking around the minivan and the house. One of the smallest but most significant changes in my own habits is I almost never pour water down the drain now. When somebody leaves a half-empty bottle of water around the house or in the minivan, I pour them right in the dog bowl or in a plant in the house."

Excerpt: 'The Big Thirst'
The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water
By Charles Fishman
Hardcover, 400 pages - List price: $26.99 Free Press

Everyone is an expert on water.

We all know how it feels to be so grungy that nothing but a good shower will make us feel better. We know how it feels to be so thirsty that only water will really satisfy us. And we know exactly how the water will taste — really, how the water will feel — going down, in that first swallow.

We know how light shines through water in a drinking glass or a swimming pool. We know how to anticipate the arc of water from a drinking fountain, and the force of a wave at the beach, although we can be surprised by both.

We know the sharp smell of rain misted through the air after a summer downpour. Snowy air has its own smell, chilly early morning fog has its own smell, the humidity in Key West has its own smell. Water speaks a whole range of languages, specialized and universal, utilitarian and poetic and romantic. Sometimes they are all talking at once.

The feel of water is as familiar as the feel of our own skin. The playful, sparkling flow of a creek through our fingers, the thrill of planing a hand across the top of the water over the side of a speedboat. The trickle of a single bead of sweat down your nose during a run.

We know the shapes of shifting light that water makes on the bottom of a swimming pool (although we may not know they are called "caustics"). And we know the captivating power of a waterfall, how in the end you have to simply pull yourself away from watching the cascade, which manages to be always the same and always different, never boring.

And yet, for all our intimacy with water, we actually know almost nothing about it — about water itself. Water is as potent in our daily lives as gravity, but also as mysterious.

For most of us, even the most basic questions about water turn out to be stumpers.

Where did the water on Earth come from?

Is water still being created or added somehow?

How old is the water coming out of the kitchen faucet?

For that matter, how did the water get to the kitchen faucet?

And when we flush, where does the water in the toilet actually go?

The things we think we know about water — things we might have learned in school — often turn out to be myths.

We think of Earth as a watery planet, indeed, we call it the Blue Planet; but for all of water's power in shaping our world, Earth turns out to be surprisingly dry. A little water goes a long way.

We think of space as not just cold and dark and empty, but as barren of water. In fact, space is pretty wet. Cosmic water is quite common.

At the most personal level, there is a bit of bad news. Not only don't you need to drink eight glasses of water every day, you cannot in any way make your complexion more youthful by drinking water. Your body's water-balance mechanisms are tuned with the precision of a digital chemistry lab, and you cannot possibly "hydrate" your skin from the inside by drinking an extra bottle or two of Perrier. You just end up with pee sourced in France.

In short, we know nothing of the life of water — nothing of the life of the water inside us, around us, or beyond us. But it's a great story — captivating and urgent, surprising and funny and haunting. And if we're going to master our relationship to water in the next few decades — really, if we're going to remaster our relationship to water — we need to understand the life of water itself.

One of the great scientific students of water is Dr. Richard Wolfenden, alumni distinguished professor of biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wolfenden, seventy-five, is a researcher who has spent much of his career studying how water shapes our body chemistry, inside our cells.

Proteins in our cells manage every element of human life, and the key to the effectiveness of proteins is the way their long chains are folded into intricate and precise shapes, like tiny molecular origami. Proteins only work — which is to say, everything about our bodies only works — if the folding is exactly correct.

That folding, it turns out, is engineered by water.

"Proteins know how to fold up because they have the rules written into their atoms," says Wolfenden. "And the rules are entirely a reflection of how eager that part of the molecule is to get away from water or to cling to water. To say that water is essential hardly covers it."

Asked if he is optimistic about our future relationship to water, Wolfenden is silent for a moment. Then he says, "I think our relationship to water is going to be one of the deciding things of the next century. I don't think water's in any trouble. But we might be."

No expression in common usage is as thoroughly wrongheaded as "dull as tap water." One thing water is not is dull.

Given our intimacy with water, our dependence on it, and water's apparent simplicity — "H2O" is surely the best-known molecular formula in human consciousness — the surprising thing is how many surprises the story of water contains, and how many flat-out mysteries. Often the two go hand in hand.

One of the great myths about water is that it is the most common substance on Earth. Indeed, you can Google search "the most common substance on Earth," and water pops up repeatedly. The Earth's surface is 71 percent covered in water, and water is the primary force shaping every element of the character of the planet — the geology, the weather, the range and variety of life, the planet's gleaming profile in space.

But unless you're playing a children's game in which you mean that water is, quite literally, the most common substance sitting on the surface of the Earth (as opposed to the most common substance making up Earth's composition), then the amount of water on the planet's surface is trivial in every way except its impact. The total water on the surface of Earth (the oceans, the ice caps, the atmospheric water) makes up 0.025 percent of the mass of the planet — 25/100,000ths of the stuff of Earth. If Earth were the size of a Honda Odyssey minivan, the amount of water on the planet would be in a single, half-liter bottle of Poland Spring in one of the van's thirteen cup holders.

Put another way, if the oceans on Earth were as deep, in relative terms, as the skin on a typical apple is thick, they would average ten kilometers deep instead of four kilometers, and all the land on Earth would be inundated except the planet's tallest mountains.

Once you actually pause and appreciate how fine the film of water enveloping Earth is, water's impact is even more dramatic.

The oldest rock discovered so far on Earth — in northern Quebec — is 4.28 billion years old. That's an old rock — it's getting close to the age of the solar system itself, estimated at about 4.6 billion years.

But turn on the faucet in the bathroom to brush your teeth, and the water pouring out is probably just a bit older than Canada's old rock. Scientists don't agree on the precise age of the water on Earth, but it's certainly 4.3 or 4.4 or 4.5 billion years old. It's one of the more astonishing things about water — all the water on Earth was delivered here when Earth was formed, or shortly thereafter. The water around us is original equipment — it was included with the planet itself, in the first 100 million years or so. There is, in fact, no mechanism on Earth for creating or destroying large quantities of water. What we've got is what's been here, literally, forever.

And it all arrived on Earth in exactly the form it's in now: H2O.

Water not only came from space, it was created out in space. It is, in fact, cosmic juice, formed hundreds of millions, or even billions, of years before the solar system itself. Once you understand the lineage of water, you realize that the ads touting Evian ("born in the French Alps") and FIJI Water ("untouched by man") dramatically understate the case.

Gary Melnick is a senior astrophysicist at Harvard University's Center for Astrophysics who has spent years using orbiting telescopes to study star formation and water in space. He was part of the team that in 1997, using the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), discovered an interstellar spring of water of astonishing scale.

They pointed the ISO telescope at Orion, a constellation that is quite easy to spot with the naked eye on a clear night. The stars of Orion are part of our own Milky Way, and one shining spot in Orion — the middle dot in Orion's sword — is in fact not a star but a massive, glowing cloud of gas and dust, the Orion Molecular Cloud. That cloud is the kind where new stars form, condensing out of the hydrogen gas.

"Orion is the closest region to Earth where massive stars are being formed," says Melnick. The full cloud of hydrogen, which looks to the eye like just that one dot in Orion, is of such vast scale that it is giving birth to thousands of stars at once.

When Melnick and his colleagues used the telescope to look at part of the Orion Molecular Cloud, he says, "What we found was that there is enough water being formed sufficient to fill all of Earth's oceans every twenty-four minutes."

As the stars coalescence and collapse in on themselves, they send shock waves out through the clouds of gas, which contain lots of loose hydrogen and oxygen. When the shock waves slam the hydrogens and oxygens into each other, they often form water. Hydrogen, for the record, is the most common element in the universe; oxygen is the third most common.

The result, right there in the sword hanging from Orion's belt, is a water factory that is making the equivalent of all the water on Earth, sixty times a day. Have a look at the Pacific Ocean, or the Atlantic Ocean, or something small like Lake Michigan, and think about creating just that much water three times an hour — the scale is really almost hard to credit. All the water on Earth, sixty times a day? That's one swampy patch of the Milky Way.

Not quite, says Melnick, with the bemusement of a guy used to thinking in cosmic distances that the rest of us find literally unimaginable.

"The cloud is creating enough water molecules every twenty-four minutes to fill all of Earth's oceans," says Melnick. "The density of the water, well, it's not like if you were floating out there, you'd get hit with a bucket of water in the face or anything."

While the cloud is making sixty Earth waters every twenty-four hours, it is doing it across a span of space 420 times the size of our solar system.

"It is the same as cool mist," says Melnick. "It's just a lot less dense."

Water forms in interstellar clouds in another way, equally familiar and equally alien. The hydrogens and oxygens literally mate on the surface of tiny grains of dust that are part of the interstellar clouds. In the cloud, says Melnick, "hydrogen hits the dust grains quite frequently. And every once in a while oxygen will hit the dust grains too, and linger."

What happens next isn't quite clear, says Melnick, "but somehow the hydrogen finds the oxygen and forms OH. Then another hydrogen finds it and forms H2O."

The new water molecules form a thin coating of ice on the dust grain, like what you find on ice cream that's been in the freezer too long.

And sometimes the water from the cool mist lands on a dust grain, and clings. "If the dust grain is cold, in almost all of those cases, the water will stick to it and not come off," says Melnick, "just the way your tongue sticks to a cold pole in the middle of winter."

Your tongue, of course, is covered with saliva that is 99.5 percent water, water which was itself once floating around in interstellar space, perhaps frozen onto a dust grain.

And that's it, as far as the astrophysicists and the astrochemists understand it at this point: All the water on Earth — the thunderheads, the snow-covered ski slopes, Old Faithful, and the current of the Mississippi River — started out as the finest mist, the smallest ice cubes, drifting around inside an interstellar dust cloud.

In general, there is no dispute about that.

Here's the mystery. Scientists don't actually know how that water gets from the interstellar cloud to Niagara Falls. And perhaps most startling of all, they don't know how much water there is on Earth.

From The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water by Charles Fishman. Copyright 2011 by Free Press. Excerpted with permission by Free Press.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/11/135241362/the-worldwide-thirst-for-clean-drinking-water?sc=fb&cc=fp

Building Raised Beds

2011-04-08T00:12:00.000-07:00

I have been building raised beds made with 2"X12" redwood boards for thirty years now. I usually nailed the corners, then started using metal brackets when the joints would start to pull apart after many years of use. I especially like having 12" high boards so I can sit on them while planting. Much better than leaning over and stressing the back.

I just found these brackets online. They make building a raised bed really easy for anyone to do. They are a little pricey, but might be worth it for ease of use. The second perk is that they are really nice looking.

This little video demonstrates how these new corners work. Enjoy!

How to build an MBrace raised bed from Art of the Garden on Vimeo.

Keep Your Garden Safe From Killer Compost

2011-03-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

Warning: Do not bring manure compost into your garden from outside sources unless you’re certain it doesn’t contain aminopyralid residues!

By Barbara Pleasant
April/May 2011

If you inadvertently apply aminopyralid-laced manure compost to your garden, you may suffer the crop-killing consequences for three or more years.

We’ve been reporting since 2008 on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) failure to prevent Dow Agrosciences from contaminating the public compost supply by selling persistent herbicides, and the issue continues to escalate.
The aminopyralid herbicide known as Milestone, plus other related herbicides collectively known as pyralids (sold under the brands Confront, Curtail, Forefront, Hornet, Lontrel, Millenium Ultra, Reclaim, Stinger and Transline), are still surfacing unexpectedly in gardens throughout the United States, with devastating results. The EPA allows Dow and others to sell these potent weed killers to farmers, who spray them on their pastures and hayfields. When animals graze on the treated pasture or hay, the chemicals pass through the animals and persist in the manure for several years — even if the manure is processed into compost! Gardeners then use the contaminated hay or compost on their crops, bringing a slow death to carrots, lettuces, potatoes, beets, spinach, tomatoes and legumes, including (but not limited to) beans and peas.
This is not a minor or isolated problem. In Montana, laboratory tests confirmed pyralid toxicity in soil samples from 17 counties across the state. Pennsylvania’s state weed specialist has received several reports of contamination, and numerous North Carolina vegetable growers have lost crops to contaminated mulch, hay or compost. Whatcom County in Washington has been hit especially hard, with losses to community gardens and several organic farms estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those affected think the source of the contamination was cow manure used to produce local composts.
These poisons are so powerful that residues can damage sensitive crops at levels as low as 10 parts per billion, according to an Ohio State University fact sheet. Sensitive plants may show symptoms quickly in heavily contaminated soil, or damage may not be apparent for weeks. As the leaves of affected plants curl and shrivel, gardeners often wrongly assume their plants have been hit by a disease or aerial herbicide drift.

These Toxic Chemicals Contaminate for Years

The EPA gave Milestone/aminopyralid “conditional” approval in 2005, despite inconsistencies in the Environmental Fate and Ecological Risk Assessment submitted by Dow. According to the EPA’s own scientists, “the persistence of aminopyralid [in soil] may be underestimated in this assessment.” Another problem noted by EPA scientists was the risk to endangered native plants. The assessment names endangered plants known to grow in wheat fields, but fails to address a bigger issue: Aminopyralid kills legumes, including wild species that bring nitrogen into the soil, and is consequently capable of crippling nature’s fertility cycle.

At the time aminopyralid was approved, reliable lab tests didn’t exist to identify pesticide residue levels in soil, and today such tests cost several hundred dollars per sample.

The EPA recently asked Dow to make the environmental risks from aminopyralid more prominent on labels, so contamination warnings now appear on the front label of containers. But Dow gives no precautionary information on its website. We had hoped the “Milestone Training” information offered on the website would mention soil contamination, but were disappointed to find that the “training” was little more than a repetition of the product’s sales pitch. For example, Question 8 asks: “What happens to Milestone after application?” Dow’s answer: “It remains in the soil to kill emerging seedlings for several weeks.”
Actually, numerous reports indicate that aminopryalid persists in soil for several years rather than “several weeks.” In North Carolina, a hayfield treated with Milestone herbicide in 2006 was still unfit for tomatoes in 2009.

What Now?

When we pressed EPA officials for answers on what they plan to do about this ongoing problem, all they would say is they intend to reevaluate aminopyralid, with data completion scheduled for 2014. In the meantime, these incredibly potent and persistent plant killers will continue to pollute gardens. To express your disapproval and demand the EPA take immediate action on this issue, contact Dan Kenny of the EPA’s Technical Review Branch, 703-305-7546; kenny.dan@epa.gov. You can also post your comments at the bottom of this article and spread the word to your friends via e-mail or Facebook. Anyone directly affected should file an incident report with the EPA.
To protect your garden, network with neighbors to keep aminopyralid out of your local community, and ask lots of questions before importing compost, manure, mulch or topsoil.

This isn’t the only pesticide issue that’s really bugging us right now. Remember the systemic neonicotinoid pesticides we told you about in our October/November 2010 issue (Systemic Pesticides: Chemicals You Can’t Wash Off) that are deadly to honeybees that consume pollen, nectar or even water droplets from treated plants? It turns out the EPA gave Bayer CropScience a “conditional” registration to use one of these pesticides, clothianidin, in 2003, even though EPA scientists reviewing the company’s research on this pesticide concluded that clothianidin is “both persistent and systemic” and “highly toxic [to honeybees] on both a contact and an oral basis.” For a full report on this issue, see Leaked Document Shows EPA Allowed Bee-Toxic Pesticide Despite Own Scientists’ Red Flags

In addition, new evidence from researchers at the University of Buenos Aires Medical School shows the most widely used herbicide in the world, Roundup/glyphosate, may cause birth defects at residue levels much lower than currently allowed limits. For details, see Groundbreaking Study Shows Roundup Link to Birth Defects.

— Cheryl Long

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/killer-compost-zmgz11zrog.aspx#ixzz1IEc0J06C

The Great Backyard Bird Count - February 18-21, 2011

2011-02-04T04:46:00.000-08:00

Join this event!!! This is going to be really fun and a great way to help document the sustainability of different bird species.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It's free, fun, and easy-and it helps the birds. For more information, visit http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

NEW: Downloadable GBBC instructions
Watch the new 2011 GBBC web video!