Good morning!

Morning. I’m planning to grow some things as well. We, too, have a little one that everyone frets over so I thought I’d grow a lot of peas since I’ve never known anyone that can resist eating those straight from the garden.

Just an fyi – Christy and her family are taking a well deserved break and she asked me to keep the thread going this morning.

We’ve got 34 and some sun this morning – I’m going to be putting out black plastic on a couple of the beds to start getting things warmed up. Depending on how warm the soil is this afternoon, I might take a shot at putting out the cabbages and covering them with plastic.

Except for a scant few, the ‘farmers’ in our market, get their vegetables from the same sources as the Supermarket down the road. When I saw the same crates at the Farmers Market, as I saw at Kroger, it hit me. Now in the ’season’ you can get, at a premium price, home grown items…but mostly it is the same thing as Kroger.

Well, for my purposese, that’s perfect since we have the same weather. Do you grow peas, Toby? Am I supposed to buy a certain kind or are they all the same?

None of mine have ever made it all the way to “cooked.” They get gobbled on the way to the kitchen!

My 15 yr old started eating his veggies when he was old enough to pull the carrots out of the ground and eat them with the dirt still on ‘em,lol. I had my first garden here when he was 4,so my evil veggie eating plan worked,heehee. Last year I had no sugar snap peas left because he ate them all before I could pick them.

I think you and Peanut would LOVE Sharon Lovejoy’s books if you haven’t read them yet. She’s all about the gardening with kids with lots of folklore and practical(simple and inexpensive)ideas. Roots,Shoots,Buckets and Boots is my fave,but all of her books are awesome. I highly recommend building at least one sunflower house while your little one is still little,they’re easy and fun to make.(I recommend using moonflowers with the morning glories,it makes the hours after sunset more fun)

There’s also an Eating Liberally website,it’s part of the whole Drinking Liberally thing Atrios posts about sometimes,Marion Nestle does a Q and A with blogger Kat over there sometimes.

In this day and age,it can be hard to go off the grid food wise,but it warms my heart to see a movement in that direction,every little tomato or green bean helps.

Hi, Toby and pups — we’re taking a bit of a break, too. Made the tough decision to respite at the cabin this weekend from Fargo’s flooding.

Mayor’s on CNN now.

We had been having great weather with high in the high 60s low 70s then on thursday we had 18″ of fresh snow. There will bo no yard stuff today.

Well, for regular ’shell them out of the pods’ peas, there are bushier ones, like Knight (and for those, you can just stick branches in the soil support them) and then there are the standard vining ones where you need a lot taller supports. The other popular type, ’sugar snap’, those have much shorter vines and you can use ‘pea brush’ for those too.

On food — we are eager for fresh veggie season. The Fargo farmers market is in an area that’s now under almost 42 feet of water. We’ll have much to talk about as we compare the merits of the tomatoes and green beans.

Up here, that’s called ’poor man’s fertilizer’ because they believed in the old days that a late snow like that would bring down something out of the air…

That’s what I’m expecting here too. And, naturally, I’ll join in. It’s not unusual for someone to bring a bag of peas from the grocery store and we all sit around and shuck and eat.

I agree with you that having a garden and allowing the kids to eat their veggies straight out (ahem, if you can get them to at least give ’em a rinse) – though in our case, it produced kids who will only eat their veggies…raw.

Yeh, I think it brings down something out of the air. Unfortunately I think it is what is put in the air from an old coal burning generating plant near the Wyoming border. *g* But the air is always fresh after a snowstorm

Yes, you find that sometimes — a lot depends on how the farmers market is organized — the Ithaca one, for example, requires everything to be grown within an hour’s drive of the location – no commercial suppliers. Other markets are more ’flexible’ and even in any particular area, you get a mix. The downtown market here gets both locally grown and people showing up with commercial cases of stuff; the one in the county park on Saturdays only does locally grown.

You mentioned Michael Pollan as part of your veggie inspiration. Omnivore’s Dilemma changed the way I look at the world. I have another book suggestion if you are a meat eater. “Animals Make us Human.” by Temple Grandin. Dr, Grandin is a animal sciences prof. at Colorado State University and she is autistic. She is mentioned in Pollan’s books. she has written several other books about understanding animals through her experience with autism and I saw her speak a few days ago here at CSU at a book signing. She electrifies the room when speaking. Read more about my encounter here.

Bonjour les pups.

We had a garden when I grew up in the 40s and 50s, made beans, peas, strawberries, rasberries corn. My mother canned them and later froze them. The peas went fast; they are so delicious fresh out of the pod. We also had a hazelnut tree, though I don’t imagine that counts. Just about everyone in our corner kept gardens, and some had poultry.

I’ve been exploring the Paris markets this week, as cooking is one of my hobbies. The produce is not as good as it was when I first debarked here 45 years ago. Mass production has done its evil work here as elsewhere, the only exception being the disappearance of the mass-produced wine that sold for a quarter a litre. There’s a big kerfluffle brewing on the cheese front. The big firms are buying out the little fromageries, taking their name (the terroir) and making pasteurized instead of non-pasteurized products, much to the detriment of the taste. You can still get the real stuff at the handful of really high-class cheese stores here. Another victim of modernization. The mustard shop maintained by Maille in Place de la Madeleine is closed. You used to be able to take your pot and get it filled with fresh mustard. There’s nothing like the real thing. Am looking for a replacement.

There are still organic produce markets on Sunday. I’m going to test one out tomorrow in the rue Grenelle.

Au revoir and good gardening.

My late wife grew up on a ranch. We had a two acre garden with an annual bounty. Canning season was late summer. Also fresh jam. Milk was sold to Kraft with house needs coming straight from the tank and pastuerized in the kitchen. Stock cattle and chickens too. Kids grew up getting eggs from the hen house and helping in the garden.

One of the exciting pieces of news for us in Upstate New York is that a group of grain and bean farmers up near Cornell have gone organic and have started a flour mill. Whatever gets produced will be pretty interesting because the breeds of wheat, etc. that we can grow in Upstate New York are not the same (in terms of protein, carb content, etc.) as the grains that are grown in the Midwest which is basically where the majority of bread and cake flours come from now). I think we are going to see more and more farmers returning to more and more crops that were historically grown in their areas…anyone else seeing or hearing about this in their areas?

Good morning Toby and pups,

I’m a little under halfway through Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. It’s interesting that Christy put up these thoughts today because I really was struck by this passage from Pollan (pages 131-133) where Pollan is interacting with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm in Virginia:

As it happened, the reason I found my way to Polyface Farm in the first place had everything to do with Joel Salatin’s unusually strict construction of the word sustainable. As part of my research into the organic food chain, I kept hearing about this organic farmer in Virginia who had no use for the federal government’s new organic standards. I also kept hearing about the exceptional food he was producing. So I gave him a call, hoping to get some salty quotes about the organic industry and perhaps get him to ship me a pastured chicken or steak.

The salty quotes I got. Speaking in a rapid-fire delivery that sounded like a cross between Bill Clinton and a hopped-up TV evangelist, Salatin delivered a scathing indictment of the “organic empire”. I struggled to keep up with a spirited diatribe that bounced from the “Western conquistador mentality” and the “clash of the paradigms” to the “innate distinctive desires of a chicken” and the impossibility of taking a “decidedly Eastern, connected, holistic product, and selling it through a decidedly Western, disconnected, reductionist Wall Streetified marketing system.”

/snip/

As I indicated earlier, I got my quotes, but in the end I didn’t get my food. Before we got off the phone, I asked Salatin if he could ship me one of his chickens and maybe a steak, too. He said that he couldn’t do that. I figured he meant he wasn’t set up for shipping, so offered him my FedEx account number.

“No, I don’t think you understand. I don’t believe it’s sustainable–or ‘organic’, if you will–to FedEx meat all around the country. I’m sorry, but I can’t do it.”

This man was serious.

“Just because we can ship organic lettuce from the Salinas Valley, or organic cut flowers from Peru, doesn’t mean we should do it, not if we’re really serious about energy and seasonality and bioregionalism. I’m afraid if you want to try one of our chickens, you’re going to have to drive down here to Swoope to pick it up.”

Salatin’s viewpoint is a very important one to consider. Is it more responsible to buy “organic” produce that has been trucked all the way across the country? If we support local farmers more, will there be more local farmers?

Good morning, Prairie, Toby and pups.

Prairie Sunshine,
Cbl and I talked about your safety last night. There is much concern here as she thought you suggested in a comment that your home may be lost. We are thinking of you and hoping for the best.

Here in our small town in central Texas we have a seasonal farmers market. The produce, fresh locally produced pasta and meat are exceptional. Veggies are local but the fruit seems to be from the same sources as the markets.

Morning everyone!

Gardening and planting is UBER-important for me. A good portion of my very meager yearly budget goes to the maintenance and propagation of perennials. I have a modest vegetable garden. My soil was denuded when the house site was graded, and of the 3+ acres around 2.5 are wooded. My wife and i bought the house 3 years ago. We got married on Arbor Day and had a planting party with all the wedding guests.

I’ve planted: raspberries, gooseberries, currants, blackberries, elderberries, plum, cherry, blueberry, asparagus, hazelnut and some medicinal/pottage herbs. This year i will be planting Paw Paws, persimmons, hardy kiwi and cranberry. I’m trying the Forest Gardening/Permaculture tack. I live in the Western part of Mass among rolling hills full of orchards and farms. Local apples, pears, peaches and strawberries are abundant so we buy in super-bulk during picking time (sometimes we glean) and then can and freeze and cook like mad. We are trying to figure out whether we have enough Maple trees to make tapping them for syrup worthwhile.

I’ve been poor for a LOOOOOONNNGGG time… and i’m still poor, financially speaking (even more so considering the huge amt of DEBT purchasing a home requires taking on). But lately i’ve been feeling really rich. I’ll be losing my part-time job at a photo lab due to Bankruptcy/downsizing and am scared about the loss of income but excited that i’ll be able to spend more time at home for a while at just the right time of year. :)

The snow in my woods is less than a foot deep and the south hilltop is ready for tillin’… i’ll be outside this weekend! Yeah!

wishing Peace to all, and a good weekend with only POSITIVE news from DC…

(i did say i was wishing)

Jim, 20-25 years ago, in an edition of Organic Gardening, Bob Rodale discussed a study that they had done about the Commonwealth of PA in terms of where the food came from. As I recall it (and my figures might be wrong, but the gist is right), in the 1930s, PA basically was self-sufficient for raising its own food…by the 1980s when the article was written, PA stores were only selling 30% PA foods. Of course, part of this was the whole ’strawberries in January’ thing, but if the entire food transport system in this country shut down for three days, there would be a lot of people without food.

mornin’ pups! thanks for filling in, toby.

food!!!

while i go find a link, here’s one way to fish–1:21
the music is good saturday morning kinda flow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZB0no_RCMs

and here are some photos that i have been passing out as free ’desktop wallpaper’ to give you a ’spring kick’. it has definitely pepped me up putting it on my desktop.
the orchid won’t work so well for that, it’s just for fun.

i think a fairy princess lives in this orchid-click on the image to make it bigger to really see the glisten and the center better.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com…..c324_b.jpg

crocus photo.
am linking it from my flickr page cuz it’s a big file.

medium size
i like the pollen on the petals and the bottom center where it kinda glows.
and and and the curled petals. lol.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com…..94bc42.jpg

bigger one, not as focused, but would be good wallpaper for desktop, cuz i like that bottom center glow-thing goin’ on….. that’s what i’m doing with it-click on the image to make it bigger, is a whole ’nuther thing when you do that.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com…..bc42_b.jpg

be back with a food link in a minute. the perfect meal made on a grill.

Very pretty photos, dmac…

Hey, thanks for your caring! We may return to a very messy smelly basement but that will be a small price, considering. Our old neighborhood is the high ground of Fargo, such as it is.

CNN covering the mayor’s press conference this morning…starting imminent.

Yes, I don’t know what the answer is, but as we are re-evaluating our broken economy, I’d like to see a lot more national attention to ideas like this. Why can’t we stop shipping so much food everywhere and turn a lot of those drivers into local farmers. As you say, there will still be some demand for out-of-season stuff, but maybe we can teach ourselves that it’s not so necessary. I’m already weaning myself from South American fruit not out of prejudice but because I had decided that it didn’t make sense to me from an energy standpoint to ship food that far.

Jim – another reason not to eat S. American fruit is that they use all sorts of chemicals down that that even WE have declared illegal here.

hey, since billo called everyone at think progress an “insect” a bunch of us began renaming ourselves in the yankee doodle dandy fasion (began as a perjurative till we took the handle)

I am thinking about PerrisThePrayingMantis

I missed that — the praying mantis thing works for me except for the ‘ripping the head off and eating it’ part..

Tying in with what’s happened to our food supply, CNN did a segment earlier on the new National Urban League report which goes back some 20 years and looks at those oh, so pesky facts: things were better in the ’90s. For everybody. Things got worse in the ’00s [and isn’t there something fitting about the Bushie Era being the double-zeros?]…for everybody.

Michelle Obama’s garden is an important message on so many levels in the larger arc of the Obama Era.

How about Billo the slug

Marion – if you’re still here – you obviously have things going in the ground at your house..what’s your zone there?

That’s good. There is a commenter at Glenn Greenwald’s blog who already uses “Presumptuous Insect”. Of course, I’d have to become Jimminy Cricket.

The interesting thing will be, for me, to see the Obama family develop AS gardeners. For those of us who’ve been elbows deep in it for a long time, it might look a little ’dilettantish’ at the moment – because they don’t know how — but there are a whole lot of people in this country who are in the same position, so it will be really educational and informative – we’ll see if Victory Garden comes down and does a show from there, etc. etc. But from a local standpoint, it will be interesting to see — anyone know if there are any public gardening facilities in the DC area? We have one in a local park which is pretty well subscribed every year.

Good Morn Toby and Puppies.

I see all the gardeners here are early risers. I have an excuse. We had a lil’ frost last night, so I didn’t want to wake up the plants too rudely, ahem.

I noticed yesterday the purple coneflower, and the various types of Monarda and bee balm are popping right up promptly this spring. I didn’t even have any until a couple of years ago when I began to get serious about enticing the butterflies and reducing the size of our “people lawn”.

When we move later this spring, I hope to take starts of each of the pretty things, plus some tiny butterflyweed plants with us, but leave plenty for the new owners. Now, if we can just find some new owners who love butterflies, birds, and fresh home-grown veggies. Heck, we’d even till up a patch for them before we sell the tiller. (shhhh. don’t warn Mr. Adie, heh).

Brother of a friend who leaves on the Cheyenne (I think) has 60 people working ’round the clock, bailing. Your place okay?

It’s so hard to leave a garden – all you can hope for is that the next people will appreciate all your work. Of course here Chez Siberia on the Susquehanna, what they’d find is a whole lot of rhubarb going on. Though, I did recently get some horse radish roots and I’m looking for a likely spot for them away from everything else.

barbara boll evil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boll_Weevil_Monument

Toby. I’m so glad to see you here. Perfect fit for Pull Up a Chair while Christy takes a much-needed break.

I’ve been wanting to ask you and the other gardener pups for suggestions. I worry about city gardeners who have well-justified suspicions about the safety of the soil in their immediate area, or people in the suburbs who have to endure mosquito-spraying that blankets their planting areas every week or so. What people do to escape unwanted pesticides?!

The only thing I can come up with is for them to look for a community garden arrangement near where they live, but even that might not be terribly safe.

During the great depression before I was born, folks didn’t worry about that.
But now they know better. Any suggestions?

Where does our food really come from…..Don’t you wonder sometimes how safe any of it is?

boy, am I ever on the wrong thread….

OMG, who knew? I think I’m going to erect a mosquito statue in the front yard!

I think in terms of community gardens, you get to ’pick your poison’ – ours are about 50 feet from an interstate – I have to imagine that there is a good bit of blow over from the stacks on diesel trucks. For folks in the city whose access if something like an empty lot or a rail siding, I’d build raised beds, line them with that cloth that prevents weeds from getting through, and find compost or something (not coming from a sewage treatment plant or anything like that – you can end up with heavy metals in the soil) else to grow in.

Been there seen that.

.
Soylent Green is no longer people.

It’s mostly artificial, now.

I miss people. I’m a people person.
.

this is a fantastic, quick, easy menu….was on the other day-absolutely everything on this show was quick and easy and healthy and looked oh so good. (except the daffodil cake, it was pretty, but i’ll pass)
the cocktail contains some of my favorite things. apricot nectar and grand marnier.
i am going to make this for friends when i have my celebration ‘the house looks great thanks for carting out trash for me’ dinner. in about another month and a half i should be completely done.
i will then have a guest bedroom, finally.

Sandra s scrumptious Lemon Swordfish Brochettes are marinated, grilled and served with fluffy Lime Couscous and Prosciutto Tied Asparagus. For dessert, it s her No Bake Daffodil Cake.
Recipes in This Episode

* Grilled Yellow Tomato Salad
* Prosciutto Tied Asparagus
* Lime Couscous with Mint
* Lemon Swordfish Brochettes
* Grilled Fruit Kebabs
* No-Bake Daffodil Cake
* Daffodil Driver

http://www.foodnetwork.com/sem…..index.html

and i can personally vouch for how different i feel not eating ‘crap’. a few months ago, i started adding good stuff and weeding out the bad. a few weeks ago a friend dragged, yes dragged, me to weight watchers for the ’structure’. i said i didn’t want to go cuz i’m not eating the nofat, substitute-sugar stuff.
but, all it did was help me categorize what wasn’t in my diet. more protein, did i eat my grains? enough veggies that day? been eating exactly what i want, i’m back on the train. has been fun getting back into it. and has led me back to being in touch with some people. after a few months of eating less carbs and crap, i start juicing and add alfalfa powder to it. picked up the alfalfa powder yesterday. have done this routine for years. some people other ‘greens’ agree with them, but my body likes alfalfa. boosts your system, mildly cleansing for cells without doing a ‘flush’.

i did have an ‘edge’ though, was a health food freak for years, so, just had to start my old habits again. making yogurt cheese to eat with celery, but i love it. and making hummus and baba ghanoush. eating ezekiel bread instead of regular bread.

and bigbrother gave me this link last week-sprouted grain flour, it was like a shopaholic finding a shoe sale when i saw that link!!!
http://www.essentialeating.com

i feel night and day different than a month ago. energy plus. have been decluttering and sorting and putting things in a new place. feel so much better, mentally and physically. clear-headed going through the house stuff, that has NEVER happened before.

maybe all of the planets converged. ha. lightening struck.

and we have a great farmer’s market here. for those of you who don’t, and can’t grow your own food, some frozen products are really good and can supplement your fresh.

Got back from southwest Iowa last night. Funeral eulogy for a wonderful auntie who grew up on the family farm there. The farm is roughly 150 years old and is still farmed by my family. Talk about part of a vanishing breed. My great-grandfather’s house still stands, though the renovations of it have pretty much destroyed its historic value. Something about the jacuzzi that seems out of place somehow.

No way! Brother, you have seen it all. Including 18 inches of spring snow.

thanks toby!

you pups are welcome to use them on your desktop.

seriously, i see that color peekin’ through, and it gets me back moving around the house again…….

reminds me that spring is here and to get a few things done, then take a break.

plus it’s just pretty, and we know what that can do for ya.

that was to toby 27,
(computer acting up)

The supporters of GM food always give the impression that they don’t know what GM foods will do but they do know whatever the affects are they won’t be bad.

Personally I think the whole GM thing is slowly poisoning our population.

I was thinking about the Obamas, in that ‘truly a beginner’ sort of way and wondering, if I had to come up with a list of really ‘got to have this’ in order to do it and what I came up with was a round ended shovel, a garden fork, and one really good gardening book. Anyone else want to add to that list? I figured that the rest of the stuff — sticks and string, etc. people might already have.

My thoughts are with you.

“Personally I think the whole GM thing is slowly poisoning our population.” Hope you don’t mind; I fixed that for you.
Between all the chemicals in the water supply and GM foods, I think there is a whole lot about the nation’s health that industry has to answer for.

Very good thin leather gloves. Somehow, I just can’t pull weeds unless I’m wearing gloves.

Was there when my son graduated from his first helicopter pilot school which is what he will be flying again out of Minot.

I ain’t becomin’ Puff. No way, no how.

Personally I think the whole GM thing is slowly poisoning our population.

Have you noticed an increase in birth defects lately? A few babies born in my extended family have been born with mild defects. None in my generation or the next but lately I’ve noticed quite a few. My niece, for example, had a little boy whose ’piping’ didn’t extend to the end of his penis. A cousin had a baby with a cleft palate. Another with some other plumbing problem. It made me wonder what the hell is going on.

my dad’s family farms are now under a city expansion development. arts center, condos, doctors’ offices, etc….livingston taylor played at the arts center last year, and i wrote a note that i wish i could have been there, right on top of their old place.

the other farms turned into neighborhoods years ago when noone wanted to farm. the last one was the one i already mentioned. is weird to drive by there.

i rented a house out in the country by another one, his uncle’s place. gpa told me to get a metal detector and go find the old home brew and moonshine buried in the corn field by the creek. for the jars. i used to collect old ball jars.
got rid of most of them, only kept the really unique ones.

they make a tin-lidded pump dispenser now that you can put on jars, pretty cool. found it at crafts 2000 for a couple of bucks. i got some glycerin and going to use my own oils to make some nice liquid hand soap. and putting it in a small blue ball jar. gonna put some rocks or something in the bottom. something that won’t clog the pump.

Oh, wow. What an interesting specialty. Minot. Had family living there for many years and then they moved to Arizona. I think they decided they’d paid their dues farming in Lisbon, ND and then doing bidness there and elsewhere in the frosty northland. Zone 3 is not hospitable for gardening (though it certainly can be done).

I know, I know. But I have lots of stinging nettle to pull…

I ain’t becomin’ Puff. No way, no how.

even if you maneuver it into being a verb?

Yes, I have, but we have a huge amount of industrial chemical pollution down here – most of the homes in the village of Endicott are unsellable – IBM had to put venting in all the basements – now they are looking at various parts of the old IBM plant itself to see if the way it was built was directly funneling TCE into the soil. A lot of chemicals that are in the water now have direct developmental effects – there is no doubt about that. In Endicott, though, the problem is that there is a huge cancer cluster there.

Yep – you need leather gloves for that for sure.

Yer talkin’ about gloves, I’m talkin’ about renaming. I don’t work in the yard without gloves. Too many things with sharp pointy ends.

707
707
707

If you’re referring to ours, frankly we feel very fortunate. We’re moving to a place that encourages gardening, provides plots, and provides the heavier labor of soil prep. for free. What’s not to love?!

Our feeling about leaving our present home is that the new owners can do whatever they like with the lawn/house area. It will be theirs to enjoy as they wish, as long as their activities don’t seriously harm the adjoining woods. The mature woods (which is presently rocking and rolling with lots of bird songs which will continue unabated all spring through fall) is fully owned by whoever lives here, but also protected permanently by a conservation easement (e.g., can’t ever be split up to aid and abet the spread of suburban sprawl) – yes, because of the wildlife. The yard and woods host embarrassingly tame year-round residents (chickadees, cardinals, bluebirds, titmice, bluejays, wood thrushes, Carolina wrens, 4 species of woodpeckers, red-shouldered- Coopers- and sharp-shinned hawks, etc.), those who migrate on through to nest farther north (Swainson’s thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, many kinds of warblers), and those who come to nest in the summer (hummers, rose-breasted grosbeaks, house wrens, orioles, hooded warblers, redstarts, several species of vireos and flycatchers, etc.). plus a modest assortment of furry critters.

And, yes, the little bluebird family is back and building already, with several youngsters from last-year’s crop of kids to help. They chose the nestbox right next to the little veg. garden again. We’ll miss them, but there are tree swallows and bluebirds nesting right next to our new digs also, just fewer house-mgmt chores to tend. It’s time for that kind of change in our lives. ;->

He loves the cold of winter. Has been living in the FL panhandle since the late 90s and hates it. He should be able to retire from the AF in 11 and just bought a ranch in WY.

Montgomery County, IA moved my great-grandfather’s barn, corn crib, windmill into Red Oak, IA, where it was faithfully restored and became the county history museum. That raised interest in the history of the area sufficiently that they built a wonderful little visitors’ center adjacent to the barn (which bears my family’s name), and that’s where the memorial service was held. Very, very cool.

Your jars! What a fascinating project. I gather you found some on the property. Love the blue jars/soap idea. I suppose marbles would be spendy and not a natural part of the product. Just a thought. I’ll buy some! Friends in Scotland sent us lemongrass candles and soap that are absolutely heavenly! Literally, I guess. We burned one of the candles at David’s memorial service.

I could use Elliott, from Pete’s Dragon, but it’s already taken. Years ago my partner’s girlfriend was working at Dizzy Studios in Anaheim. She worked on Pete’s Dragon and brought me a cell of Elliott. The heat and humidity here ruined it.

Ah! A man who loves the outdoors, then. Hope he’s a liberal/progressive. Wyoming needs an infusion of that!!

Heh. We had a bunch of those hatch out here last year. Funny animal. Fascinating to watch. Billo Oreilly would just be well advised to keep his distance. *g*

You’ve got to have a rake to level the soil; at least if you are going to irrigate it at all ( also to break up the dirt clods). I have to where I live…..so I level it as much as I can and dig small ditches to where the plants are growing. Then, I can water with just one hose and have the water run all over the garden.

I am always healthier if I grow my own. My favorites are corn! and cantaloupes! YUM! I remember my mother being so resentful at my grandda for not sending fresh corn home with them when they left after a visit in Minnesota. Ol’ Grandy said “it wouldn’t be good after 10 hours in the car!” Pick it, shuck it, put it in the pot a couple minutes, slather it with butter and take it out to the barbecue. Heaven!

I used to grow alot of green chile but I wound up giving most of it away. This year, I’m going to concentrate on greens; chard, Kale, stuff like that. I’ve tried growing just about everything in my garden; this year I’ll stick to what I know does well.

PS: Marigolds, planted liberally amongst the veggies help keep critters and pests away

Good Morning, Fire Pups:

I managed to get around half of my spring planting in the ground last weekend. I’m going to try for the other half this weekend. I’ll be making homemade spaghetti sauce in about three months, give or take. Is it tasty? Fugetaboutit…

I haven’t seen one in years. When I lived in VA as a kid they were everywhere. So much fun to watch.

That’s really sad to hear about agri-business squeezing out the local grower/producers in France. I’m planning a trip to Europe in late spring/early summer and will be wandering the markets in Paris, Nice, Arcachon. Am hoping the markets in the south are offering locally grown produce and products from real farmers.

away for a bit. I think we’re going to be okay. It’s Sheyenne with an S. River dropped an inch overnight.

The cold weather is an absolute godsend.

“Personally I think the whole GM thing is poisoning our population.” Hope you don’t mind; I fixed that for you.

Of course not… alot of posters wouldn’t do that for a guy :)

I think our bodies naturally adapt to our food sources as they gradually change. We cannot adapt to food that would not evolve naturally in a healthy way.

More of an Indep. ” Loves that hunting and fishing and is excellent on horseback.

You must be pretty far south then, right?

I am suffering garden envy! We are advised to wait until close to Memorial Day before planting in MN. ANd generally speaking, that turns out to be good advice.

I am going to need all the help in the world I can get from the gardeners here. David was the gardener. I was simply the apprentice. I keep looking at all the gardens in the yard, torn roughly 50/50 in wanting them to come to life sooner than later, and being afraid I don’t have what it will take to keep it all going, never mind adding goodies to it as D did every year. Yikes!!

here ya go Toby, for you.

Garden Song (Inch by Inch)
Pete Seeger with Arlo Guthrie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u90qRE2F7CM

Arlo’s peppier version-Goes with diggin’.
with alternate lyrics.
Hilarious talk in the middle of the song about the metric system…

Here’s my favorite version of the garden song, complete with Arlo’s hilarious motivational speech and alternate verse. From a PBS program “The Arlo Guthrie Show”. Sorry about the crappy video quality. Fortunately, the audio is Hi Fi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related

No kidding! I just read about the freezy cold there. Are folks rolling in from around the area to help? Is this something National Guard gets involved in? (in which National Guard gets involved — sigh)

Barbara – we are in the same zone – you don’t have to do anything before May. the trick is just to keep the weeds at bay, sincerely.

dang. long lists lead to mistakes. wood thrush does NOT live in N.E. OH all year, just during spring/summer nesting season….

Good Morning Toby and all other friends.
Great to hear Prairie’s safe. Still praying for your community.
I was at the nursery yesterday and in the checkout line behind me was a kind of crotchety old guy with just a couple of packages of trimming wire. My basket was full of petunias. I mentioned to him that my basket was more “romantic”, but you know, kidding with a smile. He grumped “better to plant things you can eat!”. I smiled bigger and told him my veggies seeds were in egg cartons in the kitchen, tomatoes already a foot high and that the flowers were for my mom. He asked if I was going to plant them for here. Of course! And, the soil prep, weed pulling and all took way longer than the actually planting , of course. But, it looks real nice and she’s happy.
I can’t stay and play with the pups, ’cause we are taking mom out for a day trip. The only bad news is Sonny woke up with the flu and I think I better keep his cooties away from mom. That’s the last thing she needs.
Have a fabulous day all you veggie-and-freedom loving pups.

First task will be deciding when to remove rose covers and leaves/mulch. Absolutely can’t remember when that’s supposed to happen.

BTW, listening to Arlo Guthrie as I type. He’s just now to the speaking part…

Hey Demi: Very nice story.

barbara at 72–wow, that must be an incredible space to be in.

marbles!!!!!!!

greaaat idea!more color! the using rock =thing problem was that it wasn’t going to have enough ‘punch’.

i also have some left from my collection, gave most of them to one of my best friends, he has a vast collection. i can always have some back i f i need them. part of the deal. but i have enough, and i can use the carved box they are in for something else. and consolidating/making space is what i have been doing the past month….you are so good at furthering/fine-tuning peoples’ ideas, barbara, what a gift.
(((thanks)))

demi at 89–my sister and i always do my mom’s front porch pots for mother’s day. have for years. she requested that we do them a long time ago. still do it. makes her feel good and she thinks of us.

I would absolutely love to have a full-on edible garden, similar to that of the Dervaes family (www.urbanhomestead.org) in Pasadena, CA. But, of course, on a much much smaller scale. And minus the farm animals, since I’m a vegetarian. This garden in Pasadena also gets a lot of attention from design blogs, because it is an attractive garden visually.

The problem, though, is my partner and I live in Alexandria, VA. So I’m thinking that while an edible garden might look attractive from late Spring to early Fall, the backyard would look like a complete mess during the remaining months.

In the meantime, I’ll just stick with my aerogarden until I get a plan for the backyard going.

I planted an Earthbox with:

3 sweet corn plants
2 green pepper plants
2 watermelon vines
1 plant each of: collards, broccoli and bok choy.

I planted the box with the intention to keep only one each of both the pepper and the watermelon, but I’ve been told I need to have 2 of each for cross-pollination.

Fargo-Moorhead have been overwhelmed with volunteers from all over the region and beyond. National Guards and police support from statewide. Volunteers for sandbagging duty from the Grand Forks air force base.

Three million sandbags built and placed, with a 300,000 reserve for repairs to diking as needed.

Looking out at the frozen lake this morning in the tall timber this morning, it’s hard to believe the frenzy of activity that was Fargo this week. Still much to be done, watching to be sure the diking holds, but we have stood toe to toe with the enemy–rampaging water–and the city holds.

Hi folks,

Here is a piece from Harper’s that ties in nicely with the topic here. It’s called “The Oil We Eat” If you didn’t catch it in 2004, you might check it out.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/02/0079915

Best of luck with all your gardens!

((((Prairie Sunshine))))

Thanks for checking in. We’re all thinking of you. Hopefully that mess will gently pass along and not do too much damage. Glad to hear you’re safe.

Wow! Thanks. Should be loverly!

forgot–last year i completely planted up her deck planters and pots with herbs. two flats’ worth. my sister did the front pots.

the last few years we have experimented with growing tomatoes in pots. not so good results.

this year i was thinking of getting her this–qvc has it the cheapest. she doesn’t have a place to hang the regular one, or a homemade 5 gallon one.

the three=hole one with a stand for 36.22 +8.47 shipping
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp……RCH-_-PREV

and planting it with a roma, peickling-size cucumber and pepper.
i don’t know that i would plant three tomato plants in it.

Good Morning Toby and Firedogs,

upside down planters that are all the rage

noticed a neighbor had several of these hanging off side of his garage

in asking him for general instructions, he sent me here

not just tomato plants, his ‘garden’ included peppers and herbs

just veggin’ out—

not if you plant winter wheat or rye in it, and then turn it under in the spring.is great ’soil food’ for the garden, too. a lot of organic gardeners do this to keep the soil replenished.
in a smaller plot this is especially important, can’t rotate crops as much.

Hi dmac, how great for all of you. I was the sister who always picked mom wild flowers on my way home from school.
PS – I forgot one part of my story from yesterday. In listing the seeds I planted, I mentioned corn and he frowned. I said that I knew I probably wouldn’t have much luck, but that I wanted to try them. He told me that the best place to plant corn was next to a railroad track. He said they love the clickity clack, clickity clack. By then end of our little chat, he didn’t seem as grouchy. :)

Take heart, dear soul. Look for sources of heirloom seeds. Take your business to the local organic food store, even if it may be a tad more expensive. Fight back quietly but firmly as you can….

crikey!

used image link twice.

here is link for making your own upside down planter

http://www.ehow.com/how_228089…..older.html

That, plus I have no time to garden, honey!

;-]

(((demi))) degroucher!

Are you aware of any other plants that can be turned into the soil at the end of the season?

Very interesting. Both links to the same pic, though.

awww. i’d send you a tomato by air express if you like, except i’ve been saving it a tad too long on the off chance bigtime might show up, so it’s past its prime.

good to see ya Pach. I hope you’re doing well. ;->

hey cbl!

i did a program on the upside down planters last year. can plant practically anything. i know many people who have done it.

you can use those plastic hanging flower pots for herbs and for peppers. poke holes in the bottom and sides, grow something else in the top.
all kinds of things. one of my friends gave the info i gave her to her dad, he did it and took it way down the road, i don’t even know how many he ended up growing. he also built a few yardarm-kinda things with crossposts to hang them from. he is doing more this year. he is a farmer, but can’t do so much gardening anymore, but now he can with the upside-down ways.

it really works great, that’s why i think i’m getting my mom one for her deck. but one with a stand.

a guy around here was making them about ten years ago, he rigged an extra piece of hose with quick-connect ends to water with. much easier and can hang them higher that way.

buckwheat – but what you want to do with that is as soon as it sets flowers, till it in and plant again. If you do this several times during a growing season you can get a lot of really good stuff into the soil.

My garden here in SE Michigan is beginning to take shape already. The pop up greenhouse is up with lettuce and cabbage and the peppers and artichokes are under lights in the basement. Although I have a regular vegetable garden (with honeybees) I mix in all kinds of vegetables in my flower garden borders. And everything I grow gets eaten, whether it is my family, the neighbors or local shelters. Everyone should grow a Victory Garden, no matter how much space you have. Happy gardening…..

G’Morning all !

In Toronto, we are also advised to plant 1 week before Memorial Day and I will be talking to the kids later tonight during Earth Hour about the benefits of a Garden.

Welcome to all the first time commenters !

This is so cool! I think even I could do this! *g* Just ran a copy of the directions.

folks…PW is up at the mothership with a new post – and using….a GOP budget diagram…follow the bouncing balls….

Welcome to all the first time commenters !

I was just thinking same. Lots of new, very welcome faces coming forth today. Nice!

Love the idea of veggies as border plantings. I am getting so smart this morning. No small task. *g* Thanks.

shotojam 108–my reply isn’t working

yeah, lots and lots, and it looks so cool to have that green patch when nothing else is green but the evergreens.
it’s called a ‘cover crop’–just gave you the google page, so many sources for iinfo on it.
http://www.google.com/search?q…..=firefox-a

and pach and veg head–you can just grow a pot of lettuce and it makes a great centerpiece for your outside table. when lettuce is done, put in herbs. having living things to eat is a ‘kick’.

Hey, you! That’s a name I don’t mind being called. I guess I better go get dressed. See you all later.

Doing fine, Adie. Been working looooong days, and frequently forgetting to eat. Lost 8 lbs without trying or even noticing over the last month, and I’m not a rail, but I wan’t a big boy to start out with.

That said, my partner (JustVeggingOut) above keeps me well fed come dinner time. He posts a lot of it too. (What, me blogwhore?)

I also need a haircut desperately. Woke up this morning with the ind of bedhead that made me look like I’d been electrocuted. Or like Rick Moranis at the end of Ghostbusters.

How you doing?

Mornin’

corrected the problem at my 105 above – more coffee

I wonder if anyone else noticed. Yesterday, the pugnits were trying belatedly to float the notion that their whole budget plan had simply been meant as a joke.

Funny. I didn’t notice anyone laughing among their sorry ranks.

Have they given up trying to be serious OR funny? That should be helpful.
Mebbe we could tell them just to sit and nod at appropriate times, if they’re quite that confused by what they have wrought.

“Lost 8 lbs. without really trying or really noticing…”

Females of the species find this deeply disturbing. Simply. Not. Possible. For. Us.

I, too, am concerned about the food we eat and will enlarge my garden any way I can. My own children did eat more veggies when I grew them. I would find them out in the garden eating the peas and strawberries and tomatoes!!!
My 25 year old son, makes the most incredible veggie pizza and is “consulting” with me about what to grow in the garden this year. We may even “borrow” space from a friend in the country to enlarge our harvest.

I know I’ve said it before on this blog Cooperative extensions are a great resource for those wanting to grow their own veggies, fruits and flowers(don’t forget the flowers!).
http://stevens.wsu.edu/Agricul….._sites.htm
Happy Gardening!!!

Here a website that has all the web addresses of Coop. Ex. across the country.

Now to another issue.
I take MsContin, extended release for pain and have been for the last 10 years. Over the last year or so, I have felt and remarked to the MD and pharmacist that I felt the pills did not always contain the amount of medication that it should. It was not consistent but enough that I noticed and remarked about it.
Well, I was right. The pharmacy chain sent me a recall letter and when I went to the pharmacy they told me the meds were recalled because the conditions that they were made under were not up to code.
I guess after 8 years of bush and “government is not the solution”, the regulatory agencies are finally doing their jobs, inspecting and regulating the
plants where medcations are produced.
My side affects were uncomfortable and I am used to a certain amount of pain. But what about cancer patients, persons with seizures or diabetics that depend on meds to control their conditions?

So, it’s not only foods we should be concerned about!!!!!!!!

Crikey! This is really scary. I’m wishing you’d write an Oxdown Diary about this. It’s very important! Thanks. (I think.)

We’re doing o.k., within specs.

I’ve been a bit stretched to make nice with all the vitriol flyin’ around this Lake last week or so. I know folks are upset. Me too. But…..

redirection: what we ethologists would have called it back in the ancient times of the ’60s.

imo, it doesn’t help. Good lively, pithy discussion = fine and dandy. Over-the-top mean within our ranks = not so much.
I shouldn’t be such a wilted violet, but I don’t think the latter helps much.

Today sounds better.

p. e. a. c. e. to your and yours. Don’t work too hard.

personally, i love that look.

thanks pups, wonderful way to start my day.

will check links and comments later to see what more everyone shares…

exit song-twirl and smile on out-arlo guthrie on the muppets in the 70’s
one of my favorite arlo songs. perfect boppin’ around the house song. which is what i’m gonna go do—more ‘make the house mine’ more junk outta here stuff. after i make some hummus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..8;index=19

mgardener at 125–
my favorite veggie pizza is broccoli and sunflower seeds.

(and i’m a ‘mg’, too, in ohio)

be back later.

awwwwwww that’s just what the doc ordered! ;->

grocery blues is the song.

Sounds good.

Here’s an easy vegetarian pizza my partner made, also.

gee. i was always too busy gardening to become a master g. *G*

Have any of the legal minds here read (interpreted) HR 875. A progressive talk show interviewed an ‘expert’ and it seems this bill is intended to restrict/regulate organic gardeners (while leaving corporate farmers under the lax inspection of USDA????). The expert had a least four points that would suggest that organic farming (including backyard, Farmer’s Market contributors) will have to pre-register; have their produce ‘inspected’ (by perhaps a private lab run by the likes of Monsanto); etc.

Consider these recent headlines: 100+ Sick after eating at Applebees http://www.americablog.com/200…..ebees.html and U.S. Fish are Druggies http://www.americablog.com/200…..ggies.html

It seems our regulators ought to spend more time regulating (and enforcing) current laws, particularly as they pertain to corporate farming; and Congress ought to worry less about creating new laws to restrict those who choose to return to more natural food procurement.

omg that looks good! Thanks guys. I gotta go thaw some spinach.

Re: HR 875, according to this site:

Here are a few things that H.R. 875 DOES do:

- It addresses the most critical flaw in the structure of FDA by splitting it into 2 new agencies –one devoted to food safety and the other devoted to drugs and medical devices.
- It increases inspection of food processing plants, basing the frequency of inspection on the risk of the product being produced – but it does NOT make plants pay any registration fees or user fees.
- It does extend food safety agency authority to food production on farms, requiring farms to write a food safety plan and consider the critical points on that farm where food safety problems are likely to occur.
- It requires imported food to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

And just as importantly, here are a few things that H.R. 875 does NOT do:

- It does not cover foods regulated by the USDA (beef, pork, poultry, lamb, catfish.)
- It does not establish a mandatory animal identification system.
- It does not regulate backyard gardens.
- It does not regulate seed.
- It does not call for new regulations for farmers markets or direct marketing arrangements.
- It does not apply to food that does not enter interstate commerce (food that is sold across state lines).
- It does not mandate any specific type of traceability for FDA-regulated foods (the bill does instruct a new food safety agency to improve traceability of foods, but specifically says that recordkeeping can be done electronically or on paper.)

Oh, and here’s the bill.

You’re right to be concerned about outsourcing of drugs. Combining the worries of GMO food are a number of T1 diabetics who have lost access to natural insulins and now must consumer genetically-engineered insulin unless they have money and time to import personally needed insulin from foreign manufacturers. Ironically, much of the GE insulin–while carrying branded names–is produced offshore and imported (without the hassle experienced by individuals). Our regulators–and our scientists–have not conducted necessary long-term trials to see what sort of cumulative effects arise when one must inject, multiple times daily, a product created synthetically through genetic engineering but CLAIMED to be “just like the human body makes.” (Sorry for the OT . . . but natural foods and ‘natural’ medicines go hand in hand for many chronically ill individuals.)

Thanks for the information. It’s difficult for the non-legal mind NOT to be influenced by alarmists. I will read the bill to see how the ‘expert’s’ takeaway was that loopholes in the bill would (eventually) affect organic gardeners and small growers.

i’ll never forgive monsanto for GM seeds that produce a non-sprouting crops, kill our monarch butterflies with their pre-poisoned corn, etc.

These sorts of cockeyed planning prolly some of the most frightening things driving people to heirloom crops.

I don’t buy much seed per se any more. I buy tomatoes and peppers at an organic food store, prep the seeds (peppers just dried from ripe fruit; tomato seed fermented just a tad in a shot glass, heh, and then spread on a paper to dry).

Various perfectly viable seeds of nearly any type you could possibly want? Go to the self-serve seed aisle intended for people buying for making sprouts. Sprout a few for yer sandwich, and save the rest to tuck in the garden when frost is gone for the season. It works.

Think sideways, and drive monsanto out of bidness crazy. ;->

So, buy locally. My silly prediction: more and more people are going to be willing to buy from local organic outfits, or grow their own. It doesn’t take as much effort these days as it used to. And it doesn’t take as much space, what with all the nifty contraptions being devised for growing, dwarf-growing varieties that produce big fruit, etc.

My latest issue of Organic Gardening had an article titled “EPA Sued to Release Research” discussing the controversy about Bayer’s insecticide (being)responsible for the killing of honeybees so necessary for pollination. Another article appeared last fall addressing the threat to national security posed by ‘disappearing bees.’ http://cherryhill.injuryboard……eid=249654

HR 875 Sponsor & Cosponsors:

Sponsor: Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D-CT]
Cosponsors [as of 2009-03-07]
Rep. Timothy Ryan [D-OH]
Rep. Gwen Moore [D-WI]
Rep. Fortney Stark [D-CA]
Rep. Bob Filner [D-CA]
Rep. Timothy Bishop [D-NY]
Rep. André Carson [D-IN]
Rep. Joe Courtney [D-CT]
Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY]
Rep. Mark Schauer [D-MI]
Rep. James McGovern [D-MA]
Rep. John Tierney [D-MA]
Rep. Betty McCollum [D-MN]
Rep. Raul Grijalva [D-AZ]
Rep. Barbara Lee [D-CA]
Rep. Chellie Pingree [D-ME]
Rep. John Hall [D-NY]
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D-NY]
Rep. Louise Slaughter [D-NY]
Rep. Eliot Engel [D-NY]
Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY]
Rep. Janice Schakowsky [D-IL]
Del. Eleanor Norton [D-DC]
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL]
Rep. Robert Wexler [D-FL]
Rep. Sam Farr [D-CA]
Rep. Marcy Kaptur [D-OH]
Rep. Kathy Castor [D-FL]
Rep. Mazie Hirono [D-HI]
Rep. Betty Sutton [D-OH]
Rep. Anna Eshoo [D-CA]
Rep. Eddie Johnson [D-TX]
Rep. Diana DeGette [D-CO]
Rep. Shelley Berkley [D-NV]
Rep. Linda Sánchez [D-CA]
Rep. James McDermott [D-WA]
Rep. Christopher Murphy [D-CT]
Rep. Sanford Bishop [D-GA]
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords [D-AZ]
Rep. Peter DeFazio [D-OR]

Not from big ag states.

“EPA Sued to Release Research” appeared in my recent copy of Organic Gardening, Apr. 2009, p. 50] It discusses the Bayer pesticide that may be responsible for the mass killing of honeybees. Another interesting link is http://cherryhill.injuryboard……eid=249654

that’s why the classes are late winter/early spring, off-times for gardeners.

and it’s a type of community service. doesn’t take much time. already talk gardening anyway, so, why not help out the extension office and answer questions for people?

i can’t garden so much anymore, but still putter.

pach–thanks for posting veg head’s site again, meant to look it up last week and forgot. i’ll do links later today when i take a break.

and veg head–just go out there and start that garden, you’ll all find the time. just start small if you’re worried about it. make a list of what you want. plot outhow much room the plants need. square-foot gardening is a great resource. just lay out some dark tarps to kill the grass and plant right over the dead grass. easiest way. or as someone mentioned earlier, just plant stuff in the landscape you already have to maintain. lots of friends do that. herbs and veggies. you’d be surprised how much you can tuck-in here and there.

weed ‘in place’. leave the weeds-unless they have seed heads, right where they are. roots up. they will disappear. and buy a good hoe, i’ll find the link or address for one that is exceptional-from the person who turned me onto it. she has extensive gardens, see a few photos of her yard on my flickr page linked through my name, link is on menu on right-in the set ‘g;s’ garden. the hoes are handmade by a guy. they really work. not as wide as a planting hoe, meant for weeds. much easier. can even get most deep, tap-rooted weeds with it. hoe it out, let it sit. hoe it out, let it sit. not as much bending. gave my mom one a few years ago, she loves it. she was a diehard hand weeder. so was i.

I heard quite a radio coverage of it. The commentator was saying too bad for lemon ade stands….he was outraged at the protection that will be available for the big guys who already have to meet certain standards, but for small growers the cost of what it demands will be impossible. In all, a terrible law, in his view.

Since the bill doesn’t seem to affect local growing selling within their own states, I’m not sure it’s a genuine concern. Though I can imagine people who might want to kill the bill by framing it as a threat to local growers.

Thanks. Yes, I do know about them. They sound wonderful, especially the brilliant community service angle.

We went through a rather lengthy, difficult period here with extreme needs for care of parents, then surgeries and complicated recovery, more of same, grown kids needing assistance, exhaustion and frustration and total immersion in politics, and there simply wasn’t sufficient extra time or energy to make it official other than to maintain our garden and give away the excess.
In years past, I used to grow and store most of what our family ate.

So I do have over 40 years of virtually constant year-round gardening experience, study of same, experimenting with techniques, and even winning grand champ veggies in the county fair several times, membership in a local organic gardening group, tutelage of other wanna-be gardeners on the fly, and great fun in the garden, plus healthy offspring who know good veggies when they taste them, and from whence they come…

So I’m definitely with you in spirit, even as our gardens have shrunk in size but grown in efficiency and output.

p.s., there is no such thing as a noxious weed (except perhaps garlic mustard, grrrr). Generous portions of our former lawn now feed the gold finches house finches, chickadees, woodpeckers etc. all year round, the hummingbirds and luna moths and hummingbird moths, monarch butterflies, swallowtails + hundreds of other species of delightful critters much of the year. We’ve even have had woodchucks, rabbits & the occasional deer living within spitting distance of our un-fenced veggie garden for the past 3 years, and they all seem to have enough other munchies to satisfy that they leave “ours” alone(!)

Hint: It helps enormously, I think, that we planted plenty of edges richly with red-twig dogwood, sumac, goldenrod, milkweed, bee balm, winterberry, etc. etc., and keep a border trimmed just a bit so there’s always some fresh grass and dandylion stems readily available during the growing season. And we’re willing to share our serviceberries and blueberries and wild strawberries.

Mebbe you’ve discovered one of my many failings by now. If it’s not edible, I don’t know much about it. You need to go to Christy for the purely gorgeous flowers like roses.

Now that we’re busily working toward an anticipated move, I have my eye on sprouts of my favorite purple cone flower, bee balm, etc., and a larder full of seeds I’ve collected from our own plants to take with us. Where we are moving, we will presumably have more free time, and surely join the local garden groups, as well as continue sharing hints as I have tried to do for lo these many years. I didn’t ever take the course for master gardener, but I’ve been doing similar things since before they were an organized official activity.
I hope that counts for a little. ;->

Aw, Pach — there’s a bunch of them from New York — and although we are certainly not heavily involved with people like ConAgra, we have a really large ag industry — we have not been really huge in grain(other than corn for the dairy industry and that is grown on the farm/used on the farm).
Crop….Rank Nationally
Apples……………………….2
Grape juice and wine….3
Tart Cherries…………….4
Pears…………………………4
Strawberries……………..7
Cabbage…………………….2
Snap Beans………………..5
Cucumbers………………..5
Squash………………………5
Peas(Processing)………4
Cauliflower……………….3
Floriculture Crops…….5

Given that New York state does not have the climate benefits or the West or Gulf coasts, etc. we seem to do pretty well with what we’ve got to work with

Interesting, though by far the biggest crops on a business basis are corn and soy, I think, and most of that stuff is produced not for direct human consumption but as a big part of what keeps big animal ag going, no?

I’m just learning about all this, so I really appreciate the heads up. The U. S. Apple Association is in favor of HR 875 and its companion bill in the Senate, S 510, as far as I can tell.

Pach, I don’t have any links or direct info., but just a strong hunch. It seems to me, what with the sudden appearance of huge bonuses for growing corn with an eye to using it for making ethanol, followed rather abruptly by news that corn is a lousy choice for efficient production of ethanol… farmers imo probably were blind-sided by that quick turnaround of policy. They simply can’t accommodate such quick changes; farming is NOT like running a factory where you can essentially turn a switch and stop production.

I wonder if there will be a huge glut in ethanol-grade corn, which may spill over into being turned toward human consumption, pets, milk and meat animals, etc. Possibly with allied problems most of us never had to face before.

I wish I had the knowledge to be more specific, but maybe you can get the gist of the idea. Somehow, I have no doubt the pesticide etc. restrictions are less strict for production of ethanol source than for human consumptionas food.

i don’t know why people make a ‘deal’ out of it.

‘mg’ is just another way to learn more in a concentrated amount of time. and an outlet to volunteer. extension offices need volunteers. they just had to cut another employee here due to yet another budget cut.
only have to do 10 hours a year once you do the training. the training is mostly to teach people how to look up things who already have an interest in gardening. is a great program. most of the materials used are from fact sheets and are available for ohio online at
http://ohioline.osu.edu/

don’t have to have a name for it. or a title to be a great gardener, but you do have to have one when you are a representative of an organization. that’s the only difference.
doesn’t much matter how or why or where you learn and apply it, just that you do.

most mg’s i know have no time. the old theory about ask a busy person. they just choose that as something they make time for. some are more active one year than another due to family obligations and work and health.

For those of you who, like me, always have more harvest than you really need, I’d like to make a suggestion.

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

Angel Food Ministries has a free food program for those who qualify based on income, but they also have a buyer’s co-op program for those who could use a little help with their food budget. The woman I spoke to there said they are always in need of donations of fresh veggies. Nothing gets wasted – they have volunteers that can, freeze, or make into sauce anything that is left over.

Like many of you here, I found that when they were younger, my son and his friends got a real kick out of pulling veggies out of the ground and eating them. All it took to persuade them to rinse first was telling them that I sometimes use dry cow manure to help them grow :-)

Please, I hope you didn’t think I was being hypercritical. I think the mg idea is fantastic. People who take the course become far more proficient than I will ever be in knowing how to grow ornamentals, prune properly, and the like.

It’s not that I wasn’t interested. I dealt with undiagnosed Lyme disease since before it had a name, and my case was never treated. The details aren’t worth revisiting. Stuff happens. By the time the mg program came along, to put it bluntly, I was unable to walk for long periods of time. I had other things I had to give up also. I’m slowly but surely trying to get back to some of them, but also getting older. I support the concept whole-heartedly, and admire those who take part.

My next project, after we get ourselves moved and hopefully sell our house, will be to pick up my fiddle again for the first time in over a decade and try to resurrect some of my joy in baroque music. There are only so many hours in the day.

That’s very interesting; clearly, I did not know the source I was hearing. But he surely had a slant. Thanks

Allow me to make a few comments. The first is that depending what part of the country you are in, venison runs a chance of being a source of wasting disease, a prion induced disease of elk and deer that seems to have been spread across a good part of the country. It isn’t the same as mad cow, but is kind of similar.

I second the comments on the source of much of the produce in farmers’ markets. When I see mangos, kiwis, and bananas at a farmers market in PA, I strongly suspect that they were not locally produced, especially when there is snow on the ground. And a lot of the rest is being sold out of season which suggests that it isn’t locally grown either. I found that it is just as good to go pick-your-own when it is strawberry or cherry season and even though I suspect that the reason there isn’t a lot of insect damage is because of the use of insecticides, washing the fruit when I get home seems to at least make me feel better.

Hi y’all who are still here. I’ve been reading enviously – too much shade for almost anything to grow where I am. Miss the early May tomatoes from the old too-much-sun house, but this one is a lot cooler.

dmac and cbl2 – I looked at the upside down planter insturctions and am confused – how do you keep the soil from falling out? Does that foam cut-out go on TOP of the soil? Directions seem to say put in the foam then the soil, while holding upside down…????

I’m not good at visualizing – can anyone help? And would an upside-down tomato [plant grow in the shade? (Doubt it, but am always looking for a miracle)

Two days ago there was a similar running commentary on Common Dreams about all the evil things that this bill would do. Someone contacted a national organic growers association and got an email which he shared that said the husband of the law’s sponsor and the person with the same name on Monsanto’s board of directors were different people, that the bill said absolutely nothing about animal identification which would be under the auspices of the USDA, not the FDA, that farmers’ markets would not be affected, the organic growers would not be affected, and that a lot of the hyperventilating on the internet is just wingnuttery (my word).

Re: HR 875 and small local farmers:

Although stakeholders in the organic community need to be on-guard, the flurry of e-mails and Internet postings suggesting that HR 875 will end organic farming as we know it seem to grossly exaggerate the risks. Here’s what we know:

Some level of reform is coming and we must work diligently to make sure that any changes do not harm or competitively disadvantage organic and local family farm producers and processors who are providing the fresh, wholesome and authentic food for which consumers are increasingly hungry.

Several bills aimed at fixing the broken food safety system have been proposed. Of these bills, the FDA Globalization Act (HR 759) appears most likely to be voted on, with elements of the other bills, including the Food Safety Modernization Act (HR 875) and the Safe FEAST Act (HR 1332) possibly incorporated into the bill.

A vote on a final bill shortly before Memorial Day is likely.

All three bills would require new food safety rules for farms and food processing businesses. Therefore, as with most legislation, the real battle will be in the rule-making process that follows the passage of the bill. We must stay engaged.

Anyone with an interest in food safety issues has probably seen or received emails charging that backyard gardens and organic farming would be outlawed by new food safety laws. We have closely read the proposed legislation, done extensive background research, and talked with the chief staff member responsible for the drafting of HR 875. Some have argued that this is a conspiracy promulgated by Monsanto and other corporate interests in conventional agriculture. It is our conclusion that none of these bills would “outlaw organic farming.” Other groups, such as Food and Water Watch and the organic certification agent CCOF have reached similar conclusions. But as we just noted, we need to be engaged in this process to protect organic and family farmer interests.

Another view on HR 875 from Civil Eats. Bottom line conclusion, doesn’t seem like a danger to local growers.

Stefan uses pesto as his sauce, fresh mozz, onions, broccoli and peppers.
We also use a whole wheat crust from the local store.
He rolls the dough and pops it in the oven till the browns lightly.
He puts the toppings on the crisp side so the dough is not soggy at all.
He has also used the grill to make the pizza.
I have kit to make fresh mozzarella, tha I have not tried yet.

But I’m thinking of making fresh mozz using my own pesto, and putting fres tomatoes on the pizza.
Now if I don’t loose my broccoli to the ground hog, I should be all set.
Planted onions, shallots, spinach and lettuce today.
I am so Happy!!! and sore.

i didn’t look at exactly how cbl’s link put it together, but the foam is a good idea, would slow down the watre/dirt flow.

any kind of ‘collar’ will keep the young plant in place until it grows a root system and keep the dirt from coming out of the hole. the hole doesn’t need to be very big.

there are all kinds of links for these homemade versions. i printed out three ways last year.

and tomatoes and peppers are tropical, need 6 hrs. of sun. so, don’t know of many veggies that will grow in the shade. the nice thing aobut these portable upside-down planters is that you can put a post and an ‘arm’ to hang it on wherever there is a sun spot in your yard. if mostly shade, find a spot where the canopy doesn’t shade from the sun all day. can be morning sun then afternoon sun, as long as it’s getting 6.

or just give in, make a woodland garden. only one side of my house is sunny, the rest is full shade. and the side that is sunny isn’t that great of a garden spot. so, i’ve resorted to pots/planters of herbs and now that my leg-hiker pal has gone to dog heaven i am making an herb bed as you approach the door. callie the collie won’t bother them. am kicking out the stella d’oro lilies the previous owner planteed there. and i may get the tomato planter with the stand, or get oneof my friends to install a post and arm for one.

my deck is in the treetops, too shady for summer color except for one pot, so, last year i took the idea of a friend, the same friend whose dad made all of those up-down planters, to pot up hostas. she has them on her patio, by a fountain, looks great. big one in back two smaller pots in front. looks like a shrub. am making more of them this year. they wintered over just fine.

never tried making that, let us know how it goes.

also never tried making pizza on the grill……..hmmmmmm. that could be a good experiment, and maybe try making something that tastes good smoked, with wood chips too. hmmmmm.

thanks for the ideas.

and the plain, cheese, basil, tomato i think is called ‘marguerite’ pizza. something like that. there’s a name for it.

and mg–i am going to be experimenting with these flours-sprouted grain.
http://www.essentialeating.com
i used to make my own, until i discovered ezekiel bread and spelt flour, but now that they are available i am going to experiment with theirs.
bigbrother posted the link last week. h/t