Great New Video: "Dangers of GMOs" from the Health Ranger

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are increasing every year in our food supply from the widespread marketing and growth of the GMO market primarily corn, canola, and soy. The dangers will only increase in the coming years as the corporate seed companies (also chemical manufacturers) expand into the fruit and vegetable market. Soon we won't have an option of healthy fruits and vegetables at the grocery stores. Only GMO food will be sold unless we the people unite to suppress this travesty and demand healthy non-GMO food. You are probably wearing pesticide and herbicide clothing right now. It cannot be washed off because it is produced in the cells of the engineered plants and is present in the cotton fibers of your clothes. Any wonder diseases and health problems are on the rise with the continual exposure to potentially harmful pesticides and herbicides. Here is a great link from the Health Ranger exposing some of the problems with GMOs. Click here to watch the video, "Dangers of GMOs."

One Step in Taking Back Our Food Supply

I recently read through another one of Raoul A. Robinson's books about horizontal resistance. This one is titled The Amateur Potato Breeder's Manual and it had a really great quote I wanted to share. I would recommend you all read this book if you are interested in not just saving your own garden seeds, but want ideas on how to improve the quality of the vegetables you plant. Here is what he said...

Many of the big chemical corporations have been buying up seed companies. They have also been buying up plant breeding institutes. These take-overs, which have nothing to do with chemical manufacture, will give them an almost monopolistic control of the cultivars available to farmers. And the best way to guarantee their market for crop protection chemicals is to ensure that these cultivars are susceptible, and that they can be cultivated only under the shield of both certified seed and crop protection chemicals.

The best way for crop scientists to combat these commercial trends is to breed crops for horizontal resistance. By and large, they have not done so, and they show few signs of doing so. There is a sad mindset within crop science that rejects the use of horizontal resistance. And, if the scientists refuse to investigate horizontal resistance, and they are backed up by chemical corporations who oppose its use, the only remaining possibility is for the public at large to undertake this task by forming plant breeding clubs. And, once started, and successful, there will be no stopping this trend.

It is true that most of these chemical companies (now garden seed companies) likely do not have our best interests in mind. Monopolies on your food. I think that it is outrageous that a company would try to make a monopoly out of our food supply by keeping crop varieties susceptible to disease and hooked on the chemicals. This dependency can't be healthy and appears in many aspects to have some similarities to a drug addiction. Farmers are hooked on these engineered plants and the chemicals required to keep them alive. All we need to do is save our own seeds and breed plants for horizontal resistance to get off this horrible chemical dependency and break the cycle.

It is a dangerous predicament that we are so dependent on these chemical companies for the fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that our crops would die and we would starve if these companies stopped supplying these chemicals. Truly this is a dependency that we need to break in a concerted effort as united citizens, farmers, and scientists world-wide.

Cima di Rapa Quarantina - AKA Broccoli Rabe or Rapini

This is a picture of one of my earliest crops from my garden it is often called rapini at the grocery store, but is also known as broccoli rabe. This is a picture of a variety of rapini called Cima di Rapa Quarantina (the yellow flowered plants in the photo). They grow very rapidly and should probably be planted in succession a week or two between each planting in the spring as they may go to seed early if the weather heats up. These were great tasting with a strong flavor, not like mild broccoli, and don't be deceived it is closer to a turnip genetically than to broccoli anyway. To save the seeds let your best plants flower, the nice big ones. Pull up the first ones that flower as you want to extend your season not make it shorter with plants that immediately start flowering after they reach any appreciable size. Let the pods dry on the plant and smash or break them open. It might be easier to smash them in a bag and then blow the chaff away with a fan, but you might lose a lot of seed if all the pods aren't broken apart. Let the seed dry an additional week on a plate or in a bowl and store them in a bead bag.

Costata Romanesco Zucchini - Squash Pepo

I'm not the biggest fan of zucchini, I like summer squash more, but this zucchini is by far the best I've tried. It is called Costata Romanesco Zucchini and is sold by several good companies. It is a (Cucurbita pepo) squash so you can determine if it will cross with the other Cucurbita squash that you are planting. Here are some great instructions for saving squash seeds from the International Seed Saving Institute. I haven't saved zucchini squash seeds yet, but I have saved seeds from pumpkins, hubbards, cucuzza, and butternut squash with good results. I only had one plant, if I had known how good they are I would have planted more. Here is a picture of my Costata Romanesco Zucchini plant.

Happy Mother's Day - Consider the Lilies

Here is one of the lilies that I was surprised to see come up in the yard. I was not expecting it because of the winter. Really it is a Belladonna Lily (or Amaryllis), not a true lily. Amaryllis is in the genus Amaryllis; true lilies are in the genus Lilium.

Speaking of lilies, I'm sure my wife will like this post, that reminds me of a couple of scriptures. The many scriptural references may be why lilies are so popular as gifts, but then again that is just a guess.

Here is one in Matthew 28:26-34.
  26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
  27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
  28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
  29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
  30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
  31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
  32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
  33 But seek ye first the ckingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
  34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Here is a similar passage in Luke 27:24-31.
 24 Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
  25 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
  26 If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
  27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
  28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
  29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
  30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
  31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

And another in 3 Nephi 28:26-34.
 26 Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
  27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
  28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin;
  29 And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.
  30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith.
  31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
  32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
  33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
  34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.

Here is another a in Doctrine and Covenants 82:81-88.
81 Therefore, take ye no athought for the morrow, for what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed.
  82 For, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin; and the kingdoms of the world, in all their glory, are not arrayed like one of these.
  83 For your Father, who is in heaven, knoweth that you have need of all these things.
  84 Therefore, let the morrow take thought for the things of itself.
  85 Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.
  86 Therefore, let no man among you, for this commandment is unto all the faithful who are called of God in the church unto the ministry, from this hour take purse or scrip, that goeth forth to proclaim this gospel of the kingdom.
  87 Behold, I send you out to reprove the world of all their unrighteous deeds, and to teach them of a judgment which is to come.
  88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

Article of Faith 1:13
13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

This also reminds me of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir song titled Consider the Lilies.

I like flowers in the garden and around the property because of the beneficial insects that are attracted to the flowers and help reduce pest populations. I have noticed that Apple Mint and probably other mints attract a lot of small beneficial insects. I think I'll plant a mint bed next year: Spearmint, Peppermint, and Apple Mint.

Prussian Blue - Garden Peas

This is an old garden pea variety that is used for split pea soup and grows pretty well in the U.S. It was grown by Thomas Jefferson in his Monticello Garden. It grew pretty well. I've had hit and miss with peas depending on where in the country I am living. It is inordinately more difficult to grow peas in the south, but some varieties do well. Northern states and states with cooler weather are great places to grow most garden peas. I found this variety at Heritage Harvest.

Cherry Belle - Radishes Going to Seed

Radishes are an early crop that will provide something healthy from your garden while you wait for the main crops to start producing. You can ensure that you'll get radishes throughout the early part of the season if you stagger your plantings in time roughly a week to two weeks apart. Separate the row you plan to plant in radishes into several sections maybe four and plant the first section as early as possible about 3-4 weeks before the average last spring frost. Plant each subsequent section of your row every week to two weeks. You should have a continuous supply of great radishes in the early spring-time. When you are picking the radishes leave your best looking ones and eat the slightly smaller or average radishes leaving a few of your best plants for seed. Radishes will easily cross between varieties and so it is best to plant only one variety or to separate them by time during the season, maybe grow one variety in the spring and another variety in the fall. Here is a picture of Cherry Belle Radishes going to seed. Once the plants dry out and the pods turn brown, split or smash the pods to extract the seeds. Let the seeds dry in a bowl or on a plate for an additional week or two to ensure that they are thoroughly dry and then put them in a bead bag or glass bottle. Some radishes appear to be biennial at flowering but mine all bloomed late in the season as an annual. Here is a picture of my selected plants blooming. Note: The yellow flowers are not radishes, only the white flowers.

Growing Romaine Lettuce

I grew this unusual romaine lettuce called Bath Cos because I had never grown romaine lettuce before and wanted to try it from the garden. It is an old English variety that originated in the eighteenth century. It definitely has more punch than the store bought romaine lettuce. It has a slight mild sweet perfume like aftertaste that can't be adequately described. I like strong lettuce tastes and enjoyed growing this lettuce, although my wife didn't like it and enjoys more mild varieties. It was productive and then set seed before the end of the season. I'd grow it again. Here is a picture when it was still small and of course heavily picked.

Here are some instructions how to save lettuce seed from the International Seed Saving Institute. It is so easy. I don't see why everyone doesn't grow their own lettuce and save seed. 

Remember when picking lettuce leaves to break off the leaves not pull up the plant. Once the center starts to spike up and flower stop picking the lettuce because it will start to become bitter. The plants should all flower roughly at the same time within a few weeks of each other. I usually pull out the first couple plants that bloom much earlier than the rest and don't save seeds from those. If you continuously save seed from the early blooming plants, then it will cut into the length of your harvest. It is wise to save seeds from those plants that flower later in the season but soon enough that you'll get seed well before the first frost. The flowers are generally self pollinating and when the flowers die and dry out on the plants you can rub the seeds out of them and blow away the chaff. Store them in a bead bag (mini ziplock bag) that can be found at most craft stores or make some paper seed packets of your own.

My Favorite Tomato

This is a really hard question, what is my favorite tomato? There are so many different varieties and uses for tomatoes that I guess I'd have to narrow it down to my favorite salad tomato, slicing tomato, snacking tomato, canning tomato, and paste tomato. Am I missing any other uses?

Tomato Categories                Favorite Tomato Variety
Salad                                                   Green Zebra / Black Plum
Slicing                                                           Great White
Snacking                                                      Black Seaman  
Canning                                            German Queen / Box Car Willie
Canning Paste                                                    Heidi

I've tried the following tomato varieties Black Plum, Black Seaman, Box Car Willie, Red Brandywine, Caspian Pink, Cherokee Purple, Debbie Beefsteak, Great White, Green Zebra, Heidi, Jaune Flammee, Marianna's Peace, Marvel Stripe, Mormon's World Earliest, Noir de Crimee, Red Grape, Red Pear, Santa Clara Canner, Silvery Fir Tree, Sutton, Yellow Pear.

I have only tried a small selection of available open pollinated tomatoes and am really excited to try more over the next few years. I am really dying to try the following Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red, Bear Claw, Big Rainbow, Black Zebra, Black Brandywine, Bulgarian #7, Campbell's 1327, Costoluto Genovese, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Eva Purple Ball, Earl of Edgecombe, Golden Queen (USDA strain), Heinz 1439, Italian Heirloom Tomato, Kellog's Breakfast, Matina, Opalka, Tangella, White Beauty, Wuhib, Zapotec Pleated, and Zogola.

How to Save Tomato Seeds

Tomatoes are considered an inbreeding crop and many self-pollinate. You can typically grow several varieties in your garden and won't have to worry too much about different varieties crossing, especially if you separate them in different areas of the garden or plant a barrier crop, like corn or pole beans between them. Bees typically focus on pollinating one crop type at a time. They also like to fly in straight lines, when they fly up over the tall crop they will miss the plants below them on the other side. If you planted two different varieties next to each other, you can still save the seed. You may want to look at the flower and see if it is closed or open at the end and don't save from double bloom tomatoes as they are almost always open due to the weird configuration of the double bloom.

This is a picture of a double bloom the stigma is exposed for cross pollination, so avoid saving seeds from a double tomato when you harvest.

This is a picture of an exposed stigma which would easily cross pollinate as well. Space these plants farther apart from others if possible.

This is picture of a mainly closed flower. Although you can still barely see the stigma this tomato will likely self-pollinate. 

 This is an example of a totally enclosed stigma. There appears to be no chance that this will cross-pollinate.

1. Plant at least six or more plants and save tomatoes from the best plants. Even though tomatoes are inbreeding and typically self-pollinate, they have many polygenic characteristics that may drift over time if there is no selection pressure. Save seeds from several tomatoes just in case that one tomato was crossed you won't lose the variety. You should select for yield, quality, suitability, and horizontal resistance as described in Raoul Robinson's book Return to Resistance. Don't save seed from defective or odd plants. 
2. When you are harvesting ripe tomatoes take some of the pulp, juice, and seeds from the selected plants by squirt, squeezing, or scooping it into a sealable sandwich bag.
3. Close the bag and leave it in the cupboard for 3-5 days to ferment (rot) to kill off any pathogens that may be present in the fruit like Tobacco Mosaic Virus. This fermentation and rotting is similar to the natural process that occurs in the wild. Don't forget about it indefinitely...you know what I mean.
4. After three days fill the bag with water, pour of the pulp, the good seeds should sink (don't pour out the seeds). Any unfertilized seeds should float and get poured out with the pulp. If you lose a few in the floating pulp, that is probably okay. You should have more seeds than you can plant. Refill the bag with water and pour off the remaining pulp a few more times. There should just be a bit of water remaining on the seeds.
6. Invert the plastic bag, dumping the wet seeds onto a glass or plastic plate to dry (don't put them on paper towels or napkins as they will dry to them like glue). Carefully pour or blot off any extra water to speed drying. Put the plate in an empty cupboard or cabinet out of the way.
7. Let them dry for at least a week and then test the dryness by breaking one of the seeds if they dry and show not evidence of dampness you can dry them for longer or put them into bead bags or old glass bottles for next year.

Here is a picture of a German Queen tomato plant growing in a hay bale.

Hint: Lightly shaking or tapping your plants daily will encourage pollen shedding and self-pollination. This will ensure fruit formation even in the absence of a pollinator, e.g. in a greenhouse.

Are You a Fan of Blackberries?

I just thought I'd post a few pictures of the two different types of blackberries that we have on the property. The first is a thornless upright cane type called Apache. It is a pretty plant and looks to be easy to contain. I don't know how it tastes yet, we'll have to wait a little bit longer. They must be yummy look at this Consperse Stink Bug taking a bite or more appropriately a sip.

Here are some more pictures of the Apache Blackberry

The other variety of blackberry that we have is called Navajo. It is a thornless vining variety and seems to sucker and spread more rapidly than Apache. It might be a good choice if you want a really big productive vine. The Navajo variety is supposed to be super sweet and tastes really good. I'll get to try it soon.

Here are some pictures of the Navajo Blackberry.

Growing Pear Trees from Seed

Yes, call me crazy I started some pear trees from seed. What I did is, I ate a whole lot of pears last winter from multiple different varieties. I put the seeds on a moist napkin or paper towel in a sealable sandwich bag in the fridge for about a month. Once the radicle emerged from a seed and started to grow I planted it into a small pot. I planted them by the hundreds and then covered the pot with a clear plastic bag to make it really wet to help breed disease. I also placed the pot in a cold window, so that the dampness would be sure to help the spread of disease. Sure enough fireblight took off in the seedlings. Hundreds of them died off en masse. I kept planting any that sprouted in the fridge in the same pot where others had died in the disease laden environment. Sure enough a few of them continued to grow and seem to be immune to fireblight as well as whatever other diseases that did the rest in. Here is a picture of the survivors in a much bigger pot. Notice that two of them are purple leaved.

I was interested in doing this project after reading about how fruit trees are actually hardier and more disease resistant on their own roots instead of being grafted. I read about it in Gene Logsdon's book, Organic Orcharding. I'm thinking of planting them out to see if they will produce decent canning or eating pears. I think that I have a pretty good shot at decent tasting pears because the ones I ate were pretty good in the first place, although I do hear that they are more variable than their parents. Anyway, if they don't turn out to taste good at least I'll have some great rootstock to graft better tasting pears. I've read that if you are worried that they won't taste good and don't want to loose time, then you can let one branch grow and let a grafted branch grow. If the fruite on the tree tastes good, then cut off the grafted wood. If the fruits tastes bad, then your graft is already growing and you can cut off the ungrafted branches.

How to Make Affordable Tomato Cages

Have you ever tried one of those flimsy tomato cages at the store. You know the ones I'm talking about, they are really small with maybe three concentric rings with the bottom ring the smallest and three prongs to stick in the ground. The main problem with these besides their minute size is that they don't form a stable base. If anything you'd want the bottom to be the same width as the top for support. These poorly designed tomato cages are ubiquitously sold throughout the United States. Luckily there is a very affordable alternative, making them out of wire mesh used for reinforcing concrete. Yes these will look rusty, but they wire is sturdy yet easy enough to bend and form a cage. Galvinized fencing wire is more difficult to bend to form the cage and more expensive, go with the affordable wire mesh instead. If you want you can even use plastic zip ties to assemble them quickly and cut the extra wire mesh off the roll. They come in long rolls of about 50-100 feet and will probably make a lot more cages for the same price as a couple of those flimsy $15 cages.

Just push them down over a small plant with the prongs in the ground.

Here is picture of how you can bend the extra wire around to connect the edges of the wire cage.

Here is another great article about how to make them at Mother Earth News, Using Wire Mesh In The Garden.

Here is wooden type of tomato cage Woody’s Folding Tomato Cages.

Chapolote - Ancient Brown Popcorn

I've been making popcorn a lot lately. We used to use the microwave popcorn bowl, but after trying it in the cast iron pan on the stove I don't think I'm going to easily go back to the microwave popcorn. We had a four pound bag of popcorn from GFS and final started eating it and boy is it good. I had always wondered how to make popcorn on the stove and finally looked it up online. The instructions are very easy.

How to Make Popcorn in a Cast Iron Skillet these were some of the best directions I've seen.

I plan in the future to try an old variety of popcorn, but I didn't get it planted this year, maybe next year. It is called Chapolote "Pinole Maiz." It is one of the oldest varieties of popcorn, the only brown corn, is only sold by Native Seed Search, and is listed in the Ark of Taste.

Figs

I had never had a fresh rip fig until last year and boy are they good. I instantly became a fig fan. We have a couple of types of the figs on the property: Alma, Celeste, and White Marseille. They are really easy to start from cuttings or from suckers pulled up in the spring from the base of the plant. Here are a few pictures of the figs so far this year.

Seeing all of these figs leafing out reminds me of a scripture in Matthew 24: 32-36.

 32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

  33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
  34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
  35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
  36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

What is a Chicken Tractor or Chicken Ark?

Here is the chicken tractor (aka chicken ark) that I put together a couple months ago. It was made almost entirely out of left over wire and wood junk from around the property. The only parts I bought besides the waterers and feeder were the hinges for the door to the nest box. It has worked well keeping the critters from killing and eating the chickens. The hawks were very sad that the pen was closed on top as they circled for about a day and kept swooping down at the chickens. We're building a second one that is larger for the chickens and we will probably use this one for sitting hens and hatching chicks.

I put it together after viewing a lot of different plans. My inspiration came from several sources.
1. The Chicken Tractor Gallery
2. Chicken Ark Plans
3. Mother's Mini-coop
4. Building Facilities and Plans
5. The Pallet Shed
 

Oregano to Dry

The oregano is already up and looking good. I planted it last fall and it has already formed a nice looking plant. I cut about a fourth of the plant and dried it. All I did was cut off the stems whole with the leaves, rinsed them in water, and put them on a cookie sheet in the sun for most of the day. They were already dry by evening, so I just stripped the leaves off the dry stems and put the dry leaves in a sealable sandwich bag in the spice cabinet. Pretty easy.

Cucumbers: How to Save Seeds

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a plant that grows pretty well here. Usually we have problems with bitterness when the weather gets hot in the late summer. We found a new variety that seems to not go bitter and tastes great. It is called Parade and is from Seed Saver's Exchange. We saved seeds last year, but luckily a few of the extra cucumbers started our cucumber patch before we planted the saved seed.

This is my method of saving cucumber seeds. I'd show you in pictures, but alas I don't have any of the vine ripened cucumbers to take pictures.

1. Plant at least six or more plants for cross pollination. These are outbreeding, so plant at least six to avoid the possibility of inbreeding depression.
2. Leave a cucumber or two on plant just about halfway through the season to ripen from the edible green to a bright squishy yellow. They may start to ferment on the vine, this is okay.
3. Take the squishy yellow overripe cucumber and squeeze out the seeds into a bowl or scoop them out if it still has structure.
4. dump it all in a sealable plastic freezer or sandwich bag seal it and leave it in a cupboard for 3-5 days to ferment. Don't forget about it...you know what I mean.
5. After three days fill the bag with water, pour of the pulp, the good seeds should sink (don't pour out the seeds). Any unfertilized seeds should float and get poured out with the pulp. If you lose a few in the floating pulp, that is probably okay. You should have more seeds than you can plant. Refill the bag with water and pour off the remaining pulp a few more times. There should just be a bit of water remaining on the seeds.
6. Invert the plastic bag onto a glass plate to dry. Carefully pour or blot off any extra water to speed drying. Put the plate in an empty cupboard or cabinet out of the way.
7. Let them dry for at least a week and then test the dryness by breaking one of the seeds if they dry and show not evidence of dampness you can dry them for longer or put them into bead bags or old glass bottles for next year.

Note: Store seeds at room temperature or below out of direct sunlight and away from heaters. Basements or coldrooms are great places to store your seed collection. I just have mine in the bottom of a closet in a plastic tub. Lower should be cooler as heat rises. These should be relatively viable for about 5 years. You may be able to resuscitate the variety after that, but viability will probably be very low. Gibberellic acid may help sprout old seeds, but I haven't tried that yet.

You can also see the instructions and recomendations from the International Seed Saving Institute for saving cucumber seed.

Purslane: A Common Garden Weed or Delicacy

Purslane is all the talk today for its high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, but is it really a delicacy or is it still just a prolific weed? What do you think?

To me it has a slightly salty taste, some people say it tastes like black pepper, anyhow it is definitely crisp, fresh, and crunchy. If you haven't noticed it in your garden, then maybe you should check again because it is naturalized throughout most of the world. It can be distinguished from other weeds by its thick stem in comparison to the wiry stems of spurge. It also has yellow flowers and minute almost microscopic black seeds. Here is a picture for you to take a look.

Fireblight in Pears

Here is a Bartlett Pear tree, one of the most common pear trees in the United States. Unfortunately it is plagued with fireblight in many areas of the country. This is a prime example of where resistance breeding could come in very useful. We need to breed for horizontal resistance in pears. From my experience, the European pears are highly susceptible to fireblight. Most of the pears we planted in Idaho when I was young died within a year or two from fireblight, whereas the apples survived with no problems. It was only when we bought pear varieties from St. Lawrence Nurseries, a company that sells pear trees for locations where commercial pears will not grow, that we were successful at growing pears. When European settlers came over to America they planted pear trees from seeds. These trees grew very well, as pears put on more growth per year than apples without the need for much if any fertilizer. Excessive fertilizer may be part of the problem today in addition to a monoculture of Bartlett trees with low horizontal resistance to fireblight. When pears are planted on fertile soil or fertilized much at all, then they grow rapidly and seem to be more susceptible to fireblight. The early settlers used pears for pear juice or cider and they grew them from seeds. I suspect that these trees had much less problem with fireblight than the pear monoculture we have today. Apples later took over the place of pears, but do not have as fast growth as pears and as great an ability to grow on poor soil, almost, but not quite. I would highly suggest trying other varieties if you have fireblight in your area.

Unusual Top-Setting Onions (Naturalized)

I found these onions growing all over the property. They are very small with a bulb about the size of a pearl onion, with minute top-setting onions and flowers. The top-sets are similar to what you would see on the Walking Egyptian Onion, only these are tiny and have flowers as well. The taste of the greens is similar to shallots, very mild, and the roots taste like a mild onion with a hint of potato. I think they taste pretty good. I haven't found the exact variety, although they are variable and seem to be a landrace having naturalized all over the property. Some people have suggested that they are pre-Civil War Era original pearl onions, nothing like we know today. I wonder if the loss of top-setting onions like this is due to marketing and making gardeners buy onion seeds or started plantlets every year. I'm thinking about crossing these with a large purple storage bulb onion since these top-setting onions oddly have flowers and top-sets which I think is pretty rare. I would love to have a large purple storage onion that multiplies by top-sets. If any of you have more information about these, then let me know.

New Green Revolution Needed

I recently read Raoul A Robinson's free book Return to Resistance: Breeding Crops to Reduce Pesiticide Depedency. In terms of crop breeding, it put together ideas and laid out a simple plan to breed for resistance in crop plants, and how to locally adapt a crop variety so that harmful pesticides and fungicides are not needed. I think this will be necessary in the coming years to breed for resistance as a diverse genetic population containing polygenic resistance rather than for lock/key traits via pedigree mendelian genetics and the resulting monocultures that result. Overall, I found the ideas very helpful and this seems to be what marker assisted selection (MAS) is trying to obtain by analyzing multiple quantitative traits and breeding for increased production, although I don't think MAS will be able to obtain the same result with such elegance and cost-effectiveness as Robinson's methods. His breeding ideas for both outbreeding and inbreeding crops are excellent and are a must read. Don't skip the part about the lock and key mendelian traits, I found that part very informative in distinguishing the two schools of crop breeding.

I agree with many of his ideas in this book, except for the whole part about global warming and over-population. Yes, I am a big skeptic of hype and scare tactics especially when the data looks sketchy like disappearing temperature monitoring stations in rural locations and poorly situated temperature measurement equipment (Don't get me wrong we should take care of the planet and not be wasteful, but there are much bigger pollution and waste problems that are being evaded by focusing on CO2). Climategate has been all the news lately with corruption of top scientists falsifying climate data for political purposes and financial gain. Do you think a scientist that wants to study the hypothesis that CO2 has had no effect on climate would get funding? No, he absolutely wouldn't get funded because it wouldn't support the corrupt government and scientist plans to institute cap and trade (i.e. a financial tax for a harmless gas).

Yes, maybe the theoretical ideas of overpopulation and global warming are real, but I don't think we are even close to over-population. We just have poor management of our existing resources from the governments and companies that be. Look at all the land that is not currently in any type of useful agricultural production: parks, yards, lawns, and city streets. In addition, the government pays farmers not to plant crops when they should just rotate their crops. How absurd. If the government didn't pay farmers to leave their land fallow and enough people incorporated gardens, a few fruit trees, or fruit bushes into their yards that would drastically increase the total food output. Trees are among the easiest of food type plants and give you the biggest production for the effort. Currently, many yards and tree lined streets are planted with only oaks, maples, honey locust, and ash trees. I think we could plant something like Pakistani Mulberries (non-staining large variety), walks would be clean from stains and the fruit is delicious or am I the only one that eats mulberries when I walk under a mulberry tree, maybe. If more people saved seed and planted gardens this would help dramatically.

Raoul Robinson's free book, The Amateur Potato Breeder’s Manual, is also a suggested read.

Growing Whole Grains

I've been interested in growing my own grains for a while and have read a couple books about growing them in the backyard garden. My favorite is probably Small-Scale Grain Raising by Gene Logsdon. I recently read Homegrown Whole Grains by Sara Pitzer, which had some useful recipes and a couple of ideas on making your own dehulling machine.

I'm pretty interested in growing rice, like the Japanese sushi rice, Koshihikari. I found the variety Koshihikari RI1-100 at Reimer Seeds. I'm pretty excited. I'm also getting more interested in planting a small plot of Hulless Oats, several kinds of Quinoa, Millet, Buckwheat, Teff, Flax, Sorghum, and several ancient wheat varieties. I've found many of these grains from various sources like the Seed Saver's Exchange Yearbook and Bountiful Gardens.

Another source that is a good source of unusual wheat varieties is the Heritage Wheat Conservancy. They have types that are difficult to find like Einkorn.

Try Something New

I like trying new things once in a while that I haven't tried before. Sometimes they are a success and sometimes they aren't. I like to eat a specific lentil soup recipe, so I thought I'll try planting lentils. I planted the variety called O'odham lentils. It grew really well, but the bugs up north ate the seeds out of the pods at the end of the season, probably something that they don't have a problem with in the desert. I also tried Hopi Black Pinto beans and they did quite well despite all of the rain. I passed them on to family in Utah and they said that they grew even better in the dry Utah climate.

Save Your Own Vegetable Seeds

Seeds are a link to the past and are essential to our future. Each seed now in existence was grown from previous plants creating a continual link with humanity for generations back to its wild plant ancestors. The close association and selection by different groups of people, each with specific tastes and ideas of good cuisine, have created a vast number and variety of edible plants. Many of these are disappearing as more and more people move to the city or are distanced from growing and saving seed for their own gardens and yards.

Imagine if we suddenly did not have oil for farming. We could not drive the tractors to plant large tracts of land, cultivate, or harvest it. Vast tracts of farmed land would become barren in one year. Historically, families planted gardens on their properties to supplement the grain that was harvested from their own fields. Today it has become a rarity to see a garden let alone a large garden like those of the past that were used to produce the greens, tomatoes, squash and other vegetables that a family would eat for an entire year. Seed was saved each year and seed from exceptional plants was traded with neighbors. This local and regional exchange created vegetable varieties that were highly adapted to local climatic conditions and resistant to the plant diseases of the area.

Today seed companies focus on selling hybrid seed often for higher prices than open pollinated varieties and discourage seed saving. Planting hybrid seed ensures that you will have to buy seed from the seed company again next year. While hybrids often have “hybrid vigor” and some disease resistant traits, they do not, in my opinion, compare to locally adapted varieties. Hybrids are created to grow well over a large region of the United States, but do not grow exceptionally well in any particular location. Open pollinated varieties that are locally adapted are better at growing in their local region and resistant to the local diseases. This process occurs through years of seed saving and selection of the best plants that grew each year. If you can find seed sources in your area, then these seeds are more likely to be resistant to the local fungi, diseases, and weather creating a more predictable crop. Saving seeds is not that hard, increases your self-reliance, and can be pretty fun.

Limber Cobb Corn

Most people would probably think that this is crazy to grow field type corn in your garden, and maybe it is, but I decided to do it anyway. Here is a picture of a variety of corn that I planted called Limber Cobb. It is supposedly good for making cornmeal and corn flour. I haven't tried it yet as I was bulking up the seed for a larger grow out. I liked this variety because it is not a hybrid and it grew 12-15 feet tall on average in a northern climate. Everyone was amazed by the height of the corn by the end of the season. The chicken wire in the picture was two feet high, so as to give you an idea of how high it was early in the season. I was using it in my three sisters type garden.

To plant a three sisters garden: Plant a circle of corn with a diameter of about 3 feet with 6-8 seeds spaced out on the circle. Once the corn is up about 6 inches plant beans at the base of the corn and plant squash between the circular hills (I planted Mormon Squash a hubbard type).

Forellenshcluss Lettuce

Forellenshcluss is one of my favorite lettuce varieties. It is a spotted leaf lettuce that is if I remember correctly from Australia and often called Trout Lettuce. It tastes pretty good, like real lettuce, not the stuff that you find at the grocery store. Some people don't like the flavor of real lettuce and prefer the aged bland lettuce from the grocery store, but if you like your vegetables to have flavor give this one a try. It grows readily from seed and will give you plenty of replacement seeds by the end of the season if you let the center flower.

Remember when picking lettuce leaves to break off the leaves not pull up the plant. Once the center starts to spike up and flower stop picking the lettuce because it will start to become bitter. The plants should all flower roughly at the same time within a few weeks of each other. I usually pull out the first couple plants that bloom much earlier than the rest and don't save seeds from those. If you continuously save seed from the early blooming plants, then it will cut into the length of your harvest. It is wise to save seeds from those plants that flower later in the season but soon enough that you'll get seed well before the first frost. The flowers are generally self pollinating and when the flowers die and dry out on the plants you can rub the seeds out of them and blow away the chaff. Store them in a bead bag (mini ziplock bag) that can be found at most craft stores or make some paper seed packets of your own.

Blue Pod Capucijners - Garden Peas

Here is a nice picture of a garden pea variety that I tried recently. They were pretty unusual. Most of the plants had purple pods, although a plant or two had greenish purple pods, one is shown in the foreground. I tasted a couple fresh and they seemed pretty good, maybe not as sweet as new pea varieties, but I mainly grew them for seed the first year to get more seed. The packet only had maybe 25 seeds in it. They did pretty well and were productive.

Spring Planting Guide for Vegetables (Burpee Seed Starter Book)

The Burpee Seed Starter Book has some useful information for planning your garden. You can take your last frost date from the Victory Seeds website http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/ and then look up the planting times for all of your vegetables in this book based on that last average frost date.

Here is an example listing of planting times for a last freeze date of March 30

Beans, Lima    Apr 15-Jun 20
Beans, Snap    Apr 1-Jun 1
Beet    Mar 1-Jun 1
Broccoli (plants)    Mar 1-20
Brussels Sprouts (plants)    Mar 1-20
Cabbage    Feb 15-Mar 10
Carrot    Mar 1-Apr 10
Chard    Mar 1-May 25
Corn, Sweet    Mar 25-May 15
Cucumber    Apr 10-May 15
Garlic    Feb 10-Mar 10
Lettuce, Head (plants)    Mar 1-20
Lettuce, Leaf    Feb 15-Apr 15
Okra    Apr 10-Jun 15
Onion (plants)    Feb 15-Mar 15
Onion, Seed    Feb 20-Mar 15
Onion, Sets    Feb 15-Mar 20
Parsley    Mar 1-Apr 1
Parsnip    Mar 1-Apr 1
Peas, Garden    Feb 10-Mar 20
Peas, Black-eye    Apr 15-Jul 1
Pepper (plants)    Apr 15-Jun 1
Potato    Feb 20-Mar 20
Radish    Feb 15-May 1
Shallot    Feb 15-Mar 15
Sorrel    Feb 20-Apr 1
Spinach    Feb 1-Mar 20
Squash, Summer    Apr 10-Jun 1
Tomato    Apr 10-Jun 1
Watermelon    Apr 10-May 15

Average First and Last Frost Dates by State

http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/

This website will help you plan your planting dates for a spring and fall garden.

Seed Exchange Website

Learning to trade seeds with others is an exciting way to try many new varieties without the high costs of purchasing seed. It isn't totally free you have to pay for postage. If you are budget strapped stick to flat seeds that won't get smashed in the mail rollers. Small seeds like tomato and pepper seeds can be mailed in a #10 envelope with one stamp and a napkin folded in half for padding if needed. Beans are an example of a seed that would need a bubble mailer. You can make your own with manila #10 envelopes and a small roll of bubble packing material. Just cut out the bubble packing material twice the depth of the envelope and fold it over and put the packet of seeds inside. It should ship fine.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/exchind/
Under the Plant Exchange, the Tomato Exchange and the Hot Pepper Exchange are particularly active. You would have to create a free account and exchange addresses to exchange seeds, see the instructions. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/exchind/#instruct

High and Low Return Crops

(Values based on pounds produced per square foot, retail value per pound at harvest time, and length of time in the garden.)

Intensive Gardening Methods http://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-335/426-335.html

Top 15 High Return Crops: Tomatoes, Beets, Green bunching onions, Carrots, Leaf lettuce, Cucumbers, Turnip (greens + roots), Peppers, Summer squash, Broccoli, Edible podded peas, Head lettuce, Onion storage bulbs, Swiss chard, Beans (pole, bush)

Low Return Crops (Not recommended for small gardens):

Corn, Winter squash, Melons, Pumpkins

Here is a picture of a 2008 intensive garden. Notice that the rows are too close to effectively till between the plants. It may be more work to weed, but it keeps the soil moist and allows you to grow a lot more food in a small space. My garden was 30 x 15 and produced a lot of produce especially greens and tomatoes. This picture is just about 1/4th of the garden area.

 

How to Save Seeds

1. Online: International Seed Saving Institute http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html
a.       Beginner Vegetable Seeds: Bean, Lettuce, Pea, Pepper, Tomato http://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/beginner.html
b.       Experienced Vegetable Seeds: Corn, Cucumber, Muskmelon, Radish, Spinach, Squash/Pumpkin http://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/experienced.html
c.       Expert Vegetable Seeds: Beet/Swiss Chard, Cabbage Family, Carrot, Escarole/Frissee (Endive), Onion, Radicchio/Endive, Turnip/Chinese Cabbage http://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/expert.html

2. Book: Seed to seed: seed saving and growing techniques for vegetable gardeners, by Suzanne Ashworth, Kent Whealy

How Rare is Your Seed Variety?

This is a fun website when you are looking through the seed catalogs. At Seeds of Diversity - Heritage Plant Database you can look up the seed variety to see how rare or common it is. It can be fun to try rare or endangered varieties like this tomato that I found through Seed Saver's Exchange membership. It grew

http://www.seeds.ca/hpd/hpd.php

e.g.

Mormon World’s Earliest

Status: Endangered

Distribution: Poor

Not currently propagated by Seeds of Diversity's seed-savers. Available from only a few mail-order seed companies. Very difficult to find. Not maintained by the Canadian gene bank. Not maintained by the U.S. gene bank.