Interesting Update on the Bees

Mother Earth News is surpassing Organic Gardening of late with interesting stories. Granted, Organic Gardening's focus is the garden (more below), but Mother Earth News takes it a step further and relates the environment to our homes, including the garden and nearly always has good stories about organic gardening. The latest issue had an update on the honeybee disappearance that stated "the Natural Resources Defense Council is suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency for withholding details about the impact of neonicotinois - a class of widely used pesticides -- on Honey bees and other pollinators. " The article goes on to say, "How would our government respond if one out of every three cows was dying?" What is that telling you? And you'll never guess who the manufacturer of the pesticide is. No, not Monsanto, but an equally powerful pharmaceutical -- Bayer CropScience. They all hold power over government and its unfortunate. You can read the whole story about the bees here. Back to Organic Gardening Magazine. I've seen many transformations of this magazine over the years with each new editor and yet another new editor took the helm. This time, it sounds like they are going to focus on simplicity and community and the first issue with the new editor is likely a good example of what's ahead. There were several nice stories about inner-city gardens and several articles about specific plants -- crop covers and sage. Yes, informative information, but not enough for my use in the backyard. Mother Earth News, on the other hand, had articles on building your own greenhouse (one of my dreams), Eco-friendly houses, apples, garlic, covering your crops to extend the season, the honeybees, and a very interesting story of the top 10 small towns in US - some were sustainable and supported local farming. Mother Earth News gets my vote for providing the most informative, helpful information. Mother is worth the subscription. And have a co-worker to thank for turning me onto the magazine by sharing some of her issues last year with me -- thanks Theresa!

The Backyard is Taking a Back Seat

Fall is here... and the gardens are slowly going to sleep except for the fall greens. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a mountain biker. This summer saw more garden activity at the sacrifice of me riding for hours on end. But I really miss riding bike, so the gardens are going to take a break for the next month or so as I head out on the bike for some long, endurance riding. I plan to enter a 62-mile race on October 11 called the Ironcross in Michaux State Forest, Pennsylvania. It'll take me about 6-7 hours to finish, and I'll be getting ready for it with long 3-4 hour rides over the next few weeks. So the garden is taking a back seat for while! See you later this fall.

Harvest Time and Fall Crops

Dried cutting celery ready for storing in jars. The fall and winter greens and broccoli are loving the cooler temps we've been having. I'll likely have broccoli heads the size of basketballs. This is the Arcadia variety I grew in the spring that got huge. The fall crops are usually better.

Another new crop for us -- Chinese Cabbage.

Oh the sweet potatoes -- beautiful! This was my first attempt at sweet tates and they are now part of my annual crops. Very easy to grow from slips - disease free, maintenance free, and easy to harvest and store. Just dig up on a sunny day, let dry for a couple hours, then set in warm, dark location for about a week. They store in a 50-65 degree basement.

What's Going on In The BackYard

It's early September and the plants are thinking its mid or late September with the cold evenings (50s) we've been having. The raspberries stopped production, the peppers are starting to get that "I'm cold" look, and the winter crops are taking over and growing like I've never seen greens grow. It seems a little early for all this to be happening, but to be honest, I'm glad to see things changing. I'm tired! The prep has begun for the first frost which means a LOT of harvesting and preserving. Here's what's been going on the past month (and why you haven't seen much of me!):

• Canned 29 jars of tomatoes - will do about 8 or 9 jars of salsa this weekend.
• Started digging up the sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, and red potatoes (there's a LOT).
• Started shelling dry beans and decided its WAY too time consuming so I'll just pick the whole shells and put them on the top of my garage (warm) and shell them this winter.
• Have been drying red raspberries -- got about 4 quarts so far. I used to freeze them but discovered at 135 degrees for 24 hours in the dehydrator, they turn into these absolutely wonderful raspberries crunchies. The flavor is enhanced incredibly. This is probably my thrill of the summer.
• Greens, greens, and more greens and been growing like weeks the past 3 weeks. I have collards, spinach, swiss chard (golden - beautiful!), chicory, endive, Chinese cabbage, mustard, Thai lettuce, radicchio, kale and red beets. I have to get straw bales around them to prepare for the winter protection and try to save these beauties into January. Supposedly, it works! This is something new I've wanting to try.
• Starting harvesting the butternut squash. Disappointed with the production this year -- the plants got the wilt towards the end and didn't produce as much. But with the sweet potato harvest, its probably a good thing I don't have as many squash.
• Froze several bags of cut up peppers.
• Canned some fennel and hot peppers at a pressure canning class (and decided pressure canning isn't for me -- too time consuming to "watch" the pot).
• Have been drying leaf lettuce like crazy.
• And of course cooking up lots of dishes from the backyard harvest with all the fresh vege's -- eggplant, maters, onions, peppers, herbs, greens, etc. You can't imagine how joyful it is grow, pick, and cook your own food from your own backyard. It's truly a delight and if you can, start a garden! You'll never regret it.

Going Off Line for a Spell

Taking a break from blogging for awhile...feeling stressed and overwhelmed and need to cut some things out.

Not So Great Weekend

Didn't get much done afterall except freeze 20 bags of corn and cry about rain. The weather guys predicted 7 dry days so I pulled my onions to let them dry in the garden. It rained on them for 12 hours. The wind came through yesterday from thunderstorms and knocked over pepper plants, tomato plants, and much of the corn. I need a new attitude at the moment.

The Backyard This Weekend

The weekend is going to start a little early 'cause the corn is calling! Today around 1:00pm, starts the official "bulk" harvesting, husking, blanching, cutting, and freezing of sweet corn. The plan is to do about 6 dozen ears -- that will give me a total of 15 quart-size bags for the winter. That's not quite enough for winter storing, but hopefully I'll get another 3 dozen ears froze next week after the rest of it matures. My goal is to have enough to have a bag every two weeks or so for the next 9 months to a year. What else this weekend in the garden?

• Weeding!
• Take some pics for the Blog
• Pull onions to start the curing process (they'll lay in the garden for 3 days to dry, then will be moved to my covered front porch in wire baskets to "cure" for about two weeks -- then I'll store them).
• Pick peppers/eggplant - roast with tomatoes and onions
• Start pulling spent corn stalks
• Turn compost piles
• Watch the mommy bluebird feed her babies -- she has a nest in the bluebird house in the garden!
• Mow Grass
• Weeding!
• Watering the kids -- the fall plants are absolutely beautiful right now -- must be the cool temps at night.
• Pick kale and other greens - make salad
• Thin radicchio, mustard greens, and chinese cabbage - throw in salad
• Control the lopes and butternut squash vines (they are growing into the tomatoes, corn, and dry beans!)
• Cook up some taters for the week - potato salad? Mashed tates? (yummm)
• Weeding!
• Water raspberries unless it rains. They are about to start coming in and will need a good shot of water unless we get some rain.
• Make hubby chicken corn noodle soup (with the garden sweet corn the Amish neighbor homemade noodles -- yummmm)
• Make sure new garden cat Rusty is enjoying himself

Eat To Live Book Review

My latest read is Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Eat to Live is nothing new. Dr. Joel Fuhrman introduced his “revolutionary” book on HIS vegan diet beliefs based on years of research, studies, and scientific proof in 2003. One of the parts I really liked about this book (besides being able to grow everything I need to eat in my backyard!) is that there are 28 pages of footnotes of medical studies that back Dr. Fuhrman’s research on how a plant based diet is better than animal proteins. The studies he notes are not taken from underground researchers – these are the respected guys like JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association), the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Clinical Nutrition Journal, amongst others. The first couple chapters lay out the research: The American Diet and obesity (he claims 75% obesity in America!), Phytochemicals – Nature’s “Magic” pills, the dark side of animal proteins, and “Are you Dying to Lose Weight?” (“bad” diets (Atkins!). The last part of the book gives a 6-week guaranteed weight loss plan and recipes. He is completely vegan. Several of the blogs I peruse like Fat-Free Vegan and Vegan Lunch-box tout Dr. Fuhrman as one of the best. Yup, I'm gonna try this one now -- I'm back on the vegan bandwagon yet again. I think this is the third time I'm trying. Is the third time really a charm? Allow me to make a disclaimer up front; guaranteed, I'll have some upsets - like Ice Cream! and maybe some PIZZA! To give you an idea of what's in the book, here’s a short blurb from the book. I chose this one because I too for many, many years would say to my hubby, “but I can’t get my calcium if I don’t eat CHEESE and dairy.”

The Best food for bones: Fruits and Vegetables
Green vegetables, beans, tofu, sesame seeds, and even oranges contain lots of usable calcium, without the problems associated with dairy. Keep in mind that you retain the calcium better and just do not needs as much when you don’t consume a diet heavy in animal products and sodium, sugar, and caffeine. Many green vegetables have calcium-absorption rates of over 50 percent, compared with about 32 percent for milk. Additionally, since animal protein induces calcium excretion in the urine, the calcium retention from vegetables in higher. All green vegetables are high in calcium. The American “chicken and pasta” diet style is significantly low in calcium, so adding dairy as a calcium source to this mineral-poor diet makes superficial sense – it is certainly better than no calcium in the diet. However, much more than just calcium is missing. The only reason cow’s milk is considered such an important source of calcium is that the American diet is centered on animal foods, refined grains, and sugar, all of which are devoid of calcium. Any healthy diet containing a reasonable amount of unrefined plant foods will have sufficient calcium without milk. Fruits and vegetables strengthen bones. Researchers have found that those who eat the most fruits and vegetables have denser bones. These researchers concluded that not only are fruits and vegetables rich in potassium, magnesium, calcium and other nutrients essential for bone health, but, because they are alkaline, not acid-producing, they do not induce urinary calcium loss. Green vegetables in particular have a powerful effect on reducing hip fractures, for they are rich not only in calcium but in other nutrients such as vitamin K, which is crucial for bone health.

How are the Winter Vege's Coming Along?

My first try at growing winter crops is turning out pretty darn good. Mother Nature has really, really been kind to my kids and blessing them with a plethora of moisture; so much so I haven't had to water these seedlings in over a week. It's a very rare mid-summer when you don't have to water seeds. The only problem I had was with the Swiss Chard -- something was chewing them off as quick as they sprouted. Everything else sprouted beautifully and is coming along beautifully: Collard greens, asian mustard, chinese cabbage, thai lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, radicchio, endive, chicory, red beets, and broccoli. I think I'll stick some turnips in the ground yet and that will be it. Turnip greens are very high in calcium. I was also going to do dandelion and radishes but may not -- just not sure with all the greens I already have growing. The picture below that looks like a big empty space next to the corn? That would the spot where the green beans were that now have baby broccoli growing.

Thank God for the Organic Movement

It's quite impressive how the organic folks come out of the closet and woodwork in numbers when issues arise that could affect the momentum they've been building over the years. About a week ago, I saw a news blurb on Medical News Today about a UK study that proved there's no nutritional difference between organic and conventional food. I thought, "HUH?!?!" They are SO wrong! That's one of the entire POINTS of organic food -- it IS more nutritional. I figured it was just a crackpot article and study and no one would pay much attention. I especially noted it was bogus when I saw this sentence:

They did not examine the content of contaminants or chemical residues.

Well, it turns out RODALE and the Organic Center BOTH disputed this article wrote the researchers. There were holes all over the article and the study. The study looked at 13 nutrients which in the organic folks opinion, wasn't near enough and didn't include antioxidants which are huge in organic food. The study also did not release everything they found -- only the parts they felt showed similar comparisons, thus there's no difference. Ahhh... working with data...all it takes is a smart person to use the parts they want to use and they can say "here's the proof!" but they don't tell you everything in the data. It's all based on who you're working for and what message you want to get out. So here is the Organic Center's response. And here is Rodale's response. The Organic Center really goes into great detail and even did their own study of the same data and found huge differences. Very interesting read if you have the time (yes, it's long).