A Look at June

In 2 weeks, my sign is almost overtaken by the tomatoes! Check the small green mater lower right.

These photos were all taken June 15 at the community garden---the big box with heirloom tomatoes above, you can still see the tops of the cages but they're growing so fast.

I needed one more tub for my fave, Yellow Crookneck Squash, and got this for $5 at Home Depot, it's around 20 gal. and took a full 2 cu. ft. bag o dirt. Yellow Crookneck is an heirloom squash--if you pick em small, you can keep up with them. Plus the male flowers are dee-lish too.

At the other end of the box, more tubs---on left, tomato with pole beans at the back so they can climb up onto that arbor which now has peas, and they've been feeding me for weeks. On the right, another heirloom tomato with cucumber at the back to climb up the arbor eventually or hang down. That's another potato in between.

The front of the big box, with more tubs of potatoes (black) and tomatoes (green), looks pretty wild!

Vandana Shiva on the Future of Food & Seed

To me, seed is sacred. Vandana Shiva says, "Seed by its own nature creates abundance." She's one of my heroes. Watch this video and see why for yourself, and why she says "to save seed for the future is our highest ecological duty on earth".

She spoke in Portland at the Organicology Conference last February. Thanks to Tilth and the other wonderful organic companies and nonprofits who organized this gathering.

Web Video of the Week: A Silent Forest (full movie) - The Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees

Web Video of the Week: A Silent Forest (full movie) - The Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees

Like we didn't have enough to deal with already, we need to pay attention to this: Open nature is the testing ground and we are the guinea pigs. This is an award-winning documentary starring respected geneticist, David Suzuki. They're discussing the facts around "Frankentrees": Sterile trees (that means no pollen, no fruits, no seeds) that are also pesticides themselves (that means whatever feeds on the leaves etc. gets sick and dies), and are resistant to herbicides (or Roundup Ready as Monsanto calls it). Sound scary? It is. I was prompted to act in this way when I heard on NPR's show Marketplace, that Monsanto, as a sponsor, is now claiming to be a leader in Sustainable Agriculture! PLEASE! They fine farmers for saving their own seeds, and sue farmers for 'theft of intellectual property' if any of their 'patented' canola pollen (for example, Percy Schmeiser in Canada) is found on said organic farmers' land. They are now the largest seed monopoly in the world.
Vandana Shiva explains Monsanto's patented illogic and doublespeak in this video with eloquent detail.

Shared via AddThis

Biotech vs. Organic: Who Wins?

This post is taken from www.change.org
and Natasha Chart's blog in the Sustainable Food section, a 3-part series on "The World according to Monsanto"

"From the Center for Food Safety:

Washington D.C., February 11, 2009 - A new report released today by the Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth International warned that genetically modified (GM) crops are benefiting biotech food giants instead of the world's hungry population, which is projected to increase to 1.2 billion by the year 2025 due to the global food crisis.

The report explains how biotech firms like Monsanto are exploiting the dramatic rise in world grain prices that are responsible for the global food crisis by sharply increasing the prices of GM seeds and chemicals they sell to farmers, even as hundreds of millions go hungry.

The findings of the report support a comprehensive United Nationsí assessment of world agriculture ñ the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) - which in 2008 concluded that GM crops have little potential to alleviate poverty and hunger in the world. IAASTD experts recommended instead low-cost, low-input agroecological farming methods.

... "GM seeds and the pesticides used with them are much too expensive for Africaís small farmers. Those who promote this technology in developing countries are completely out of touch with reality," he added.

"U.S. farmers are facing dramatic increases in the price of GM seeds and the chemicals used with them," said Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the US-based Center for Food Safety and co-author of the report. "Farmers in any developing country that welcomes Monsanto and other biotech companies can expect the same fate - sharply rising seed and pesticide costs, and a radical decline in the availability of conventional seeds," he added.

GM seeds cost from two to over four times as much as conventional, non-GM seeds, and the price disparity is increasing. From 80% to over 90% of the soybean, corn and cotton seeds planted in the U.S. are GM varieties. Thanks to GM trait fee increases, average U.S. seed prices for these crops have risen by over 50% in just the past two to three years. ...

The world's poor can't afford this. They need low cost solutions that have a chance at profitability even when the fertilizer budget runs low."

The Marley Coffee Company Open for Business

The Marley Coffee Company is now officially open for business. Started by Rohan Marley, one of Bob Marley's sons, it is the first sustainable, ethically-farmed, organic and ital Blue Mountain Coffee Company in the world. Watch this great video for the inspiring story: "One Cup of Coffee": The Marley Farm Story.
If you drink coffee, or you need a nice gift for someone who does, please consider supporting this company and buy some coffee. It's even very reasonably priced, $15.00 for 12 ounces. Compare that with the non-organic and foreign owned Blue Mountain coffee and it's a great price. Choose from these blends: Lively Up!, Mystic Morning, Jammin Java, Simmer Down, and One Love. Each sale supports the community at the Marley Farm, and their educational projects with children at the Soccer Academy (created by the Marley Coffee Foundation), and Chepstowe Basic School in the area.

Growing the Menu

You can use 'successive planting' to create lots of food and happy plants. Successive planting: think a constant supply of fresh greens, scallions and herbs and a long harvest of things like beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cukes. If you keep replanting the greens and do a couple smaller plantings of beans and peas, and then plant a couple different varieties of the others, you can "extend your harvest". Above, you can see from before, the bright green lettuce is almost gone. As I take those out, I put in peppers and more baby lettuces.

Above, that beefy little tomato shares some space with those red beets on the right. I figure it'll be a while till the tomato needs that much room. And the beets are something you can eat small, medium, large, early, midseason and late.

Here a tomato shares the pot with some cukes; they'll be trained up the back of the pot and onto the pea trellis, and the tomato has its own cage.

On the left side, 2 lacy Mizuna greens with a pepper plant fill in after lettuce was harvested. The mizuna will be done by the time the pepper gets big. I can eat any leaves that get in the way! And a couple potatoes on the right. I can pull those when the pepper needs the space.

Successive: The pole beans are just coming up to follow those peas on the fence. I tucked them in here and there where the peas were thin.

A happy family of speckled red lettuce, shallots, peas and baby onions. They'll all be maturing at different times, and I can harvest as needed.

Portland, City of Roses

Founded in 1917, Portland’s International Rose Test Garden is the oldest official, continuously operated public rose test garden in the United States. In the beginning, even though World War I was raging in Europe, hybridists sent roses from around the world to Portland’s garden for testing and to keep the new hybrids safe from being destroyed by the bombing in Europe. The primary purpose of the garden is to serve as a testing ground for new rose varieties. Portland's Rose Festival, in its 102nd year, kicked off this weekend and the first roses on my porch are happenin too.

The nose knows when a rose is a rose. To me, roses aren't complete without that powerful damask fragrance, so I choose them accordingly. This red one is Mr. Lincoln and his velvety dark red petals are surpassed only by the classic fragrance---he's a keeper! Drink in that fragrance---in the 'language of flowers', roses mean love.

This one's a climber, Golden Showers, with a fruity rose fragrance and nice form. I like it because it's resistant to black spot and other foliage problems too.

True, it's not a rose, but since it's on the porch blooming right now, this pretty clematis, "Dr. Ruppel", deserves some show time too. Plus, roses and clematis just go together so well.

My prize beauty, "Aloha". A super duper fragrant pink, the fluffy petals are light on top with a darker reverse, AND, as if that weren't enough, she's also an heirloom 'own root' rose, not a hybrid. The bush on my porch came from a cutting I took off the mother plant---that's the beauty of 'own root' roses. The foliage is really healthy, and the form divine, life is good.