10 Kitchen Gardens to Visit Before You Die

I'll be away for a few days (medical), so some of the info from this post on Kitchen Gardens' blog might be interesting in the interim.

This one interested me the most, perhaps because I have been to Cuba, and had Cuban friends long before Castro took over and Miami/South Florida took in thousands of refugees.

Havana's Organopónicos (Havana, Cuba)

Then these:

Forest Farm and Four Season Farm (Harborside, Maine)
The old walled gardens of Helen and Scott Nearing (Forest Farm), and the newer gardens of Eliot Coleman who learned from the Nearings.
 

Monticello (Charlottesville, Virginia)

Kibera Sack Gardens (Nairobi, Kenya)

Amalfi Coast MountainsideGardens (Amalfi Coast, Italy)

Dandelions: 2 years BAD, then 4 years GOOD

Dandelion Photo by bob_jenkins

The first 2 years I lived on this property, I had the typical suburbanite attitude that dandelions in the lawn are BAD. I must have dug up a zillion over the first 2 years here.

Then I started to learn a bit about Permaculture, where dandelions are revered because they have several important functions. First, they are dynamic accumulators, meaning their deep taproot brings nutrients up from deep in the soil, especially calcium, making it available for more shallow-rooted plants like tomatoes.

Secondly, the dandelion leaves that emerge early in spring are quite tasty as a salad, full of Vitamins A, C and B's (esp. B6), and a variety of minerals. Later in summer the greens can be bitter, but if you eliminate the central stem, the leafy parts are still pretty mild. The flowers are also edible but the base of the petals tends to be bitter. The flowers make a wonderful and colorful garnish or added to a salad!

Thirdly, the roots can be washed, dried, and ground for a nutritious beverage. It really is NOT a coffee substitute, but still healthy and nutritious.

Fourth: Bees LOVE dandelions, so they feed the bees... and we all know our honeybees are at risk.

Have you appreciated your dandelions today? Have you actually tried a dandelion salad??

I Cooked a Rabbit!

New Zealand White Rabbit, photo courtesy of laugh45

For a couple of years I have considered raising meat chickens, ducks, or rabbits for a protein food supply. I don't have enough flatish land for larger livestock like a cow or a pig. Rabbits, of course, require the smallest amount of space so they are high on the list.

However, I hadn't any recollection of ever eating rabbit, although I'm fairly sure I must have when I was a young kid. Finding a domestic rabbit and cooking it to check the list became important, and finally I found frozen rabbit about 3 weeks ago in a grocery store in a nearby town.

This was a VERY small rabbit, just a tad under 1.5 pounds, whereas an average young fryer dresses out at 3 pounds or more. Still, I thought it would be enough meat to give it a try, and not much wasted expense in the event I didn't like the taste.

Top of the photo are the belly pieces and the rib cage, which went into the freezer for stock later. Lower on the photo are the skinny forelegs, fatter back legs, and the backbone cut into 2 pieces.

First, I needed to cut up the rabbit, and found several photo tutorials online. There is very little meat anywhere but the hind legs, although I cooked the backbone section and the front legs as well. I'm sure a larger sized rabbit would have more meat on the backbone and front quarters. The "belly" was very thin, and it went into a freezer bag with the rib cage to make stock when I have enough bones, using a mix of rabbit and chicken.

I'm told rabbit fat is as un-palatable as venison fat, so it got trimmed away. (There wasn't much of it anyway.) Most of the outer silverskin had already been trimmed before it was frozen, but after my disjointing there was still a little more to trim.

It actually does taste a lot like chicken, although I thought it had a bit more flavor than commercial chicken. I fried it without any seasoning except salt and pepper so that any added herbs or spices wouldn't mask the rabbit flavor. I just dipped it in milk and rolled it in flour with a little salt and pepper.

My neighbor / friend Buster used to raise meat rabbits and I'm sure he will offer advice and help when I'm ready. If I decide to try raising rabbits, it will only be on a small scale. Timing depends on my health over the next few months, and whether I can stomach the butchering process. (I think I can, but I have to do it to be sure.)

Forensic Nutritionist?

I always thought Forensics were just used to solve crimes, but several years ago I met a man who called himself a "Forensic accountant" (the study and interpretation of accounting evidence). 

Now on television, I see Forensic anthropologists (the application of physical anthropology in a legal setting, usually for the recovery and identification of skeletonized human remains), and on the History 2 channel I see Forensic botany (the study of plant life in order to gain information), Forensic geology (deals with trace evidence in the form of soils, minerals and petroleum). There's also Forensic archaeology and Forensic seismology. They all seem to be searching for the Truth about something.

So, I looked up the word.  It comes from the Latin forēnsis, meaning "of or before the forum." The two given meanings are:

1. Relating to, used in, or appropriate for courts of law or for public discussion or argumentation.
2. Of, relating to, or used in debate or argument.

Based on those descriptions, I think I could easily give myself the title of Forensic Nutritionist©, since I'm always seeking the truth about our foods vs. the fake foods manufactured and advertised as food... and this blog is certainly my Forum.

Since I'm now napping a lot during my slow recovery, I'm reading Taste, Memory... Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter by David Buchanan. His descriptions of some of the lost foods he has hunted down and now has growing in his gardens make my mouth water, and I want to search of the similar foods that were widely grown 200 years ago in my region. His are not merely heirlooms, but 90% or more are lost heirloom foods that have taken a lot of time to track down. All are open-pollinated and many have regional growing requirements.

In the book, David Buchanan asked John Barker (the Maine apple guy, founder of Fedco Trees) why he thinks we have abandoned so many old foods. John answered that in his opinion, "we have forgotten how to think and act independently. We follow the rules, find jobs, settle down, and turn agricultural production over to others.

"Food today is a tradable commodity, and as such it must adapt to the market, which demands consistency and discourages variety. It's no accident we find limited selections in our grocery stores."  

That, however, does not mean we cannot track down and grow a few tasty old-timers in a small corner of our home garden or patio. We can be sure they aren't GMO, and they might have taste far surpassing our current homegrown heirlooms. The Ark of Taste is a good starting place, as are organizations like Seed Savers Exchange who put out a yearbook of over 20,000 listings of available but endangered seed, offered by members worldwide (seeds not commercially available nor ever listed online).

Meanwhile, Monsanto is searching out lost and almost forgotten foods in foreign places like South America, Russia and the Middle East, and getting patents on them.

Eat Carbon Credits or Carbon-based Foods?

We all have read or heard about Carbon Credits, and other Environmental Credits accruing to Big Business... but I don't really understand all the logic in them. If an industrial plant produces too many greenhouse gases, it seems they can simply buy carbon credits from someone doing a better job for the environment, and continue polluting. I think partly it's just another shell game in financial manipulation, because it surely hasn't improved the air quality, ozone layer, global warming and greenhouse gases that I can see. 

There's a lot of talk encouraging us all to reduce our "carbon footprint" (and some of us do) but somehow I don't think we will run out of carbon based fuels (wood, oil, coal and natural gas) before mankind makes it almost impossible to grow anything edible on this lovely blue planet. Human beings are carbon-based, and our foods are carbon-based. How does buying and selling carbon credits help us grow more and healthier foods and live a healthier life?

On the other hand, burying small bits of carbon (natural charcoal, NOT charcoal briquettes) in my garden certainly improves the health of the soil, and lately I see many more earthworms and other visible organisms. (I can't see the gazillion others without a microscope.) I'm also beginning to see more and healthier production in the very earliest beds I amended with biochar 5 years ago, and I finally feel like I'm getting to be a better steward. Bits of carbon in the soil sequester carbon dioxide, which plants need to grow and produce fruit, grain or flowers. Sometime back, I wrote a piece on Biochar for DavesGarden.com. Reading it will give you some background if biochar is unfamiliar to you.

Our nearby land grant university got a grant of several million dollars to build a pyrolysis unit to burn factory (CAFO) chicken house waste into biochar about 3-4 years ago. The problem for me is that the biochar they made was such fine powder that most of it blew away during the demonstration I saw, long before it could be incorporated into the topsoil (even on a day with very little breeze). Plus, it was dirty and nasty to breathe that black dust while it was being applied.

I have a wood burning stove as my back-up emergency heat, although I seldom need it much. The small bits of charred wood left among the ashes are filtered out later and scattered across my garden. (I break them up with a hammer if they are larger than a walnut, but it's dirty work.) Since I don't till anymore, I cover the bits with a thick layer of compost and within a year or two it all becomes part of the soil, loose and fertile. Eventually that soil will be many inches deep, rather than the scant layer of topsoil that hasn't washed into the creek over many, many years! I don't walk on much of my garden, so it's not compacted other than on the paths.

Stocking the Pantry

I've kept a somewhat decently stocked pantry for many years, at first because I grew up in hurricane country, and now because I live miles from any grocery stores. Actually, I live more than 2 hours from stores that carry anything more than minimal fare. So I have come to rely on my 2 freezers for any abundance from my garden, and for grass-fed meats in quantity when available and less expensive.

However, relying on freezers is always iffy. A friend just 200 miles away lost the contents of a huge chest freezer during an 8 day power outage due to a fierce summer storm. I've been fortunate that the only extended power outage I've had here happened in a freezing winter, and I lost nothing from the freezers. But I can't count on always being that lucky. If an extended power outage happened in warm weather, I'm not sure I could make a wood fire (and keep it going for days) to cook everything in my freezers before the contents spoiled. Sure couldn't use the electric stove to cook during a power outage!

To remedy reliance on my freezers, I'm going through them and beginning to can some of the meats I have stored in them. My mother always canned beef, pork and chicken, although they froze the trout they raised because it tasted more like fresh-caught when thawed and broiled later on.

Here's a little bit of the pork shoulder I canned. The liquid is from the pork itself. The venison I canned 2 days ago was already on the pantry shelves before I thought to take any photos.

Lard and Tallow, hot and just out of the canner

Lard and Tallow, after cooling. Jar on the far right is chicken schmaltz, don't know why it didn't solidify.

I'm also rendering and canning all the pork and beef fat, salt pork, bacon, and sausage patties. Rendered pork lard and beef tallow don't really need to be canned if you store it in a cool, dark place, but the heat of this summer has shown me I need to do something else. It keeps better anyway if canned, to keep out the oxygen that causes it to turn rancid.

Canned salt pork chunks. The 2 jars on the left are trotters.

More canned salt pork. The small jars have cured and smoked salt pork with some herbs added. They will be great in a mess of greens or beans.

I already have a small pantry of home canned fruits and veggies, chicken stock, jellies and such, but not much in the way of protein, so the canned meats will be a bonus insurance policy. I know beans are a decent source of protein, but my body doesn't digest then very well, so I look to meat and eggs for protein. I've canned a few soups and stews with bits of chicken or beef, but not a lot. As a treat, I always can any bits of meat left on the bones as pet food when I make stock.

I'll have a separate post on canning bacon. YUM!

The War on Front Yards

Can you believe this gorgeous vegetable garden in Quebec is illegal? The owners have until July 24th to dismantle it or face legal action.

Something is very wrong in the world when crappy foods and hunger abound, and yet this kind of thing is allowed to happen.

Source

Plantain 'Vitamin' Tonic

Photo from The Naturopathic Doctor

Plantain grows like crazy all over my yard and especially in the gravel driveway, so it is a good thing it turns out to be edible! It makes a nice addition to salads, but I'm also using some to make a natural vitamin tonic (tincture) for winter use when I don't get many fresh green vegetables.

Plantain leaves are rich in Vitamins C and K, plus beta-carotene which the body converts to Vitamin A, and it is also rich in amino acids, calcium and potassium. Use the leaves in a salad, or steamed and used as a spinach substitute. The leaves do get tough quickly, so make sure to harvest only the youngest leaves. The immature flower stalks may be eaten raw or cooked, and some folks use the seeds ground for flour.

By the way, I'm referring to the green weed named plantain (Plantago major), NOT the Caribbean banana that must be cooked to eat.

The first 'vitamin tincture/tonic' I made was a chickweed multi-vitamin and mineral tincture, and this one from plantain is the second. It's an easy process and I'll probably make others as I discover more vitamin and mineral properties among my edible weeds. Plantain may not be my first choice in a vitamin tonic since there are others that contain more vitamins, but it's good to have on hand in an emergency situation.

Photo of Plantain with flower/seed stalks from Clemson.edu

You should pick plantain leaves just before the flower/seed stalks emerge (mature stalks shown above) as that's when they are most potent... unless you want a bitter tonic or salad. Best time to pick the leaves is early mornings when they are fresh with dew. Hasten to process them ASAP as the vitamins flee rapidly once picked.

To make a tincture requires only a base liquid, and the herbs or whatever you want to incorporate. Generally an alcohol like vodka, rum or Everclear is the liquid of choice, but I'm going to use raw apple cider vinegar for some added nutritional properties. (Actually I'm out of Braggs ACV, so I used regular apple cider vinegar for this batch.)

I was out of Bragg's ACV, and so was my local store, but at least the Heinz ACV is made from apples, not chemicals, and it's somewhat better than just cheap vinegar with apple flavor added.

To make the tincture: thoroughly clean and rinse the leaves as soon as possible after harvesting. (Vitamin loss starts immediately from any harvested fruit, vegetable or herb.) You can use a salad spinner to spin off most of the water.

Chop the plant leaves, enough to partially fill a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Fully cover the leaves with either the alcoholic beverage, or my choice: apple cider vinegar. Tighten the lid securely (I'm using the plastic Ball storage lids because the acid content of the vinegar will eat through regular canning lids in a short time.) Store the jar(s) in a cool, dark place for at least 2 weeks, shaking often. After 2 weeks, strain the infusion into clean jars, re-label and store... again in a cool, dark place.

I take a spoonful or two of raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) every morning anyway, so it is easy instead to substitute some ACV infused with extra vitamins and minerals as a healthy tonic.

Plantain has other uses, too. The best known is probably as a poultice for skin abrasions, and relieving the itch of poison ivy, stings and bites. You can make the poultice by boiling a few leaves in water, let steep a few minutes, strain and soak a cloth in the brew to apply to the skin. In a pinch you can just crush a few leaves by hand and apply directly to the affected area.

You make a similar brew with a liquid vegetable oil and let it sit in the sun for a few days; be sure to strain before use. It makes a great emollient to soften and soothe the skin! (Also works great on a sunburn.) Please be aware that oils that have had greens and/or vegetables soaking in them are a great place for botulism to thrive, so mark these oils "For External Use" only and do not be tempted to use them internally! Tinctures made with an alcohol or vinegar base are safe, as they prevent the nasty botulism bacteria from growing in them.

It's Time for some Stone Soup

Photo by halseike

Stone Soup is an old folk story in which hungry strangers (or sometimes told as weary soldiers returning home) persuade local people of a town to share food. It is usually the story of when three soldiers come across a town looking for a meal and a place to sleep. The town doesn’t have much and hides their food, and tell the soldiers tales of why they have no food and no extra beds. The soldiers say they will make Stone Soup to eat if they could just borrow a pot and ladle.The villagers provide them and the soldiers put in three large stones and start cooking... and so the story goes on...

I think it's high time we made some Stone Soup in our neighborhoods, don't you? How about a computer-printed invitation to all those neighbors you may not know, with the story printed on the invitation?

STONE SOUP, An Old Tale Retold
Text by Marcia Brown
Three soldiers trudged down a road in a strange country. They were on their way home from the wars. Besides being tired, they were hungry. In fact, they had eaten nothing for two days.

"How I would like a good dinner tonight,” said the first. “And a bed to sleep in,” said the second.
“But all that is impossible,” said the third. “We must march on.”
On they marched. Suddenly, ahead of them they saw the lights of a village.
“Maybe we’ll find a bite to eat there,” said the first.
“And a loft to sleep in,” said the second.
“No harm in asking,” said the third.
Now the peasants of that place feared strangers. When they heard that three soldiers were coming down the road, they talked among themselves.

---

“Here come three soldiers. Soldiers are always hungry. But we have little enough for ourselves.” And they hurried to hide their food. They pushed the sacks of barley under the hay in the lofts. They lowered buckets of milk down the wells.
They spread old quilts over the carrot bins. They hid their cabbages and potatoes under the beds. They hung their meat in the cellars.
They hid all they had to eat. Then – they waited.

---

The soldiers stopped first at the house of Paul and Francoise. “Good evening to you,” they said. “Could you spare a bit of food for three hungry soldiers?”
“We have had no food for ourselves for three days,” said Paul. Francoise made a sad face. “It has been a poor harvest.”
The three soldiers went on the house of Albert and Louise.
“Could you spare a bit of food? And have you some corner where we could sleep for the night?”
“Oh no,” said Albert. “We gave all we could spare to soldiers who came before you.”
“Our beds are full,” said Louise.

---

At Vincent and Marie’s the answer was the same.  It had been a poor harvest and all the grain must be kept for seed. So it went all through the village. Not a peasant had any food to give away. They all had good reasons. One family had use the grain for feed. Another had an old sick father to care for. All had too many mouths to fill.

---

The villagers stood in the street and sighed. The looked as hungry as they could. The three soldiers talked together.
Then the first soldier called out, “Good people!” The peasants drew near.
“We are three hungry soldiers in a strange land. We have asked you for food and you have no food. Well then, we’ll have to make stone soup.”
The peasants stared.
Stone soup? That would be something to know about.

---

“First, we’ll need a large iron pot,” the soldiers said. The peasants brought the largest pot they could find. How else to cook enough?
“That's none too large,” said the soldiers. “But it will do. And now, water to fill it and a fire to heat it.”

---

It took many buckets of water to fill the pot. A fire was built on the village square and the pot was set to boil. “And now,  if you please, three round, smooth stones.”
Those were easy enough to find.
The peasants’ eyes grew round as they watched the soldiers drop the stones into the pot.

---

“Any soup needs salt and pepper,” said the soldiers, as they began to stir. Children ran to fetch salt and pepper.
“Stones like these generally make good soup. But oh, if there were carrots, it would be much better.”
“Why, I think I have a carrot or two,” said Francoise, and off she ran.
She came back with her apron fill of carrots from the bin beneath the red quilt.

---

“A good stone soup should have cabbage,” said the soldiers as they sliced the carrots into the pot. “But no use asking for what you don't have.” “I think I could find a cabbage somewhere,” said Marie and she hurried home. Back she came with three cabbages from the cupboard under the bed.

---

“If we only had a bit of beef and a few potatoes, this soup would be good enough for a rich man's table” The peasants thought that over. They remembered their potatoes and the sides of beef hanging in the cellars. They ran to fetch them.
A rich man's soup – and all from a few stones. It seemed like magic!

---

“Ah,” sighed the soldiers as they stirred in the beef and potatoes, “if we only had a little barley and a cup of milk! This would would be fit for the king himself. Indeed he asked for just such a soup when last he dined with us.” The peasants looked at each other. The soldiers had entertained the king! Well!
“But – no use asking for what you don’t have,” the soldiers sighed.
The peasants brought their barley from the lofts, they brought their milk from the wells. The soldiers stirred the barley and milk into the steaming broth while the peasants stared.

---

At last the soup was ready. “All of you shall taste,” the soldiers said. “But first a table must be set.”
Great tables were placed in the square. And all around were lighted torches.
Such a soup! How good it smelled! Truly fit for a king.
But then the peasants asked themselves, “Would not such a soup require bread – and a roast – and cider?” Soon a banquet was spread and everyone sat down to eat.
Never had there been such a feast. Never had the peasants tasted such soup. And fancy, made from stones!

---

They ate and drank and ate and drank. And after that they danced. They danced and sang far into the night.

---

At last they were tired. Then the three soldiers asked, “Is there not a loft where we could sleep?”  
“Let three such wise and splendid gentlemen sleep in a loft? Indeed! They must have the best beds in the village.”

---

So the first soldier slept in the priest’s house.  
The second soldier slept in the baker’s house.
And the third soldier slept in the mayor’s house.

---

In the morning, the whole village gathered in the square to give them a send-off. “Many thanks for what you have taught us,” the peasants said to the soldiers. “We shall never go hungry, now that we know how to make soup from stones.”

---

“Oh, it’s all in knowing how,” said the soldiers, and off they went down the road.
 Source 
 
- "Stone Soup" by Marcia Brown, Atheneum Books, (c) 1975 by Marcia Brown 

Tipping Points in Food Wars, and Choice

I often wonder if there will be a point where public outcry against GMO's will tip the balance in our favor. Surely that should have happened by now because 93% of Americans are said to be in favor of GMO labeling, but maybe that "tipping point" is only measured by the ballot box? If that's the sole indicator, we are in trouble because authenticated reports of electronic manipulation/fraud of cast ballots are all over the internet, and there is no way to know if the pronounced results of any counted ballots is truly real or not.

Right now, the fate of GMO labeling in the US rests largely in the hands of voters in California, IF they can get GMO labeling on the November ballot... and IF we can believe the ballot counts. California is the 8th largest economy in the world, and the 5th largest supplier of food in the world.

Ballot initiatives are simple in theory, but obscenely expensive in practice because they often rely heavily on television. Companies like Monsanto clearly have the dollars to spend on lobbying against the initiative. A 2004 GMO-labeling ballot initiative attempt in Oregon failed when supporters put up only $100,000 compared to the $5.5 million that came form a group calling themselves “Coalition Against the Costly Labeling Law” which included Monsanto, DuPont, Croplife, and Conagra, to name a few.

 

Then there’s the question of if or when Right to Know legislation passes, whether it’ll be held up in court when Big Ag lawyers drag it there... which is probable. Their argument will likely be that food labeling belongs in the federal domain and should not be a state issue. And of course, we know who's money is most influential in the federal domain.

For the average consumer like me, that leaves only a few safe food choices: grow my own from certified (and possibly even organic) non-GMO seed; buy grass-fed meat from local farmer's who also use only safe seed to grow their produce; and do NOT buy any processed foods or foods requiring any label at all, because surely GMO's are hiding there in chemical terms. 

Although I do not buy into the mania of many of the Survivalist's groups about hording foods, I do think it is prudent to have provisions against possible disasters from storms, drought, etc. However, since President Obama signed the new Executive Order "National Defense Resources Preparedness" on March 16, 2012, I'm having second thoughts about what edibles I grow in my garden, since my gardens are up for grabs under the new E.O. I am also a little concerned by the E.O. because by it, only Obama can decide what constitutes a "state of emergency". 

My personal "state of emergency" is now the gasoline prices hitting $4 a gallon plus most foods from the grocery store being harmful to my health. I wonder what the President really considers a "state of emergency"?

This year in my garden, I am leaning strongly towards including a lot of edible weeds and other foodstuffs that most would not recognize as edible, yet will nourish me. Are they gonna come and dig up my dandelions? LOL

 

Are You (Unintentionally) Supporting Monsanto??

Are you unintentionally supporting Monsanto? It's that time of year to buy garden seeds, and I was surprised to find out the names of some of the seed companies that Monsanto owns, and for whom Monsanto packages seed. Granted, these may not be GMO seeds (yet) but I hate putting a single penny in Monsanto's pocket. 

I was surprised to see the now very popular onion, "Candy" is a Monsanto-owned seed as is the popular cherry tomato, Sweet Million. I was also surprised to read that Jung Seed, R.H. Shumway, Vermont Bean Seed and Totally Tomatoes are among the Monsanto-owned seed companies.

Several years ago, Monsanto bought Seminis (a seed company that has 40% of the US seed market), and more recently bought De Ruiter Seeds (one of the top vegetable breeders in the world). Monsanto is now in the vegetable seed business for the first time, and it's in big time. More than 55 percent of store bought lettuce, 75 percent of U.S. tomatoes, and 85 percent of peppers now originate through Monsanto's fingers. (Source) Our salad plate is now being dished out by Monsanto!

Although Monsanto has yet to release many genetically modified vegetables into the market, they spend almost 2 million dollars a day on research and development, so GM vegetables are probably not very far away. (Monsanto currently holds the technology for more than 90 percent of the world’s genetically engineered crops, and they also hold thousands of U.S. seed patents without mentioning their alleged theft of heirloom seeds world-wide.) If you see PVP (Plant Variety Protection) listed after a seed or plant name, that means the seed or plant carries a U.S. patent, and Monsanto could own it. Some are listed below... check with the seed companies for others.
 

It's best to remember that Monsanto sells seeds in huge quantities to distributors (even if not Monsanto-owned), who in turn break down the huge bulk units and resell smaller bulk units to seed companies who package them in small seed packs, often with a different 'name' for the same vegetable. So, you may be supporting Monsanto just by purchasing repackaged seeds from "Aunt Sally's Seed Company" (a fictitious seed company used here only for illustration!). Some companies who have signed the Safe Seed Pledge (which only says they are not GMO seeds) may be selling Monsanto seed. The best bet is buying OP (open pollinated), heirloom and/or organic seeds. If you are in doubt about a particular seed, ask the company selling it!

For an alternative way to shop for seed, visit the non-profit Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) Organic Seeds Database which lists certified "final handlers" for organic seed. List is by produce. Pick a vegetable and find a seller. Also, Here's a list by region of safe-seed companies, and notes about each company.

Listed below are some Monsanto-owned seed companies, and then a list of some Monsanto-owned seed varieties by name. If you buy from ANY of these companies, or buy any of the varieties listed, you are putting money in Monsanto's pockets. Monsanto says this on their website: "Monsanto offers the world’s vegetable growers more than 4,000 distinct seed varieties representing more than 20 species. Monsanto’s vegetable seed business serves open-field and protected culture customers through its brands: Seminis, De Ruiter Seeds and regional brands."

Here are some of the brand names that Monsanto owns and 'packages' their seeds as:

American Seeds

Asgrow

Campbell

DeKalb

De Ruiter

Diener Seeds

Fielder's Choice

Fontanelle

Gold Country Seed

Hawkeye

Heartland

Heritage Seeds

Holdens

HPS Seed

Hubner Seed

icorn

Jung Seed

Kruger Seeds

Lewis Hybrids

Peotec

Poloni

Rea Hybrids

R.H. Shumway

Seeds of the World

Seminis

Seymour's Selected Seeds

Specialty

Stewart

Stone Seed

Totally Tomatoes

Trelay

Vermont Bean Seed Company

Western Seeds

(Source) 

Here are a few of the variety names owned by Monsanto (there were links where one could click on a type for more of any variety name, but the Seminis website Administor has blocked the links).
Edit: I discovered you can go to this page and find the variety names of many of the Seminis seeds; I have not found a similar site for De Ruiter seeds.

Beans: Brio, Eureka, EZ Gold, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Xera...
 

Broccoli: Captain, Heritage, Liberty, Packman, more...
 

Carrot: Nutri-Red, Sweet Sunshine, Karina, Chantenay hybrids, Chantilly, Lariat
 

Cauliflower: Cheddar, Fremont, Minuteman, more...
 

Cucumber : Babylon, Dasher II, Daytona, Homemade Pickles, Speedway, Sweet Slice, Yellow Submarine, Sweeter Yet...link to De Ruiter cucumber list...
 

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Dancer, Fairy Tale, Gretel, Hansel, Tango, Twilight...De Ruiter Eggplants...
 

Lettuce: Baby Star, Blackjack, Esmeralda, Lolla Rossa, Monet, Red Butterworth, Red Sails, Red Tide, Summer time...

Melons: Alaska, Bush Whopper, Casablanca, Dixie Jumbo, Early Crisp, Stars and Stripes, Sugarnut, more...

Okra: Cajun Delight

Onion: Arsenal, Candy, Hamlet, Mars, Red Zeppelin, Superstar, many more...

Peppers: Aristotle, Biscayne, Camelot, Caribbean Red, Cherry Bomb, Dulce, Early Sunsation, Fat and Sassy, King Arthur, Northstar, Red Knight, Serrano del Sol, Sahuaro, Super Chili, Valencia, many more including De Ruiter pepper varities...

Pumpkin: Buckskin Pumpkin, Orange Smoothie, Prizewinner, more...

Spinach: Bolero, Cypress, Melody, Unipack 151, many more...

Squash: Autumn Delight, Blackjack, Bush Delicata, Butterstick, Daisy, Early Butternut, Fancycrook, Gold Rush, Latino, Lolita, Patty Green Tint, Really Big Butternut, Seneca (all), Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Table Ace...

Tomato: Baby Girl, Big Beef, Beefmaster, Beaufort, Celebrity, Favorita, First Lady I and II, Early Girl, Geronimo, Golden Girl, Maxifort, Pink Girl, Sunguard, Sun Chief Sweet, Sweet Million, Trust... and more De Ruiter tomato varieties...

Watermelon: Bambino, Crimson Glory, Royal Flush, Royal Star, Stargazer, Starbright, Stars and Stripes, Tiger Baby, Yellow Doll

Many Thanks for the compilation of the above information all in one place to Inspiration Green.

Starting herbs for edible food forests

One of the basic necessities for an edible food forest is drawing in both the pollinators and the beneficial insects that keep the predators under control.  Some folks call these insectary plants. The "friendly insects" include ladybeetles, bees, ground beetles, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps. Other animals that are frequently considered beneficial include lizards, spiders, toads, and hummingbirds. 

Beneficial insects are as much as ten times more abundant in the insectary plantings area. Elimination of scale insects double with insectary plantings. Additionally, a diversity of insectary plants can increase the population of beneficial insects so much that these levels can be sustained even when the insectary plants are removed or die off.

Many members of the Apiaceae (formerly known as Umbelliferae) family are excellent insectary plants. Fennel, angelica, coriander, dill, and wild carrot all provide in great number the tiny flowers required by parasitic wasps. Various clovers, yarrow, and rue also attract parasitic and predatory insects. 

Low-growing herb plants, such as thyme, rosemary and mints provide shelter for ground beetles and other beneficial insects. Composite flowers like daisy, chamomile and mints will attract predatory wasps, hoverflies, and robber flies. The wasps will catch caterpillars and grubs to feed their young, while the predatory and parasitic flies attack many kinds of insects, including leafhoppers and caterpillars.

I have many of these insectary plants (which are now big enough to be divided this year) already in my garden, but as I expand my planting areas, I need more plants I don't already have for both the new and old areas. So, I started seeds of some herbs. Not all are insectary plants, but if not, they will still attract pollinators so it's a win-win.

New herb starts include:

garlic chives

fenugreek

green shisho (perilla), which is also edible

Mrs. Burn's lemon basil

borage

summer savory

sweet marjoram

sweet basil (old seeds, not expecting anything much to germinate)

An Italian basil a friend sent 3-4 years ago, (old seeds, not expecting anything much to germinate)

lemon bee balm

catnip
wormwood 
tall purslane
anise

I have a flat of bulbing Florence fennel I started a month ago, and last fall it looked like my dill had reseeded everywhere. The yarrow has grown enough since last spring to divide several times, as has the mint and anise hyssop.

I have chamomile seeds to start, and plenty of 2-3 varieties of shasta daisy's to divide for new guilds. My recent trip to Edible Landscaping brought me a couple of trees that can be an anchor in new guilds, but mostly I bought some fruiting vines and shrubs I wanted. I have great hopes for the fruit tree cuttings I have in mini-greenhouses but I'm not holding my breath since I'm new at rooting cuttings.

It's an adventure, for sure!

More edible food forest garden additions

Ramp shoots to re-plant

Last week I received a package of 3 dozen cultivated Ramps to plant, which means now I need to research and plan a shady mountainside garden that will enhance growing the ramps, and still include most of the basic tenets of a food forest garden. I think that will be a real challenge!

I have written before about ramps here. They are an interesting plant, but border on being endangered in the wild by over-harvesting. Ramps are an Appalachian delicacy!

"A wild leek, this onion relative with a garlicky flavor may have anticancer properties, with edible leaves and roots. Found in the rich woods of upper elevations, it's eaten raw or fried with eggs or just make plain old ramp sandwiches. The plants grow about a foot tall and, when eaten, a strong odor emanates from the skin of the ramps gourmand. Scientific Name for Wild Ramp (Allium tricoccum Aiton) better known as a wild leek, some other common names: rich woods leek, ail des bois, ail sauvage." Source 

Ramp Festivals are everywhere in the Appalachians in spring, as both a social and a culinary event. Visit one if you can, just do a Google Search. This webpage lists some of the Festivals, and several recipes.

I'm thinking my shady hillside garden for the ramps should include some ginseng, and goldenseal tubers (and maybe some mushroom logs), but at the moment I'm at a loss for what else to include.

Any suggestions? Maybe a Paw-Paw?

My Passive Solar Nautilus House

It has been a struggle for me to post the pictures of the floor plan and the model I'm constructing of my Nautilus House. Generally, anytime I (or anyone) mention something different than the accepted mainstream beliefs, we end up being ridiculed and thought totally weird. The concept for this house came to me from Spirit, in a meditation about 10 years ago.

The shape of this house is based ion a Fibonacci Spiral, or Phi:The Golden Number/Golden Mean/Golden Ratio.

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Putting that aside, there are still many, many questions still to answer in fine-tuning in the plans for this house. The changing pitch of the roof in each section will be a real challenge to build. The "public space" of kitchen, dining and living room are planned to be one large open space, with probably a kitchen counter/bar as a visual separation. Then there are the things not definable, like the energy contained within the Fibonacci spiral shape.

There are a number of things I see built into this house. First off, it is basically Passive Solar, with the long exterior window-wall of the living room facing south. I envision radiant hot water pipes in a well-insulated concrete slab floor, now that hot water heat with long flexible lengths of piping to prevent leaks at junctions is possible, and affordable.

Some sustainable considerations include: a greywater system, composting toilet, earth cooling tubes, rocket mass heater, solar chimney, solar heated water, possible passive solar greenhouse attached, sustainable forestry adjacent to the site, and a sheet-mulched, no-dig permaculture / edible food forest garden.

I envision this as a long term project that includes other eco-buildings, food forest gardens, aquaculture ponds, coppicing and possible timber production depending on the site, a classroom for courses and workshops, orchard, cider making facility, wild food, wildlife refuge and maybe even part a future small sustainable community.

This house is only 1 bedroom, with slightly under 900 square feet of living space, but could be built to include one more turn of the "nautilus shell" so there are 2 bedrooms. Alternatively, there could be a loft bedroom above the private spaces (laundry/pantry, bath, and bedroom) without increasing the footprint. I didn't even consider a 2 bedroom mock-up since there is so much interest today in smaller houses, rather than McMansions.

I looked into several different types of exterior construction... from straw-bale, earthbag, and cob to a cast-in-place sculptural form like Flying Concrete. In the end I decided the transition to a passive solar non-conventional shape would be more readily accepted by using conventional stick-building techniques. The large vaulted, open (public) space with exposed wood beams supporting a wood tongue and groove ceiling would be striking, with a strong feel of "mountain getaway cabin".

I am hoping to interest some university (or perhaps private) schools with sustainable and/or alternative energy departments into considering this house as a hands-on teaching project.

Watercress, and Cream of Watercress Soup

Photos taken in February; they are much more green and lush now, but my camera is having problems!.

I have an abundance of edible watercress growing in my spring's shallow overflow pond. The overflow culvert has carried more watercress down to the creek where it also flourishes in the shallow edges, but I'm not inclined to pick watercress to eat from there because I don't know what pollutants are in the creek. I probably don't want to know!

Watercress is a prolific "weed", but mustard cress, shepherd’s purse and wild turnip are also prolific, easily collected, and more valuable than appreciated. Watercress is a good source of all the major plant nutrients and most of the minor ones, but its chief value is as a source of phosphorus.

My old-timer neighbor has pointed out a tiny crustacean living in my overflow pond, saying they will not live in polluted water so it's an indication the water is pure... and that many years ago the creek itself was once chock-full of them. I should ask him the name and write it down before I forget again (and/or he dies). Maybe even take a photo for posterity. We are losing so much common knowledge that earlier generations held!

At any rate, I have no qualms about eating watercress from the overflow pond. I just hate putting on my waterproof boots and getting in there to harvest some because the pond is so doggone cold, summer or winter... even though it's less than a foot deep! (I ended up standing on the culvert pipe and pulling in the watercress with a rake.)

Have you ever made cream of watercress soup (Potage Cressonniere)? I have only made it once before, many years before I moved here, because watercress isn't available much in many grocery stores. (Fresh watercress is delicate and does not keep well.) But I have to say the soup was outstanding!

My recipe is from my much-used (and abused!) New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne (1961, although mine is a reprint I bought in the early 1970's before more than 40% of the recipes were altered or replaced).

Cream of Watercress Soup

1/4 cup butter

1 clove garlic, minced

2 cups chopped onions

1 quart thin-sliced potatoes

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup water

1 bunch watercress

1-1/2 cups milk

1-1/2 cups water

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup light cream

Heat the butter in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and onions and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes, seasonings and 3/4 cup of water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or until the potatoes are almost tender.

Cut the watercress stems into 1/8 inch lengths. Coarsely chop the leaves.

Add the watercress stems and half the leaves to the potato mixture, along with the milk and water. Cook 15 minutes. Purée in a blender or press through a food mill. Return to the saucepan and reheat.

Blend together the egg yolks and cream. Gradually stir this mixture into the soup and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened. Garnish with a few watercress leaves, and serve immediately.

This recipe above is quite different than the one by Julia Child, but since I have never made hers, I cannot compare them. Julia uses leeks rather than onions, no egg yolks, milk or light cream, but does use some heavy (whipping) cream. I suspect I'd like it as well!

Update: I did ask my neighbor about the tiny snails... they are fresh water periwinkles! Also, I did make the soup too, but my camera is on the fritz so no photos. Sorry.