Maybe it’s not something everyone would admit to, but I read this blog from time to time and find it very interesting.  With as many as 5-10 posts per day, many of them very long, I certainly don’t keep up with them all.  I do however come across some real gems from time to time, like this recent one entitled Newt Gingrich Gets It Wrong.

Okay, I’m biased.  In general I like Obama and the direction he’s trying to go in.  I’m also no fan of Newt Gingrich.  More than anything however, I think this is just a very well written piece and the White House really understands the concept of a blog and what to use it for.

A blog is really a personal expression of who you are and what you want to say.  When you read someone else’s blog, you really gain a very personal insight into who they are and what they’re thinking.  Of course Obama doesn’t write any of the posts himself, but instead has people close to him who are experts write for him, and it really offers an insight into the White House that’s never existed before.  You can see exatly what’s got their attention and what they are working on at the moment, in near real time.

One of the most valuable things about a blog is the lack of rules.  For example, I’ve been criticized in the past for identifying foods you should not eat or eat less of, in particular meat and other processed foods.  This of course violates the idea you should only promote healthy foods, like the 5 servings of fruit and vegetables we are all supposed to care about.  I’ve been criticized for not being a good journalist or scientist.  Of course I’ve said many things that have upset people in general.

The truth of course is that I don’t represent the interests of the food industry, and I’m not writing as a journalist or scientist.  Therefore, I’m simply not bound by the corresponding rules, and you end up seeing a more personal side of me than you might otherwise.  Having said this, I do put some effort into not intentionally saying things that aren’t true, and don’t intentionally upset people just for the sake of doing it.

When President Obama makes a speech, or the White House gives a press conference, there are rules and protocols that go with this.  Beyond that, it’s up to the various TV networks and news publications to further filter and condense what was said.  Something like the post I linked to above about Newt Gingrich would never survive this sort of condensing and processing, and the average person is unlikely to ever get that message.

The White House blog is not bound by the rules of traditional media.  I really like that I can go there directly, see the information they want me to see, presented in the way they want me to see it.  I think it reflects well on the Obama administration that they can do this so effectively.  I think this kind of communication is changing Democracy the way we know it.

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Besides being a fellow blogger and heirloom gardener, Emma Cooper is a good friend of mine and very like minded.  I’m delighted she’s written this book, something I think makes a very important contribution to promoting environmentally friendly and sustainable living.

This book is a very personal account of things she’s done in her garden and home over the last several years, including building a geodesic dome shaped greenhouse, raising chickens as well as heirloom and alternative gardening.

As an alternative to a how-to book, Emma has written an A-Z account of the most important things she’s done.  Everything from Achocha to Zucchini.  She tells you what worked, and what didn’t.  If there are tips and tricks to be had, she spells these out.  She lets you know what she’s still doing, and things she doesn’t have time for any more.

If you’re experienced in alternative living and gardening, this book probably isn’t for you.  At the same time if you are just beginning or only a year or two into things, this is a great book to get ideas from.

While her experiences are based on a wet UK climate, much of what she writes about applies to everyone, regardless of where in the world you live.

To get an idea of the kind of person she is, have a look at her blog and listen to some of her podcasts.

Also important are Permanent Publications where you can purchase this book online if you live in the UK, and the associated Sustainability Centre.  Most people outside the UK can purchase this book online from Amazon.

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Have a look at How to save tomato seeds.

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There are even prizes for people who leave comments!

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As well as buying certified organic products, another good way of choosing your supermarket produce is according to what usually has high levels of pesticides.  For example, if you know bell peppers (in particular from Spain) are normally high in pesticides it might be a good idea to look for organic bell peppers.  On the other hand, there may not be a lot of point looking for organic cabbage, because this doesn’t normally have a lot of pesticide residue anyway.

[begin translation]

Fruit and Vegetable Guide

Don’t take a risk!

As consumers we consume chemical pesticides residues every day.  WWJE found 14 different residues in a box of strawberries.  Is this bad?

It’s certainly something to be concerned about.  Scientific studies show even small amounts of these chemicals can still be bad for our health.  Combinations of pesticides are also a special risk.

Children?  Pregnant?  Don’t take a risk!  Eat sufficient quantities of fruits and vegetables, this is important for your health.  In particular for born or unborn children, choose food you know is safe.  Growing children who are exposed to too many agricultural poisons can have learning and attention problems, as well as neurological and developmental problems.  Therefore, don’t take a risk and always buy clean fruits and vegetables.

How do I buy fruits and vegetables without chemical residues?

Fruits and vegetables are delicious and healthy, especially if they contain little or no agricultural chemical residues.  Unfortunately you can’t see these chemicals.  How do you know if produce is clean?  This Fruit and Vegetable Guide will give advice for this.  Take it with you in your wallet or purse!

1.  Choose Organic -  [the guide then gives some information about what the EKO (Europen Certified Organic) means and how to find stores that sell certified produce in the Netherlands]

2.  Choose the right Supermarket – [The guide then gives some advice on which supermarkets sell produce with the lowest pesticide residues in the Netherlands, according to WWJE tests].  The green stripe is the number of products tested that didn’t have any residues.  The red are the products that did contain residues.  The red circle with the slash were the number of products where the residues were above legal standards, and the skull and crossbones shows levels that represented health risks.

3.  Choose Dutch produce – The Duch food authorities tested produce in 2007 and found 2% contained residues above legal levels.  For other countries in and outside of the EU on average this was 10%.  In particular produce from Turkey, Italy and Spain were regularly seriously contaminated.  In addition, since combinations of pesticides can pose a special risk, it should be noted that products from Turkey contained on average 4 different chemicals, while Dutch products contained on average 1.3 different chemicals.  Our advice:  buy Dutch products.

4.  Choose clean products.  Research by the Dutch food authority has shown that some types of fruits and vegetables are normally clean, while others are normally contaminated with residues.  In the table you can see which are the cleanest and dirtiest.  It should be noted that in general vegetables are cleaner than fruits.  For children and pregnant women our advice is:  choose the cleanest types.  If you want to eat mandarines or grapes, buy organic!

Fruit

Cleanest

• Kiwi
• Passion Fruit
• Plums
• Bananas
• Papaya

Dirtiest

• Grapes
• Mandarines
• Lemons
• Strawberries
• Oranges

Vegetables

Cleanest

• Green Cabbage
• Red Cabbage
• Asparagus
• Cauliflower
• Onions

Dirtiest

• Cucumber
• Bell Peppers (especially from Spain!)
• Leaf Lettuce
• Iceburg Lettuce
• Endive

The law does not offer enough protection.  Unfortunately what is legal and what is safe are not the same thing.  It happens often that foods are legal, but according to international norms are unhealthy.  WWJE therefore holds supermarkets to stricter rules, as long as the laws are not sufficient.  A number of supermarkets in Germany have adopted their own stricter standards than what the law requires.

[It then goes on to explain their ongoing campaign in the Netherlands, and gives websites to look for more information]

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The text of the resolution is a little tedious, but quite an extraordinary read!  I hope anyone who reads this blog and is a regular consumer of aspartame will read it and give some serious thought to what they’re doing to their bodies.

No less extraordinary is the list of cosponsors of the measure:

• Angus McKelvey: Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs (Chair)
• Maile Shimabukuoro: Hawaiian Affairs (Vice-Chair)
• Karen Awana: Transportation (Vice-Chair)
• Della Au Belatti, J.D.: Member Health, Judiciary
• Tom Brower: Human Services (Vice-Chair)
• Jerry Chang: Higher Education (Chair)
• Corrine Ching: Member, Environmental Protection, Higher Education
• Denny Coffman: Energy & Environmental Protection (Vice-Chair)
• Cindy Evans: Member, Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs
• Faye Hanohano: Public Safety (Chair)
• Sharon Har: Interim Task Force on Smart Growth (Chair)
• Ken Ito: Water, Land, & Ocean Resources (Chair)
• Michael Y. Magaoay: Member, Interim Task Force on Standards of Conduct
• Joey Manahan: Tourism, Culture, & International Affairs (Chair)
• Hermina Morita: Energy & Environmental Protection (Chair)
• Mark Nakashima: Higher Education (Vice-Chair)
• Scott Nishimoto: Health (Vice-Chair)
• Roland Sagum III: Member, Finance
• Roy Takumi: Education (Chair)
• Glenn Wakai Consumer Protection & Commerce (Vice-Chair)
• Ryan Yamane: Health (Chair)

Details of the measure and it’s current status can be found on the Hawaiian Legislature webpage (type HCR128 into the search box), and there is an RSS feed if you want to follow the progress of this measure.

First the measure has to clear the Health Commitee, and will then be referred to the Finance Committee.

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Tom Turner emailed me to let me know about potential plans for recreating what’s probably one of the worlds oldest gardens.  He made a post about it here.

James also recently emailed me to tell me about his blog, ambitiously named All about Gardening Techniques.  He has a number of recent posts that I think are very interesting, and I don’t remember seeing recently on garden blogs, for example propagation by layering and cuttings.

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I asked him for some things a little while ago, and he suggested maybe I could trade him something in return.  After a brief discussion, it was clear the most interesting things I had in my garden had come from him via other people anyway, so I had nothing to offer.  He’s done an amazing job of spreading his plants around.  If you ever have the priviledge of visiting him you’ll find walking through his garden an eye opening experience.

If you live in northern or central Europe and you’re growing something a little obscure, the chance are very good it’s from his garden.  Many of his plants have even made it to North America by now.

Until now when I’ve posted about something from him, all I could do was say it came from my friend Frank in Belgium.  Now he has his own website, with pictures and descriptions of many things he’s growing, so I can link to him!  For some of his plants he has seeds and tubers available.  Send him an email if you’re interested.

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You can be sure any company that sells seeds from Monsanto will be bound by such an agreement, as it’s a well publicized tactic of Monsanto to hire private investigators to track down and sue, or even just threaten to sue, farmers and others who Monsanto suspects are using their seeds in violation of these agreements.

Remember too this is the company that prevented the retail labelling of dairy products containing their rGBH hormone, and their GMO products.

Do you think Monsanto wants their garden seeds labelled for what they are?!

So how do you know what seed companies can be trusted to sell you seeds that don’t come from the agricultural giants?  In the case of Monsanto, most of their garden seeds in North America are sold through a subsidiary called Seminis.  The Seminis web page has a useful list of seed companies that retail their seeds:

http://us.seminis.com/products/hg_dealer.asp  (sorry no link, cut and paste into your browser)

As of the time of making this post the list included the following (with some very familiar names!):

Burpee, W Atlee
Warminster, PA 18974

Dege Garden Center
St Paul, MN 55119

E & R Seed Co.
Monroe, IN 46772

Earl May Seed
Shenandoah, IA 51603

Garden Trends
Rochester, NY 14624

Gardens Alive
Lawrenceberg, IN 47025

Germania Seed Co.
Chicago, IL 60631

Johnnys Selected Seeds
Winslow, ME 04901

J.W. Jung Seed Co.
Randolph, WI 53956

Lindenberg Seeds
Brandon, Manitoba

Mountain Valley Seed
Salt Lake City, UT 84115

Nichols Garden Nursery
Albany, OR 97321

Park Seed
Greenwood, SC 29647

Rocky Mountain Seed Co.
Denver, CO 80229

T & T Seeds, Ltd.
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Tomato Growers Supply
Fort Myers, FL 33902

Willhite Seed Co.
Poolville, TX 76487

When you buy garden seeds, and you want to save and regrow them, it’s very important to buy them from somewhere that doesn’t sell any F1s at all, because otherwise they won’t be honestly labelled for what they are!

Likewise, if you want to buy garden seeds that don’t come from the large seed companies like Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, etc., it’s very important to buy your seeds from some place that doesn’t sell any seeds from these companies, because they won’t honestly label them for what they are!

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Her new team blog at the Guardian newspaper can be found here, and her introduction of it together with hint of her future plans can be found here.

I hope everyone will join me in wishing her the best of luck, and don’t forget to follow along.

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In their words:

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organisation which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people’s control over genetic resources and local knowledge.

Since in many cases there’s a fine line between farming and gardening, and many of the issues addressed by GRAIN are relavent for home heirloom gardeners too.  It might be worth having a look at the latest issue of their magazine Seedling if you haven’t seen it before.

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From the perspective of a small farm in Nova Scotia[updated], Canada Anne writes about things important to her and what she does including poems about the Svalbard seed vault, posts seed saving in general, dangers of nanotechnology and GMOs.  She has really nice pictures and videos to go along with her posts.

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Like I said, it’s probably not the place to ask beginning gardening questions, but anyone is welcome.  You might find some discussions on interesting plant varieties, and a number of people are offering seeds to share.  You might make a friend or two, who knows…

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