WHY ORGANICS
I invite you to watch this short video as a young girl demonstrates the effects of chemicals in our food and you will understand why organic food is good for you! Well wouldn't you know it. A great video showing the growth stages of a sweet potato treated with chemicals vs organic is no longer available...
Being Swedish my self, I found a replacement video showing the difference between eating 'regular' food and 'organic' food....I have to warn you that the participants are talking in Swedish, but there are sub-titles. This may not be the most perfect example, but it is interesting. I will keep looking! Great! Youtube got rid of that video also...nothing better than censorship. Better yet just google "organic food" and look at all of the misinformation that is out there. Most of which are 'taste' tests that be falsified. Even better grow your own "organic" food in your backyard.
Once again YOUTUBE has seen fit to pull videos that demonstrate the toxicity of the food we eat.
Being Swedish my self, I found a replacement video showing the difference between eating 'regular' food and 'organic' food....I have to warn you that the participants are talking in Swedish, but there are sub-titles. This may not be the most perfect example, but it is interesting. I will keep looking! Great! Youtube got rid of that video also...nothing better than censorship. Better yet just google "organic food" and look at all of the misinformation that is out there. Most of which are 'taste' tests that be falsified. Even better grow your own "organic" food in your backyard.
Once again YOUTUBE has seen fit to pull videos that demonstrate the toxicity of the food we eat.
IN the pictures above you see great fields of Corn and Soy! What's wrong with this picture? They are bad for you! These crops are being sprayed with more pesticides than any other crop, and 80% of all products will contain one or both of these products. Don't believe me? Look at the labels on the cans on the shelves of your local store. Another reason is that these same products are feed to cattle at the feed lots to put on more weight before their are turned into that lovely steak on your dinner plate. Don't get me wrong, I am not a vegetarian. In fact I love all kinds of meat now "IF" they are organic in nature. That means grass feed beef and free range chicken.
In order to prevent diseases and kill pests that devour these crops scientists have genetically modified the DNA of these plants to accept more pesticides. This results in larger and larger yields per acre. But there was a side effect scientists either did not know, anticipate or acknowledge that the pests and diseases would become more resistant to the pesticides. This in turn required farmers to use more pesticides to kill the stronger, more resistant pests. In fact the use of pesticides has more than doubled in the last ten years. Now how much of those pesticides do you think get into our foods supply? The answer is a lot more than we want in our food.
Organic foods have 94% fewer health risks than other foods at the store.
In order to prevent diseases and kill pests that devour these crops scientists have genetically modified the DNA of these plants to accept more pesticides. This results in larger and larger yields per acre. But there was a side effect scientists either did not know, anticipate or acknowledge that the pests and diseases would become more resistant to the pesticides. This in turn required farmers to use more pesticides to kill the stronger, more resistant pests. In fact the use of pesticides has more than doubled in the last ten years. Now how much of those pesticides do you think get into our foods supply? The answer is a lot more than we want in our food.
Organic foods have 94% fewer health risks than other foods at the store.
GROW YOUR OWN ORGANIC FOOD
The good news is that you can grow your food organically yourself or buy it at the store.
I have a small back yard that I have been working on since July. That was when the doctor released me to return to work. I couldn't move very well because the pinched nerve had affected my balance and walking capabilities. So just a little bit of work, 10 - 15 minutes a day is all I could do at first before the pain became unbearable. Nevertheless, I kept working on the transformation by planting some tomatoes, zucchini, regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. We harvested the tomatoes almost on a daily basis. Then in September I harvested just a few of the sweet potatoes seen in the third picture. That harvest was about one third of that group of sweet potatoes. There are three more groups just like that else where in the garden. If you decide to plant a sprouted sweet potato just remember that the sweet potato plants sends out lots of runners that take up a lot of room as evidenced by all the green leaves in the second picture surrounding the zucchini plant leaves. Make sure you give them lots of room to grow. I put my first two starters in a 18 inch pile of sandy dirt and two more in a ten inch high bin.
On December 2nd I cleaned out the garden of all the plants just before a hard freeze came to our area. I'll use this time to redesign the garden
I have a small back yard that I have been working on since July. That was when the doctor released me to return to work. I couldn't move very well because the pinched nerve had affected my balance and walking capabilities. So just a little bit of work, 10 - 15 minutes a day is all I could do at first before the pain became unbearable. Nevertheless, I kept working on the transformation by planting some tomatoes, zucchini, regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. We harvested the tomatoes almost on a daily basis. Then in September I harvested just a few of the sweet potatoes seen in the third picture. That harvest was about one third of that group of sweet potatoes. There are three more groups just like that else where in the garden. If you decide to plant a sprouted sweet potato just remember that the sweet potato plants sends out lots of runners that take up a lot of room as evidenced by all the green leaves in the second picture surrounding the zucchini plant leaves. Make sure you give them lots of room to grow. I put my first two starters in a 18 inch pile of sandy dirt and two more in a ten inch high bin.
On December 2nd I cleaned out the garden of all the plants just before a hard freeze came to our area. I'll use this time to redesign the garden
SO HOW DO YOU KNOW IT IS ORGANIC AT THE STORE?
Every piece of produce has a PLU number. If it starts with 3 or 4 then that produce has been exposed to pesticides or herbicides. If the first number is an "8" then the produce is (GMO). If the produce starts with a "9", that is the code for ORGANIC FOOD.
Every piece of produce has a PLU number. If it starts with 3 or 4 then that produce has been exposed to pesticides or herbicides. If the first number is an "8" then the produce is (GMO). If the produce starts with a "9", that is the code for ORGANIC FOOD.
GROWING METHODS
For the last few months I've been looking into different methods of growing my own healthy organic foods. You can google any of these to get great information;
UPDATE 12/19/2013
Everything has been harvested and I've decide not to plant a winter crop. Instead I'm going to build more bins using the Mittleider method of growing organic food. I really need to get ready for spring panting.
UPDATE 2014 - We sold our home in Sacramento California and are actively looking for a new place to call home in Idaho...
UPDATE 4/2015 - We are now living in southeast Idaho. Gardening will be more difficult because the growing season is only 4 months long compared to the 8 to 9 months in California. So now I start all over...LOL.
- Mittleider
- HugelKultur
- Organic farming
UPDATE 12/19/2013
Everything has been harvested and I've decide not to plant a winter crop. Instead I'm going to build more bins using the Mittleider method of growing organic food. I really need to get ready for spring panting.
UPDATE 2014 - We sold our home in Sacramento California and are actively looking for a new place to call home in Idaho...
UPDATE 4/2015 - We are now living in southeast Idaho. Gardening will be more difficult because the growing season is only 4 months long compared to the 8 to 9 months in California. So now I start all over...LOL.
This is what it should look like in a couple years as the slow transformation takes place. In a recent youtube video I watched, one person put a compost bin inside the green house to provide heat as the debris decomposes. So I thought why not... Hoping that it will extend the growing season a month or two.
6/2016 The garden is coming along slowly.
10/2016 Now that the garden is almost done for 2016 I am going to tear it apart and install the first of three green houses to more closely resemble the image above.
3/2017 well not only did I tear out the old garden I bought a green house to try and get an early start. Well, that didn't go so well. 50-60 mph winds took out several panels even though I had the green house securely tied down. It basically shook apart. By the end of 2017 I had to add cross ties, left side of roof ridge to right anchor bolt eye 2 feet in the ground. Same with right to left on both sides of the green house.
6/2018 Finished one bin for my "organic" potatoes. Basically a bin 2'x2'x6'. I've been away from home for a month and the weed have totally taken over the garden except for the bin...starting over.
8/2018 Part of the garden is tilled and weeded by hand! No pesticides or herbicides used, just muscles. Second bin built and filling it with clean dirt and mulch from my year old mulch bin... this one is for a fall crop. Haven't decided what yet. We are also looking at getting a couple huckleberry vines along with some blackberry vines. Yum!
12/1/19
I put a small greenhouse in the corner and gave up on the idea after two years. The green house kept coming apart when the high winds of SE Idaho got 45+ MPH. Right now it is not being used at all, and I plan on removing the green house in the spring. So don't buy a greenhouse from Amazon, your just wasting your money. Just get some friends together and build a wooden structure that you can find on PINTREST
I have a potted blueberry vine and a raspberry vines waiting for spring to get planted. Right now they are in the basement greenhouse. In 2020 I will be planting a couple of honey crisp apple trees near the eastern fence near my neighbors honey crisp tree.
Lots of ideas and not much money is slowing down my progress.
10/2016 Now that the garden is almost done for 2016 I am going to tear it apart and install the first of three green houses to more closely resemble the image above.
3/2017 well not only did I tear out the old garden I bought a green house to try and get an early start. Well, that didn't go so well. 50-60 mph winds took out several panels even though I had the green house securely tied down. It basically shook apart. By the end of 2017 I had to add cross ties, left side of roof ridge to right anchor bolt eye 2 feet in the ground. Same with right to left on both sides of the green house.
6/2018 Finished one bin for my "organic" potatoes. Basically a bin 2'x2'x6'. I've been away from home for a month and the weed have totally taken over the garden except for the bin...starting over.
8/2018 Part of the garden is tilled and weeded by hand! No pesticides or herbicides used, just muscles. Second bin built and filling it with clean dirt and mulch from my year old mulch bin... this one is for a fall crop. Haven't decided what yet. We are also looking at getting a couple huckleberry vines along with some blackberry vines. Yum!
12/1/19
I put a small greenhouse in the corner and gave up on the idea after two years. The green house kept coming apart when the high winds of SE Idaho got 45+ MPH. Right now it is not being used at all, and I plan on removing the green house in the spring. So don't buy a greenhouse from Amazon, your just wasting your money. Just get some friends together and build a wooden structure that you can find on PINTREST
I have a potted blueberry vine and a raspberry vines waiting for spring to get planted. Right now they are in the basement greenhouse. In 2020 I will be planting a couple of honey crisp apple trees near the eastern fence near my neighbors honey crisp tree.
Lots of ideas and not much money is slowing down my progress.