February 2007
Newsletter
Compost Tea Hits the Limelight
Brix as a measurement of food quality
Children’s Health and Food Quality
Jeb Thurow of Healthy Trees & Garden Service
Gordon’s FREE (mostly) Classes
The Yelm Food Co-op has a new home
Compost Tea Hits the Limelight
If we could sum up our experience at this year’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle, it would be that this year there is an intense interest in compost teas. Specifically, we a talking about actively aerated compost teas or AACT. Here at the farm, we call them Worm Teas, and we have addressed them at length in previous newsletters. We will address them further in future newsletters especially when used in combination with our new Barefoot Soil C-gro.
Teaming With Microbes
We now know that we can team with microbes in our soil to provide a growing medium for all plants that is superior to petrochemicals in disease resistance, drought tolerance, water requirements, productivity, yield, produce shelf life, plant nutrition levels and insect repellency. And this is a only short list of benefits! We do this by cultivating large numbers and diversity of microbes that are the basis of the breakdown of organic residues into usable plant nutrients. In our last newsletter, we listed the first 5 Soil Food Web Gardening Rules mentioned and recommended in Teaming with Microbes, A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lownfels and Wayne Lewis. Here are the next 7:
“
- Aged, brown organic materials support fungi; fresh, green organic materials support bacteria.
- Mulch laid on the surface tends to support fungi; mulch worked into the soil tends to support bacteria.
- If you wet and grind mulch thoroughly, it speeds up bacterial colonization.
- Coarse, dryer mulches support fungal activity.
- Sugars help bacteria multiply and grow; kelp, humic and fulvic acids, and phosphate rock dusts help fungi grow.
- By choosing the compost you begin with and what nutrients you add to it, you can make teas that are heavily fungal, bacterially dominated, or balanced.
- Compost teas are very sensitive to chlorine and preservatives in the brewing water and ingredients.
“
By employing these simple guidelines (and more that will be presented in future newsletters) you can join with the microbe team which is ready and willing to create an ecosystem in your soil which will provide an extraordinary growth medium for anything you want to grow. This team has been playing together for millions of years (they have their playbook down!) cycling dead plants into reusable material. These guidelines allow you to set up your own “factory” of nutrient cycling in your yard and garden to achieve similar spectacular results in a child, pet, wildlife and earth friendly manner.
Brix as a measurement of food quality
Brix is a well known measurement to the wine and fruit industry that measures the fruit’s sugar level. What most don’t know is that it can be a simple and inexpensive measurement of the quality of vegetables also. By quality, I am referring to the nutrient value of vitamins and minerals as well as proteins and carbohydrates contained within the plant. Our current conventional farming practices create low Brix crops and subsequently low nutritive foods.
Customers whom have purchased vegetables from our farm grown our Barefoot Soil Earthworm Castings have noted that they taste better, are sweeter and last longer on their counter or in their fridge than any other vegetables they have seen. In fact, these are characteristics of high Brix value plants. We can also add that these plants come up earlier, are more drought and temperature tolerant and have improved disease resistance and insect repellency.
Leading research is still trying to decipher a formulated practice that consistently produces high Brix, and that research includes a newly identified substance, glomalin, which seems to be responsible for creating soil aggregates and holding nutrients in the soil. It also has to do with fulvic and humic acids created by microbes, not added to the soil as a mineral substance. But the fundamental aspect that creates high Brix is a living soil teeming with microbes. Using Barefoot Soil Earthworm Castings and adding trace minerals and other organic soil nutrients to your living soil is Mother Nature’s formula that we know works.
Some already pay more for high Brix vegetables such as high end restaurants and eateries that depend on superior tasting food to attract and retain customers. In the near future, we will see that produce buyers will pay more because the food stores’ customers demand it. Why? Because of this very simple formula that our society is just beginning to remember again:
Food = medicine = supply of vital nutrients only available through a vegetative source = good health.
Nutri-Con
On the subject of food quality and health, the Organic Consumers Association has started a campaign to expose the hazards and limited effectiveness of synthetic vitamins & supplements, creating marketplace awareness and demand for truly organic, naturally occurring vitamins, botanicals, & supplements. They are promoting a new book, The Vitamin Myth Exposed, by Brian Clement of the Hippocrates Health Institute, and portions of the book will be posted on their website here. In addition, you can read updated new highlights of their campaign there.
If you are taking supplements, you would be well advised to do some research on this subject, because not only could you be wasting your money on ineffective substances, but these synthetic vitamins can actually be toxic to you. The best advice is to get your vitamins from whole high Brix fruits and vegetables. Instead of taking vitamin C in tablet form, for instance, eat the orange that contains the vitamin C, for research has shown that the tablet vitamin C is mildly or ineffective without the combination of bioflavonoids in the orange or orange juice.
Perhaps spending a little money on the book and the time to read and understand it could save a real lot of money in future vitamin purchases and/or health bills!
Children’s Health and Food Quality
Taken from the Earthbound Farm website, here is some information that should inspire all parents to carefully choose what produce they serve to their children and what mothers eat during pregnancy:
• A study conducted by the
Department of Public Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine at
the University of Washington measured pesticide exposure of pre-school children
in Seattle, Washington. Twenty-four-hour urine samples were collected from 18
children with organic diets and 21 children with conventional diets.
The study found that metabolite concentrations
indicating organophosphorus (OP) pesticide exposure were approximately six
times higher for children with conventional diets than for children with
organic diets.
Diet, not environmental exposure, appears to have been
the primary pathway for OP pesticide exposure for the children in this study.
Results suggest that consumption of organic fruits, vegetables, and juices can
reduce children's exposure levels from above to below the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's current guidelines, thereby shifting exposures from a range
of uncertain risk to a range of negligible risk.
Source: "Organophosphorus pesticide exposure of
urban and suburban pre-school children with organic and conventional
diets" Cynthia L. Curl, Richard A. Fenske, and Kai Elgethun, Department of
Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine,
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Can pesticide exposure occur
before birth?
• Almost all
pesticides and other pollutants cross the placenta, the natural protective shield
for the fetus.
• Pesticides and other pollutants have been
detected in amniotic fluid and body tissues of human fetuses even during the
early stages of prenatal life.
• Exposure to pesticides causes many health
problems, including the risk of miscarriage.
• The fetus is particularly susceptible to
impacts of pesticides and other pollutants because:
its cells divide rapidly;
its blood brain barrier is more permeable; and its
detoxification enzymes are not yet developed
Sources:
Nuriminen, T., "Maternal Pesticide Exposure and
Pregnancy Outcome," J Occup Environ Med 37:8, 935-940 (1995).
Jensen, A.A. "Transfer of Chemical Contaminants
in Human Milk." In: Jensen, A.A. and Slorach SA (eds).
Chemical Contaminants in Human Milk. Boca
Raton: CRC Press, pp: 9-19 (1991).
Office of Technology Assessment, (OTA) of the US
Congress, Neurotoxicity: Identifying and Controlling Poisons of the
Nervous System (1990).
Jeb Thurow of Healthy Trees & Garden Service
will be managing our orchard this year. He has pruned the trees, and we will be working with Jeb using worm teas, Barefoot Soil Earthworm Castings, and soil amendments to create vibrant trees and a healthy crop of fruit. Jeb is available to help you with organic solutions to your trees and garden, and you can reach him at 360-894-7789 or at cjthurow@hotmail.com.
Gordon’s FREE (mostly) Classes
Again this Saturday, Gordon’s in downtown Yelm will be holding classes emphasizing organic fruit growing.
Saturday, Febrary 24th at Gordon’s Grange with Kellie Peterson:
10:00 AM – Common Fruit Disease and Organic Prevention & Remedies
11:30 AM – Dwarf Fuits for Small Spaces
1:00 PM – Strawberry Haven! ($9.00 to walk out with a wall pocket, $26.00 for a hanging basket)
Next month, Nadja, Jeb and Kellie will be back on Saturdays addressing more organic growing tips. Call Gordon’s to sign up for any class and find out about upcoming events at 360-458-2481.
The Yelm Food Co-op has a new home
The Yelm Co-op has signed a lease agreement and will be opening a store soon in downtown Yelm across the street from Lemuria in the location of most recently Fine Consign and previously the RSE Book Store location. The YFC is looking for new members and no doubt people whom would like to help with their effort. You can find out more information, sign up for membership and check on the status of their developments at www.yelmcoop.com.
Quick Facts
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HEALTH TIP OF THE WEEK: |
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH: |
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STUDY FINDS THAT
ORGANIC & SUSTAINABLE FARMING INCREASES YIELDS BY 79% OR MORE |
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WHAT COLOR IS YOUR
MEAT? |
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WHAT'S IN YOUR MILK?
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CHILDREN'S PLASTIC
LUNCH BOXES Tip: The lunchboxes to avoid are made of PVC. These are typically the squishy plastic type of "bag" boxes. You can also order a lead lunchbox testing kit from the Center for Environmental Health: http://www.testyourlunchbox.com |
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ENDING BOTTLED WATER ADDICTION WILL SAVE MONEY & ENVIRONMENT BOTTLED WATER ISN'T NECESSARILY CLEANER: According to the San Francisco Chronicle and lawsuits from the Environmental Law Foundation, 40% of bottled water is really just repackaged tap water. Maybe that's a good thing, considering federal standards for tap water are actually higher than those for bottled water. BOTTLED WATER AND OIL: Supplying Americans with plastic water bottles for one year consumes more than 47 million gallons of oil, according to the Container Recycling Institute. That's enough to take 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Add in the additional amount of oil it takes to ship the bottles thousands of miles from extraction source to recipient, and your drink of H2O could be categorized with the "Hummers" of the world. BOTTLED WATER AND BIODEGRADABILITY: Buddha's bones turned to dust a long time ago. But if he had been a bottled water drinker, that plastic would still be laying around. It takes two minutes to drink a bottle of water, but it takes thousands of years for that piece of plastic garbage to go away. SOLUTION: Buy a water filter and a non-plastic water container of your preferred size. Fill it up in the morning before you go to work or school. Do a quick online search, and you can also find affordable portable water filters for when you are traveling. You'll save yourself and the environment a lot of expense. |
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MONSANTO
FINED FOR FALSE ADVERTISING |
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Final Note – A report card!
In a report release last week (Feb. 14th) by the United Nations Children’s Fund that did not seem well publicized in the US, the US ranked 21st of the 22 most economically advanced nations followed only by Britain. The United States was ranked worst for health and safety. The highest ranking for the United States was for education where it was ranked 12th out of the 21 countries. Yahoo article.
14741 Lawrence Lake Rd SE
Yelm, WA 98597
360-894-0707
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