No spekulations on food

Wasting food = wasting resorces!

Dive! The Film - Trailer

Every year in America 96 billion pounds of food is thrown away and wasted. 263 million pounds every day. This amounts to 11 million pounds of food every hour of the day. It is not just an American problem, half of all the food in the world is wasted. But like in many waste issues the US tops everyone.
That is insane, especially if you look at the plight of all the hungry men, women and children in this country and around the world. We could feed all the hungry in this world with the food we waste.
And frankly it is unsustainable because we are just not wasting food, we are wasting precious natural resources, poisoning our environment to grow this food we choose then to throw away.
This definitely is something we could change. We could change this in our lifetime.
We can get the word out that we don't agree with this waste, we can send a message to the grocery stores and tell them that we care about the environment, food waste, and hungry people--and they should too!

Go watch this movie, it will be available July 19 on Netflix

Pardon me! I am gardening

Some probably are wondering, where is this gartenfrau? What is she doing, why no posts for such a long time?
Is she ever going to come back to share with us?

Well the answer is.....yes I will be back, just very limited until the main season is over. It is just that we are having some major projects at our place this year, and if you include making the new garden area, taking care of the existing garden, vegetable garden, taking care of the harvest and .........I just can't find much time for blogging right now.
Also, what kind of gardener would I be, if the blogging would take preference before the gardening.
My priority after all is working my garden, and blogging will never take me away from my garden.

Blogging can wait, but my garden won't.

So pardon me, while I am gardening

here are pictures from my new garden area started last year and how it looks today

 This picture was taken September 2010, when I just got started on the sitting area

This is how it looks today. Isn't it amazing how fast everything grows in a year?

Happy gardening, everyone!

The Agro Rebel - Perma culture in action

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Economics of Happiness - A Plaidoyer for a better, simpler life

It's true, a lot of our time working, is time spent to buy more stuff. Often stuff we don't need. How many clothes and shoes does one need. How often do we really need to replace our TV and other electronics. I once knew people that had to redecorate their house for every season that even  included furniture, curtains. Do we really need all that stuff?                                                                                                                     I grew up with just a few changes of clothes, you know what, I never felt I was missing more clothes. It is not just that we buy and owe money to get more stuff, but to do that we use up a lot of natural resources and we produce a lot of trash. People generally don't buy most of the stuff because they need it, they buy it because they want it. Many would be financially much better off then spending their money on stuff they could do without.
The fact is an economy that is dependent on the population to buy more and more is an unsustainable economy and it will one day crash. As I see it, we are already on a fast decline.
We all need a simpler life, with time to enjoy the pleasures of being!

I am eagerly waiting for this documentary to be screened around where I live. It sounds like a great film

Vegetable gardening with nature-Biodynamic gardening

I have been a bit lazy to write on my blog lately......or actually I have been keeping busy with other things in life. Sometimes I don't know where to find all the time to do all the things I am doing or want to do.

Occasionally the sun has come out and it was dry enough to do some work in the garden. One really has to take advantage of each dry day that comes in spring in the North West.
Since my vegetable garden has not produced as much as I thought it should, I have been doing a lot of reading and researching online how to improve my garden. You might remember the draining issue I am having, water just runs out of my bed into the pathways, watering the weeds and letting my vegetables starve of water and this even I use drip irrigation. It not just makes growing the vegetables very difficult but it's a big waste of a natural resource we don't have enough in this world, that is Water.
I really think the problem is the city growing compost I have been getting. Since we are in the Pacific Northwest we have an abundance of wood waste, the garden soil mix is predominantly made with wood-waste, you can also feel it, when it is new you get tiny, hairline splinters into your skin. I also think it does not hold any water because it is missing good humus and loam. I think this garden-compost is very imbalanced. It shows that you can't just use any crap out there, just because it is there in abundance and make good compost.
So I got a load of good garden loam and I mixed into some of my empty beds a few inches of loam, covered this with 2 inches of my home-made compost, then spread some seed meal all over it and covered it with leaf mulch I can pick up for free at the community gardens.
I hope it will give me a little bit of a better growing season, this year. But I know now I have lot's to do to balance my soil and get it healthy again.

While the weather has been keeping me inside I have been reading a few books about vegetable gardening, trying to learn new tricks to improve my harvest and gardening or actually I am still reading most of them. I got so many I am reading them all at the same time. Most of the books have to do with Intensive gardening, and Companion planting, which are based on the Gardening philosophy of Bio-Dynamic gardening, so I had to get a book about that also. A few have to do with Perma-culture which after reading about the Bio-Dynamic method, I think really is a method build onto the Bio-Dynamic method.

Bio-dynamic gardening is often attributed to the French in the USA but it really was started by Rudolf Steiner who was also the founder of the Waldorf Schools and was Austrian. 

I found this older book that gives a nice introduction to the method 

This gardening philosophy practically is gardening with nature, using a holistic approach. The goal is to make your garden a self-contained, self-sustaining ecosystem. Using what nature offers you, building a community of plants, soil, fungus, wild and domestic animals, climate and water. Where all the elements come together and thrive, because they support each other. It is gardening with nature instead against it. This gardening philosophy understands that everything in the garden-environment is interrelated, that the dynamics, or life forces in nature have to be included in our gardens if we want to heal and sustain the earth, so the earth can feed us into the future.


So you work with nature, plant at specific times following natures planting calendar, what they call Phenomenology - the science of the relations between climatic and periodic biological phenomena, such as migration and birthing of birds and the fruiting of plants. 
You put fertility back into the soil, restoring the micro-life and conditions that encourage the invisible micro-life in it, to balance the interaction of substance and energy in the soil and growing plants. A balanced soil, will grow your vegetables, and will transmit substance (nutrition) and energy as food for us and our animals. The animals will give us manure, the plants compost, which if properly composted will feed again the soil that feed us. Proper crop rotations, cover crops and green manuring will also support the soil health that is another important factor in Bio-dynamic gardening.
Working with nature also means recognizing how important the entire environment of the garden is for a good growing environment , so you restore the most beneficial environmental conditions for your garden for example forest, wind protection, water regulation and realizing that the soil has not just a chemical-mineral organic system, but also a physical structure. The goal is a crumbly, friable, deep, well-aerated structure if you want to have fertile soil so the bio-dynamic method is very specific about the proper cultivation of the soil to avoid structural damage.

This vineyard is growing their wine grapes in the Bio-dynamic way and he made 10 videos explaining the
Top Ten Elements of Biodynamics that explain the method very nicely.
you can watch them all on You Tube

Doesn't this sound like a neat way to garden? Everything is so interconnected out there, I really wonder now how anyone could ever even think growing food any other way........anyway reading all these great books made me really understand how bad the soil I got from my local composting facility is and how imbalanced it made my soil in my garden.

So this is where I am going to have to focus on, on my soil!

Rally for the Right to know

Rally for the Right to Know | The Non-GMO Project

There will be a "Rally for the Right to Know", if  GMO's are used in the food your eating. The "Millions Against Monsanto" rally is a nation-wide event scheduled for Saturday, March 26th., organized by the Organic consumer Association. The Rally is about demanding labeling of GMO's so one can make a conscious decision when buying their food.
The main rally will occur on the White House Sidewalk in Washington DC, with many demonstrations simultaneous across the country. There might be a Rally close to where you are. If you don't know if one is happening close to where you live you can find out on the page I have linked above. You also can find out more at the Facebook page from 'Millions against Monsanto' they have an Events Linked List at their discussion site.
I will be at the Rally in Salem, Oregon and I hope some of my readers will be joining us in telling this White House
"We have a right to know what is in our Food"

In Love with new garden tool

When I first started gardening, way back then in late 1980's it didn't take long before I came across my good old Newspaper Pot Maker. I never liked the Jiffy Pots, I think they kill more vegetables then they grow for you and plastic pots, back then, weren't recycled, also I didn't want to waste our money on buying plastic pots to grow vegetables. So when I came across the Paper Pot Maker it was Love at first site.
What couldn't you love on that thing? It forced you to recycle the newspaper! Back then they didn't even recycle Newspaper where we lived, nope there was no recycle pick up at our town. You could get the best soil mix you could get your hand on, or make your own instead having to rely on whatever they put into those Jiffy pots. Okay, you could do that with plastic pots also, but........no more messed up roots when you transplant, since you plant the whole pot and all. What is not to love!
For a few years I lost my way, I admit, I got lazy, I got plastic pots and filled them with dirt. I tried all the newest growing pots, growing systems trying to find the one that just might be the best growing system ever invented.
I never found it, I think it doesn't exist or maybe I just had it all along. Paper pot!
Nevertheless I think I have to retire my good old paper pot maker.
No, not what you think...no, I didn't fall of the wagon.

It is just simple, I found the best new Tool for growing my vegetables..........A better Paper-pot Maker!

It is much simpler to use then the older model and makes pots about 7.5 x 7cm wide instead 5.5 x 5.5 cm as the old one that are also much more solidly built. I tweaked the instruction a bit because it was easier with less cutting involved and made for even sturdier pots.

start out with a half page of newspaper

                                                  Fold about 2/3 over lengthwise

fold a edge over about 3/4 to 1 inch on the folded edge, with the last third cut in so it is not folded over

 roll the paper pot along the edge, but keep
 the open edge loose

like you see in this picture

This is probably the most tricky part. You grasp the paper at the bottom
and twist it together and push it into the hole at the bottom of the pot

Like that. Now push the paper pot, with the pot maker in it
down on a surface, to seal and flatten the bottom nicely

                                                                                Almost done!

Twist the wooden pot maker out of the paper
and fold the edge that sticks out on top to the inside, that is
what makes the pot sturdier and holding together better then the old.

                         Voila! You just made yourself a paper pot

You can get the Paper pot maker here, it comes in two sizes
http://www.seedandgarden.com/shop/products/NViroPotter-Paper-Pot-Making-Tool.html

Companion planting charts

I have been busy reading over the winter and finding more information about Companion plantings, Inter-planting of vegetables and flowers, and rotations in the vegetable plants.
Companion planting is based on the idea that certain plants can benefit others when planted close to each other so that some cultural benefit like pest control, disease prevention, nutrient support and higher yields, can be utilized by the plants growing together. Knowing what plants can be planted together helps to utilize your beds better, because you can plant denser, the technique comes from the Bio-intensive garden philosophy. It also helps with the succession planting, because you use the space around larger or later plants, planting quick maturing and smaller plants between them. Granted it takes much more planning to do it successfully and to make the planning easier, I came up with the idea of making a chart. Which I will tape into the lid of my seed box to have it always available when planting outside.

There is a lot of information out there in books and the internet but I found many of the charts lacking for my use. Most of them gave you some but not enough information. Some of the information I didn't need. I just don't need to know when I am outside planting, why I plant them together, just give me what I can plant together and what I need to know for the task. Many of the online charts usually just cover the basic vegetables. Many didn't even give you all the kinds of vegetables one could grow together, keeping their information very basic.

For a gardener that goes for the unique and unknown vegetables to add to the common available ones basic just doesn't cut it. I am such an information hog, I just needed more!
So I decided I would learn as much as I could about companion planting and then put what I have learned into a chart, utilizing all the information I found.

 Some of the best information I found in the book I got last year
The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide by Stephen Albert

This book is so full of the basic information to help you grow your garden and covers many more vegetables then most garden books I have come across and the best is it is all in a simple Encyclopedic format.

So here are the charts I made. They are large and I had to break it into 2 files. If you click on the picture it should pop up into a larger file. I probably will keep adding more information to the charts as I learn more about companion plantings of some of the newer vegetables I am getting. I also added some basic fertilizing and bed preparation information but didn't add the herbs and perennial vegetables into the chart, because I have my herbs in a separate herb garden area close to the vegetable garden and the perennial vegetables aren't planted in the raised garden beds in my garden.

Chart number one from Arugula to Eggplant

Chart number two from Endive to Turnips

                                                                      Enjoy!

Americans don't want GMO's but are not involved in food policy

The New York Times did a blog poll (see the articles below) that show 83% of US consumers don't like GMO's in their foods; 89% want to see labeling of such; about 85% would like to see stricter Regulations and nearly 75% would buy less Salmon if the GMO Salmon get's approved.

So why then are GMO in our food, are not labeled and there are no strict regulations over GMO's?

Answer: Because we let them and because the General American Public is so uninvolved in their food politics, they (Monsanto & Co) can get away with it!

If people would just concern themselves with what is happening in the food supply as much they concern themselves with the newest Oscar Movie Winners, the latest Reality Show or the Super Bowl game, we would not be in the situation we find ourselves in.
As it is, the majority of people are not even asking questions how their food is grown, who is behind the food they are eating, who grows it, who makes it, how they grow it, what they put in it?
Who is in Control of our Food supply?
And who gives money to the politicians to influence what happens to our Food?

All the average American knows, the food sits in their grocers shelf, in the vegetable bin or meat counters waiting to be purchased. And because nobody is asking the right questions, and no-one seems to be interested in getting informed about what they shove into their mouths, the News-Media hardly even reports about our food supply, about GMO's.......aside it is about glorifying the low-fat food lobby.
So no-one even ever hears anything aside it is after the fact. After decisions have been made.

Welcome to America, where the control of the food supply is wholly in the hands of a few.

These are exactly not the people we should let control our food supply, because behind them is the large food lobby of food-processors, the soy bean and corn monarchy, CAFO meat corporations (I refuse to call these farmers and ranchers) and the people that give us High Fructose Corn syrup, Transfat and GMO's.

So you want labeled food and no funky stuff in what you eat?
It is not that hard!
You need to ask questions, inform yourself, read, make some noise, tell others what you learn, rouse some feathers, ask your paper to cover these issues! Vote with your dollars and call the right people!
Refuse to eat what they "call food" and spend your dollars where it counts.
Support your local, small organic farmer, the one that let's their animals live a healthy life and doesn't feed them crap. Sure it costs more, so what?
Just eat less meat, eat what is in season - it is cheaper that way, cook at home instead buy processed food or if you have to buy short cut meals make it organic. Grow your own as much you can. If you are not much of a gardener, find a nice spot in your yard and throw some lettuce and arugula seeds out in spring and fall and watch what happens. I bet you will be eating some lettuce and then let it seed out and never replant again.
Plant some berry bushes, a few fruit trees, they are easy food to grow.

Take control of your food!

What more important is there, then what nourishes our bodies?

Here are the articles of the New York Times "Why Aren't GMO Food labeled?"
"GMO Poll Results (and more)" including the blog poll

Path to Freedom - Lost Urban Homestead Hero status!

It came to my knowledge today February 24th 2011, that the Dervaes Family of Path to Freedom website have trademarked the names "Urban Homestead" and "Urban Homesteading" and many other terms, some of which are commonly used by gardeners and like-minded people and now are going after people using these now trademarked terms on their Blogs, Websites, Facebook pages or in company names. Several businesses and organizations with the terms "Urban Homesteading" have received legal notifications, some sites already have been shut down.They even sent a cease and desist letter to the Santa Monica "public library" for running an urban homesteading class. Are these people Nuts?!

I feel very strongly about this, these are terms that have been used for a long time, much longer then the Dervaes Family has been working their land or gardened. These terms do not belong to them any more then others. In googling the term "Urban Homestead" I quickly came across a “Urban Homestead” program for HUD in 1974, a book published in 1975 with exact title, Articles in Mother Earth News from 1976 and 1980 and many more references before that. 
In fact in Europe they traditionally have done Urban homesteading for centuries. The traditional small family farm in Europe is not far out from the communities, no it is smack in the middle of town, with the larger fields around the town in close proximity. What you think most city people in the 1800 and before did? 
Right, they had gardens and chickens, meat rabbits, they grew their own food, they had "Urban Homesteads"!
Most people around the World did Urban Homesteading before the Americans used this term to describe something that has been done for millenniums. It is wrong to trademark something used in common language.....like they invented it. They didn't! It is like trade-marking the word "Farming". 
What kind of "Path to Freedom" is this anyway. 
One where you prevent others to enjoy what you stole from all? 

This is taken from their cease and desist letter:

 "If your use of one of these phrases is not to specifically identify products or services from the Dervaes Institute, then it would be proper to use generic terms to replace the registered trademark you are using. For example, when discussing general homesteading or other people’s projects, they should be referred to using terms such as ‘modern homesteading,’ ‘urban sustainability projects,’ or similar  descriptions."  

So it is "proper" for everyone to mince words, just so nobody risks suggesting they are doing urban homesteading?????                        

What is so special they are doing anyway, nobody else has done before them? Do they use a special kind of gardening, they came up with? No! They say on their website they use the "Squarefoot gardening method", so to them it seems to be perfectly okay for them to use other's ideas. What is so special of using animals to fertilize your soil, the Chinese have done that for a long time. 
I really want to know, what is so different what they are doing? 
What this world needs most is to grow food where most of the people are....in the cities. What they are doing is undermining this effort of others by telling them to cease and desist. They are undermining a movement. Their claims 'to be getting away from corporate control of their subsistence' are laughable if they then enact those practices on ordinary people making the same attempt. They deserve all the bad publicity they get when getting caught with this sleazy behavior.

this is from their website taken from their lame excuse they posted on there

"as the popularity of Urban Homestead and Urban Homesteading increased and began to label everything from television productions to big agriculture products, we couldn't shake the warning bells in our minds. You tell us... who would you rather own the trademarks? Us or a big business corporation?"

My answer is: "No-one, not you, not me, not my neighbor, not a corporation should own these terms as trademarks." 

I am very disappointed by these developments, gardeners stabbing other gardeners in the back. How pitiful! They lost all credibility and support from me and therefore I have decided to remove all references and links pointing to their site from my blog pages. And I hope you'll do the same!

Gardeners are about sharing, sharing knowledge, planting seeds in the next gardener generations. Urban Homesteading is about making the cities a more livable, more sustainable place.
This is against my core beliefs what they have done!

Seed organizer and planner

Every year, once the seeding planning starts, I get to a point where I wished there would be a easier way to do my seed planning, when to plant certain seeds. Since I always try new seed varieties each year because I still try to find the ones that will do best in my new garden climate, I keep adding more and more packs of seeds as time goes on. Now I started even saving many of my own seeds, and anyway there are always so many neat new Heirloom varieties each year who could pass them all on.
Definitely not me.
I have tried all different ways over the years, I made paper charts, then excel planning charts, then I started trying out various garden software. They all work to a certain extend in telling you when to plant, but it always takes to much time to set it up. Another thing that that was missing was that you just can't take that computer out into the garden. Whatever paper you take out into the vegetable garden with you, soon will be smudged by dirt, wet and unreadable or gets lost including the pens you take out with you to write down your notes.
There had to a easier way and I think I came up with a better solution.

                                                           

    A pre-sorted seed pack box.

I actually had been thinking of a seed sorting box for quite a while, but most boxes I found where either too small for my use or had not enough compartments (I had been keeping my vegetable seeds in 3 metal boxes I got at Ikea) then I came across this box when I was looking for sewing notions. It is just perfect for sorting the seeds. It comes with 8 variable compartments and is high enough for most seed packs to fit upright inside. The box also is close-able, so the seeds are protected and keep fresh.

This is how I sorted my seeds to make my planning easier. Since I have so many seeds I actually got two boxes to make my seed sorting system easier manageable.

  

This box is practically a planting calendar and seed keeper all in one. Each box is for half a growing season.
Purple is for the pre-May planting season. The Green box for the less busy season from May to October. Each compartment is for a specific planting time starting with January and is labeled as such. Since in my area in January there are only a few plants started indoor the label says "January 15th > Indoor" telling me whatever is in this compartment I can seed in pots past Jan 15th. Indoors. February is a very busy month for seeding, so it took several compartments for that month. One for  Indoor early February, two compartments for Indoor after Feb. 15th., then  one for Seeding outside after Feb. 15Th.
Since I also do a lot of succession planting with certain crops, like for example 'carrots' and I have a lot of different varieties I also spread the different varieties over the different planting dates. So I have carrot seed packs in many compartments from End of March until the last planting date possible for them.
Some seeds I don't have enough to spread out like that, so I also have a simple planting calendar taped to the inside of the lid and my plan is to just keep moving the seed pack forward into the compartments each time I plant making the succession of planting easy.

The lid is a perfect place to tape seeding information as vegetable companion charts, spacing charts and fertilizing info.
Now when I go plant my seed, all I need is grab my seed sorting box by the handle, there is no need to bring anything else with me into the garden. I just get the seeds from the proper compartment and plant.
How easy is that?

I don't want to proclaim, it will be a perfect system yet but at least it should lessen the planning time spend. Granted it took time to set up, with sorting all the seeds into it with the help of my Planting chart but if it all works as planned, I never have to do it again, aside add the newest seeds I get.

I'll get back to you later in the garden season how I fared with my new seed planning system.

disclaimer: Not to be shared with the Dervaes Family of Path to Freedom Website. Thank You 

Healthy Food Action

Healthy Food Action

Please add your name to the Charter for a Healthy Farm Bill!
For a Farm Bill that is holistic in nature and includes sections on transparency, fairness and environmental sustainability
and is good for us the consumer, the farmer and out environment.
Make your voices heard, because this administration is not going to act without us getting louder and tell them what is important to us.
Eaters must become more political. We can't just vote with our forks.

You can read the whole charter on the web page of Healthy Food Action

and while you are at it supporting a good Healthy Farm Bill
maybe you like to sign this petition also voice your support for making our food system fair for all of us


http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5597

Adventures in Urban Homesteading

Here used to be a post about the Path to Freedom website with a video showing their garden skills, but I removed all links and postings pointing to their site and I here I am explaining why I did that!

Path to Freedom - Lost Urban Homestead Hero status!

Join in the opposition to GE Alfalfa and send a letter to the White House

Maria Rodale, CEO and Chairman of Rodale, Inc. and book author is calling for Unity in the fight against GMO Crops in an open letter.
Maria Rodale: We Stand in Opposition to GE Alfalfa
It is more important then ever for all of us to work together to bring back normalcy to our food system.
We need to stop the deregulation of GE crops and join together against the forces that are seeking to silence hundreds of thousands of Americans.
If you eat food, this decision will effect you. All people, Organic food stores, Farmers and Farming associations, Food producers, Organic Trade organizations, all who are concerned about the food we eat, who want to have the power to decide what they want to put on their table and grow on their fields need to work together to preserve and protect our environment and our health.


Anonymous sources, that are familiar with the USDA negotiations have told that the White House asked Vilsack to drop the proposed regulations. This, so the White House administration will appear more friendly to big business. There also seems to be the appearance that the decision was made long before the voices of the public called in their concerns, over the concerns of citizens and all of the organic world.
Banning GMO Alfalfa was not an option and it looks like it never had been an option, the USDA already decided that GE alfalfa would be approved for sale.

The pressure to stop the proliferation of this contaminating technology must be focused on the White House and Congress because the decision to deregulate this crop was an decisions made in the Obama Administration. You can write a letter to Obama to tell him what you think about these back room dealings if you go to this action alert from the Organic Trade Association. They had more then 6,000 letters sent to Obama by concerned citizens in less then 24 hours. We can put pressure on Obama and let him know that he is selling out our land and food supply, he is selling out our future generations, also his children and grandchildren.
United we can fight GMO crops and Monsanto

USDA is fully deregulating Monsanto's GMO Alfalfa

There is no Democracy in USA!!!

BREAKING NEWS: USDA to Fully Deregulate Monsanto’s Genetically Engineer Alfalfa — Gene Contamination of Feed, Milk, Meat and Other Products to Follow… | Cornucopia Institute

This should never been approved and especially not deregulated with the environmental impact this will have and with this big of a majority of people opposing deregulation.

WTH! does anyone in the White House administration ever so just even slightly try to represent the People of this country?
It doesn't look like it.
It doesn't even matter anymore, who is in the White House, everyone who is calling the shots is in bed with the corporate lobby and big money business. Vilsack should never been appointed to this position. It's well known that he is on the side of Monsanto, we know exactly now who the USDA serves.
Profits in this country are going to be always over people because petitions and phonecalls/letters to politicians who value campaign dollars over consumer health and safety are useless. 
We "The People" have no voice in these matters anymore.

This is what we are up against http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/664

You might think, well I don't eat Alfalfa Sprouts, or I just stop eating the sprouts. But it will be not so easy to avoid GMO Alfalfa as you think.
It only will be a matter of time that the GMO Alfalfa will contaminate nearby organic crops, it will be in the feed for animals, even pastured, organic animals.
If your farmer feeds Alfalfa to his animals or lets them graze on alfalfa fields the milk you drink and beef you eat may be tainted with genetically modified, round resistant alfalfa. And it will contaminate you!

It also will probably destroy the honey bees which are so important for our food production.

This will be a difficult one to avoid, aside you stop eating meat and any dairy products. No more American made cheese, no more cream for cooking. Good bye French cream based sauces, Cheese sauce for your pasta. No more yogurt, butter. No more cappuccino with foamed milk.

Shame on you Obama! Shame on your Administration! Shame on you politicians who are supposed to represent the people.
You all have been selling us out.

If you want to tell Monsanto how you are feeling here is Monsanto's number: 314 694 1000
Call your President in the White House how disappointed you are http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/,
call the USDA's Vilsack at 202-720-3631 or email him at AgSec@usda.gov and if you become a "fan" of USDA, you can go out to their Facebook fan page and tell them your piece of mind about approving and deregulating GMO Alfalfa.

I am getting so disgusted by the politics of this country that I really have to wonder what future this country holds for me. Do I really want the citizenship of a country that is that messed up? Do I want to grow old in a country that does not hear it's people?

Where any decision will be always about big business and money
and not about what makes this country, "The People" of this country,not big business, not the corporations and not the lobbyists waving their dollar signs!

I really, really am having big doubts!

Monsanto: Extinction

Monsanto's Round-up is causing Extinction 

Monsanto should be the one, who is extinct.

Institute for Responsible Technology -

Institute for Responsible Technology -

Monsanto is poisoning our world and any life which depends on what this earth offers. We just can't let them destroy our way of life.
It is criminal what they are doing and they need to be stopped!

Monsanto once claimed that Round-up would break down quickly in the soil, which courts in the US and Europe have proven is a flat out lie. Did you know Round-up after 28 days breaks only down 2%? Did you know that a study showed Round-up taking up to 22 years to degrade half its volume? Did you know that plant disease pathogens are rapidly increasing, killing the crops Round-up supposedly is supposed to grow better? Did you know that some of these plant pathogens can make you sick and are connected to the plaque epidemics in medieval Europe, cancers, blood diseases and other diseases? Did you know that Round-up is left in the feed, that is fed to cattle, chickens, pigs and it accumulates in their bodies, the meat you are eating?

Did you know the USDA is right now making decisions about approving Round-up ready Alfalfa?

If you are concerned about Monsanto poisoning this earth, animals and us you need to read this article above and then
Please tell USDA Secretary Vilsack not to approve Monsanto’s alfalfa today.

Blog vacation

I have had a hiatus from my blog for a while, because I had a hard time typing on my computer.
Some years ago I hurt my shoulder, when I was moving heavy book boxes after we moved to Oregon.  From time to time I hurt it again, especially if I do something I shouldn't do, like move heavy things which don't want to be moved or I should wait for my husband to move for me.
Like my little Fringe tree I was moving to the new garden area, which obviously resented getting moved after barely starting to grow and grabbed on to some old roots in the ground. Only after some good pulling all of a sudden the tree decided 'maybe it won't be so bad after all', let go of the roots it was holding on, giving me a big jolt back. My shoulder didn't like that, at all. Once it is inflamed  it makes it difficult to sit very long on the computer. Especially typing and using the mouse is really bad. So I had to take a rest from blogging.

By the way, the tree is very much fine, I think it likes it's new surrounding and settled right in, in its new home.

Now my shoulder is much better, even tough occasionally it flames up again forcing me to limit my computer use.
As soon my shoulder was getting a bit better, Christmas time came around the corner and with it my Christmas cookie extravaganza. Once this starts, there is hardly any time to spend time on my blog.
To tell the truth, it would be hard for me to tell you about gardening adventures, while my hands and head are covered in butter and flour, listening to Christmas music, mixing doughs, forming and decorating little sweet morsels.

                                        My Christmas baking kitchen set up

I admit, I am a Christmas cookie baking maniac. I do it only once a year, but then I go all out and bake for weeks, starting right after Thanksgiving. If I am lucky, I am done a few days before Christmas looking at my cookie tins filled with many varieties, each one different.

Rolling out cookie dough seems to also be one of the best physical therapies for my sore shoulder, so now my shoulder feels much better and I hope I will be able to keep sharing with you more frequently in this New Year.

Happy New Year to you all