Manzanita Children's Gardens

Growing your own food organically is one of the only ways to assure that food is chemical free. As far as I know, there are no FDA regulations in place for “organically grown” fresh vegetables. I am a newbie to the organically grown concept. My family makes fun of hippie-grown food, scoffing at how organic food is more toxic than store-bought produce.

All of my siblings live in Southern California, but they have been visiting Bainbridge Island a lot lately, as my Mother is terminally ill with ovarian cancer. The cancer has metastasized and is in her cervix, and she is most likely nearing the end of her life within weeks.

Cancer is a rollercoaster. Several times she has been so near death I could hear angel wings flutter. Then, she bounces back and looks chipper. I pray for her every time that she eats; pray that the food goes down easily, stays down and doesn’t cause pain moving through her cancer-wracked body. I pray that she is comfortable and is spared the painful end that is associated with cervical cancer. When she is doing well, every day, hour, minute, I wait for the other shoe to drop. On the bad days, we both pray that it will end.

Feeding Mom has been a chore since early diagnosis. She had trouble processing food. The only thing that Mom can eat and digest easily are eggs…the perfect food. Mom tells me she has a constant taste in her mouth…saccharine. (Sugar substitute) I took this report from her quite seriously and began to analyze all foods for chemicals. This was the turning point for me…we were going to designate Manzanita Community Gardens as 100% organic. After much research and close observation of my Mother’s decline, I am convinced that eating organically makes a difference in good health. I can’t change what is happening to my Mother, but I can grow organic food.

At this crossroad, I created a list of “rules and regulations” for Manzanita Community Gardens– no chemicals, pesticides, poisons or toxic substances. Community Gardeners agreed to communicate and help each other with slug control, cut-worms, rodents, and come up with organic – and humane solutions to gardening challenges.

Another way I was coping with my Mom’s decline was by rescuing a horse from the feedlot. Feedlot horses are sent to Canada for slaughter. By saving a mare, I was clinging to life. I’ve had horses in the past, and knew what to do. I cleaned out the shed where the hay was to be stored, and unearthed a colony of mice. I made a mental note to bring the family cat out the shed for a few days before the first hay delivery to deal with the mouse problem.

My Mother’s birthday approached, the family convened en-mass to celebrate a milestone that was not supposed to occur. Mom has exceeded her due-date. We have much to be grateful for. My contribution was going to be a home-grown salad, using freshly harvested organic lettuce. I went to my p-patch to harvest, and noticed an open box in the neighboring p-patch. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it was an open, consumed box of mouse poison…with warnings all over the box “Toxic for humans and animals”.

Needless to say, I did not harvest the lettuce and feed it to my family. Although the mouse poison was 10 feet from my lettuce, poisoned mice droppings are toxic, as are the caucuses of the mice. I no longer felt comfortable eating the food I had grown, much less serving it at a family function. The words of my family haunted me…organically home-grown food was more toxic than store-bought.

My mother is still struggling day-to-day for relief from cancer. One thing that she complains about is the bad taste in her mouth that is like saccharine. Creating organic gardens and saving the feedlot mare was my coping mechanism to separate myself from her pain. For now, there is no separation. It’s time to go back to her and hold her hand. In the end, we all die.

(reposted from Simply Receipes)
We have a 3 ft by 6 ft patch of arugula growing in our garden and for the last two months I’ve been looking for ways to make use of it. By the way, arugula (a.k.a. rocket) grows like a weed and re-seeds itself every year. The bugs and snails don’t seem to touch it (they go for the lettuce instead). I had heard that walnuts are good in pesto so I tried making the arugula pesto both ways – one with pine nuts and one with walnuts. I think the arugula pesto with walnuts is better. The strong, meaty flavor of the walnuts balances out the astringency of the arugula, a good blend of flavors. I’ve made pesto both with mortar and pestle and with a food processor. The food processor method is definitely easier but the mortar method produces larger pieces of the arugula.

I prefer a mild garlic flavor that you can achieve by using roasted garlic. The 1/2 raw garlic clove is added for a little kicker. The first time I made this pesto it was with only raw garlic and it was a little overwhelmingly garlicy. Using roasted garlic is a great way to still have the garlic flavor but without the intensity.

Arugula Pesto Recipe
INGREDIENTS
2 cups of packed arugula leaves, stems removed
1/2 cup of shelled walnuts
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/2 garlic clove peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
METHOD
1 Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.
2 Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown, or heat in a microwave on high heat for a minute or two until you get that roasted flavor. In our microwave it takes 2 minutes.
3a Food processor method (the fast way): Combine the arugula, salt, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.
3b Mortar and pestle method: Combine the nuts, salt and garlic in a mortar. With the pestle, grind until smooth. Add the cheese and olive oil, grind again until smooth. Finely chop the arugula and add it to the mortar. Grind up with the other ingredients until smooth.
Because the pesto is so dependent on the individual ingredients, and the strength of the ingredients depends on the season or variety, test it and add more of the ingredients to taste.
Serve with pasta, over freshly roasted potatoes, or as a sauce for pizza.
Yield: Makes 1 heaping cup.
Link to original post

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/arugula_pesto/

Frog alert! The pond at Manzanita Children’s Gardens is teeming with life. This was not the case several years ago; commercial grade fertilizer was distributed on adjacent farmland and it seemed to wipe them out.  As you may know, amphibians are a good barometer for health of the eco-system. According to our frog-o-meter, we have a healthy farm!!!
Last March, the pasture was a chorus of frogs chanting, especially at night. We had a plethora of tadpoles, which have been evolving into a healthy colony of frogs. Frog sitings have occurred in p-patches all over the farm! Kids (and adults) should take a few minutes and check out the pond. Feel free to bring a a clean jar to capture and observe tadpoles and frogs, but return them to the pond so they can live with their families

Here are a few FROG FAQs. . .

So what makes a frog a frog?
Frogs and toads are amphibians, which means they live their lives both in water and on land. Typically, frogs breed and spend thier juvenile (or “larval”) stage in the water, then spend some or virtually all of their adult lives on the land. Frogs and toads are distinguished from salamanders (which are also amphibians) by the fact that adults do not have a tail.
Do all frogs live in the water?
No. The amount of time that adults spend in the water varies enormously. Bullfrogs and green frogs, although they have lungs and breathe air, spend almost all their adult lives in the water. On the other end of the spectrum, toads and treefrogs spend the majority of their adulthood outside of water. All frogs and toads, however, must eventually come back to the water to mate and lay eggs.

Why do the eggs have to be in water?
Amphibian eggs do not have a hard protective shell like bird or reptile eggs. Frogs and toads lay eggs in jelly-like masses, and unless the eggs are covered with water, they will dry up and die. Most amphibian eggs become much bigger after they are laid because the eggs absorb water and swell to several times their original volume!

What are tadpoles?
Tadpoles are the immature (larval) forms of frogs that hatch right from the egg. All tadpoles are completely adapted to live underwater. Like fish, they breath through gills rather than lungs. Tadpoles eventually transform themselves through a process called metamorphosis into adult frogs. Hormone changes within their bodies cause their legs to develop and their tails to be re-absorbed into their bodies. Wow!

What do frogs eat?
Adult frogs and toads are always predatory, preying on insects mostly but also smaller frogs and fish. Tadpoles are mostly vegetarian, grazing on algae that grow in leaf or rock surfaces under the water. Sometimes, very large tadpoles, such as bullfrog tadpoles, become meat-eaters and sometimes even eat other frogs!

Does anything eat frogs?
Tadpoles can be a significant food item for fish, mammals, and even other adult frogs. Adult frogs are preyed upon by snakes, raccoons, herons, and other terrestrial (land-based) predators.

So whatÕs the difference between a frog and a toad?
There are no hard and fast rules, but in general: Toads have dry, warty skin and relatively short legs for hopping. Frogs have smooth, damp skin and long legs for swimming or leaping.

Can toads really give you warts?
Toads do not give people warts. Amphibians have many glands in their skin, and several species produce highly toxic secretions for protection. Toads do secrete a substance from the skin that can be very irritating if it comes into contact with mucous membranes like the eyes, nose, mouth, etc.

How do frogs make their calls, or “ribbets”?
In some species, such as Spring Peepers, the lower part of the mouth can become a large resonating vocal sac. When the frog closes its mouth and nostrils, and then forces air from the lungs over the vocal chords, the sac inflates and vibrates like a drum, producing long, loud trills. Other species just produce calls with the vocal chords.

Why do frogs call?
Frogs and toads make a variety of sounds, depending on the situation. The most common are “advertisement” calls, and “alarm” calls. Frogs and toads advertise their presence either to ward off challengers to their territories, or to attract mates. Alarm calls serve to startle predators.

How can I find frogs?
Frogs can be very difficult to find. They are usually highly camouflaged, blending into their environment. The easiest time to locate frogs and toads is during the mating season. During this time they are in the water, and calling, so it’s often easier to hear frogs than to see them. Breeding season can vary depending on the frog species and on local weather conditions.

How many kinds of frogs can be found at Fermilab?
Northern Illinois has a pretty small amphibian population. Only about a dozen frog species are commonly found around here, and only six to eight species can be found at Fermilab.

Why are frogs so sensitive to pollution?
Beginning in the early 1980s, biologists began to realize that amphibians such as frogs are extremely sensitive to pollution and other environmental stresses. Declines in amphibian numbers and increases in deformed bodies have led scientists to investigate the role of habitat loss, increased ultraviolet radiation (due to ozone depletion), and chemical pollution in these important changes. No one is sure why amphibians are so sensitive to pollution, but it may be linked to the fact that their skin is relatively thin and permeable to water, so frogs are exposed more directly to pollutants and environmental radiation. In addition, their eggs are laid in ponds and other water bodies, so they can absorb whatever chemical pollution may be present throughout their early developmental period.
Link to source of Frog FAQ’s

http://ed.fnal.gov/projects/frogs/froggiesfaq.html

This article appeared in Grist online June 12, 2011. It is compelling evidence that we should start an organic compost pile made from manure and table scraps…
Do you know what’s in your compost?
The growing number of municipal and commercial composting operations has been one of the few bright spots in the environmental landscape, from San Francisco’s curbside composting service to this industrial-scale composting facility in Delaware. But Josh Harkinson in Mother Jones has harshed our green-tinged buzz.

Thanks to fractured or lax regulations as well as the ubiquitous contamination of our environment by industrial chemicals (particularly heavy metals and pesticides), there’s a distressingly real risk of toxic chemicals making it into commercial and municipal compost. And it’s a particular problem for organic growers:

Pesticide-laced compost has presented a quandary for the USDA’s National Organic Program ever since California regulators traced residues of dichlorophenyl-dichloroethylene, a breakdown product of DDT, and bifenthrin, an ant killer, to compost in pots of organic wheatgrass in Northern California grocery stores (the levels were not high enough to make anyone sick). DDT was banned for most uses in the early ‘70s and bifenthrin is classified as a possible human carcinogen and is highly toxic to fish. The NOP initially proposed setting a strict upper limit for bifenthrin levels in compost but abandoned the idea when wider tests revealed that many brands of commercial compost wouldn’t pass. Regulators ultimately decided to allow any level of contamination in compost so long as “residual pesticide levels do not contribute to the contamination of crops, soil, or water.”

Complicating matters, there is no actual organic standard for compost. In other words, despite claims on packages, there is no such thing as “USDA Organic Compost.” As Harkinson observes, some states like California test for contaminants while others (I’m looking at you, Texas) don’t.

And then there are pesticide makers who typically have refused to disclose whether their pesticides break down well or at all in compost, as occurred recently with DuPont and its weed killer Imprelis.

Harkinson encourages consumers to know their composter, ideally by noting where the compost is produced (not always easy to determine) and understanding the different toxics that may be present. Once again, the consumer is wandering in the dark because our state and federal government won’t provide proper oversight.

But even with the risks, commercial compost is a far better and safer soil amendment than another municipal product that companies and (to a surprising extent) the EPA are pushing on consumers: sewage sludge, aka biosolids. See Grist’s series on the history of industry and government efforts to get sewage sludge onto American gardens. The range of toxins in sewage sludge is terrifying—basically anything that gets washed down the drain or ends up in rivers, including not just heavy metals and pesticides, but pharmaceuticals (lots of Prozac, antibiotics, and birth-control-pill hormones), flame retardants, and even dioxin. The real caveat emptor should go to people who buy garden products made of sewage sludge, an ingredient which very often is not noted on the package label.

Harkinson neglects to mention the easiest way to control the content of your compost—grow your own! You don’t need much space, and if you buy organic then your fruit and vegetable scraps, i.e. your raw materials, will be virtually free from chemical contamination and will produce “clean” compost. As with many aspects of the food system these days, with compost it may be best to take matters into your own hands.
Read original article here

http://www.grist.org/food/2011-06-07-contaminated-compost-toxins-might-lurk-in-that-bag-youre-buying

If your seedlings are cut to the nub and gone without a trace, you might have a deer problem. Or, you might have cutworms.

I lost a few of my seedlings, which prompted me to put up fencing around my p-patch. The next day, a few more plants were gone.

I found a remedy which seems to be working…and that is placing two toothpicks 1/4 inch from the stems of the seedlings.  Apparently, this provides just enough resistance so that the cutworms cannot wrap themselves around the plants and break the stems.  Popsicle sticks work too.

It has been a cold, wet spring in the Pacific Northwest, and many of our gardeners have been having a bit of trouble with slugs.

Some of my studies indicate Sluggo may be non-toxic, but I have come across a way that to repel slugs without use of chemicals.  Grab all those pennies you have at the bottom of your couch and put them around the stems of vulnerable plants and seedlings.  I did this a few weeks ago, and I haven’t had slug problems since!  Try it, it’s amazing.

It’s a challenge to deal with garden pests organically, but very rewarding when you realize that store-bought remedies often have toxins that contribute to cancer, and are often harmful to wildlife, pets and children.  This is a good arguement for exploring other ways to control pests.

Here is a link to organic garden sprays using produce you may be growing in your garden.  Be careful…organic sprays can be hazardous if used incorrectly, so please be sure to ready the warnings before you try this in your garden.  Also, if you share crops with your neighbors, be sure to let them know if you are spraying for pests so that they do not harvest for a few days after application.

Click here to view an interesting pest spray using Rhubarb as the main ingredient.

Manzanita Children’s Gardens P-Patcher Susan Knell (aka Madame Knell, French teacher at Woodward Middle School) reports that her arugla is in, and she is harvesting this weekend! (I haven’t even planted mine yet)

I had to admit I had never tried Arugula, so when she offered to share a bunch of it with me, I went online and found some recipes.  Here is a link to a site that has many yummy ideas on how to prepare this vitimin-packed green.

Arugula Recipes

Enjoy!

As we watch our crops grow, it’s fun to think about new ways to serve veggies.  Here is a nice recipe I found from New York Times on Quinoa.

PROPER USES OF QUINOA

By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

Published: May 23, 2011

A few weeks ago, my Mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In honor of my Mom, my son and I are dedicating our p-patch to growing foods that are high in anti-oxidants. These foods are known to inhibit growth of tumors and prevent formation of cancer cells.  We will supplement exisiting raspberry vines with several varieties of blueberry bushes and a few acai plants.   We will also plant broccoli, carrots, tomatos, lettuce, beets, walla walla sweet onions and shallots.  If you have any other suggestions of anti-cancer fruits and veggies, please let us know…we would like to explore the relationship between nutrition and cancer, and share our findings (and crops) with other people and families who are fighting the big C.