Three varieties of peas can be grown. Garden peas are the variety that you shell and take out the peas inside and throw away the outer shell. The grow into untidy sprawling plants.
Snow peas grow on trellises and can reach up to 2 metre tall. Sugar snap peas were developed in Holland in 1970 by crossing garden peas and snow peas.
Peas are a winter crop. On Tamborine Mountain we start planting peas in March and harvest from May to October.
Peas are a very valuable crop to grow for three reasons.
The first reason is that peas are legumes. Peas add valuable nitrogen, which is freely available in the air and make it plant available via the rhizobia that live in the nodules that grow on the roots of the plant.
The second reason is that peas are an excellent food because they are supercharged with minerals including manganese, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc and potassium.
They also contain vitamins, A, B1, B2, B3, B6, C and K as well as folate and tryptophan.
The combination of folic acid and B6 helps reduce build up of homosysteine, which can
obstruct collagen cross-linking, which causes osteoporosis. Folic acid is so important for cardiovascular function that a major 1995 study concluded that 400 milligrams of folic acid per day help prevent death from cardiovascular disease.
Vitamin K activates osteocalan, the major non-collagen protein in bone. Osteocalan anchors calcium molecules inside our bones. Vitamin K is also vital to the body's healthy blood clotting ability.
The third reason to grow peas is if you want to make money by selling them. In 2011 we planted snow peas along 5 trellises each 6 metres long, two rows of garden peas each 10 metres long, and 6 rows each 10 metres long were planted with sugar snap peas. In total we picked over 100 kg of peas which we sold at prices between $14 and $25 per kilogram. Sugar snap peas fetched the highest price.
The one drawback in growing peas is that they are very labour intensive when it comes time to pick them.
Bev Buckley For more information learn more
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Showing posts with label manganese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manganese. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The Importance of Trace Elements
The current situation
Food produced by large-scale, conventional, commercial farming practices generally contains 3 major nutrients (nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous) and 4 minor nutrients (boron, copper, manganese and molybdenum). These elements are generally monitored in agricultural soils. Three other nutrients (iodine, cobalt and selenium) are contained in our food if we eat meat. Iodine and cobalt come from salts licks provided to cattle, selenium is added to fortified chicken feed.
The bad news
The bad news is that living things need 72 biological elements for normal metabolic function, reproduction and maintenance of the immune system. From the studies of Mt Tamborine soils carried out by the Tamborine Mountain Local Producers’ Association, which sponsors the Green Shed Market, we know that calcium is generally deficient. Since calcium is required in every cell in our body it is vitally important. When food is grown on soils, which contain all 72 elements, it is healthy. Because it is healthy, plants grown in this soil are healthy. Insects and diseases do not attack. Insects are nature’s garbage disposal agents. Too often we choose to kill the insects and we eat the garbage. Disease is also nature’s way of eliminating those things that are not healthy, whether they are plants, animals or humans.
The food we eat is severely deficient in over 60 vitally important elements. Many practitioners of alternative medicine and a growing number of doctors believe that this is the cause of large numbers of physiological and mental diseases such as cancer, auto–immune disease, late onset diabetes, degenerative and chronic diseases, allergies and birth defects. Dr Carole Hungerford’s book “Good Health in the 21st Century” provides a sound scientific explanation of the thinking behind this claim. Her book won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award in 2006. Dr Hungerford rejects the routine cocktail of medications with their complicated interactions and side effects, and shows how to provide a chance for minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids to do their health giving work.
Trace elements are:
• Essential in the assimilation and utilisation of vitamins.
• An aid in digestion.
• A catalyst for hormones and enzymes.
• An aid in replacing electrolytes lost through perspiration.
• A protection against toxic reactions.
Reinstatement of trace elements in our soils eliminates all plant diseases, pest and insect attack. This eliminates the need for use of toxic agricultural chemicals, which are used with frightening frequency on our food.
On Tamborine Mountain we have proved that the claim of adding the full range of trace elements and balancing the major elements is the way to grow healthy crops. Customers at the Green Shed see the evidence and comment regularly on it. If this strategy can make a difference to plants, we ask the question: “Why don’t we use the same strategy to improve human health?”
Most research into trace elements seems to be done with the intention of finding out the effects of having too much of a particular trace element. There seems to be only a little work has been done to identify the beneficial role played by individual trace elements. Research has shown that:
• Chromium shortage may cause heart condition, disruption of the metabolism and diabetes,
• Indium stimulates metabolism,
• Molybdenum functions as a co-factor for a number of enzymes that catalyse important chemical transformations eg xanthine oxidase catalyses the breakdown of nucleotides to form uric acid which contributes to the anti oxidant capacity of the blood,
• Boron promotes bone and joint health. Adequate intake of boron in conjunction with magnesium helps prevent calcium loss and bone demineralisation in post-menopausal women. Anecdotal studies suggest boron may alleviate symptoms of osteoarthritis.
• Zinc deficiency is associated with anaemia, delayed growth, birth defects, spontaneous abortion, impaired sexual maturation, sterility, slow wound healing.
Reference: http://www.truehealth.org/
Some essential trace elements
Silver, aluminium, gold, boron, barium, beryllium, bismuth, bromine, niobium, cadmium, cerium, cobalt, chromium, caesium, copper, gallium, germanium, mercury, iodine, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, molybdenum, osmium, lead, palladium, platinum, radium, rubidium, ruthenium, antimony, selenium, silicon, tin, strontium, tellurium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, zinc, zirconium.
Written by Bev Buckley, Growing Healthy
http://www.growinghealthyorganicfood.com/
Food produced by large-scale, conventional, commercial farming practices generally contains 3 major nutrients (nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous) and 4 minor nutrients (boron, copper, manganese and molybdenum). These elements are generally monitored in agricultural soils. Three other nutrients (iodine, cobalt and selenium) are contained in our food if we eat meat. Iodine and cobalt come from salts licks provided to cattle, selenium is added to fortified chicken feed.
The bad news
The bad news is that living things need 72 biological elements for normal metabolic function, reproduction and maintenance of the immune system. From the studies of Mt Tamborine soils carried out by the Tamborine Mountain Local Producers’ Association, which sponsors the Green Shed Market, we know that calcium is generally deficient. Since calcium is required in every cell in our body it is vitally important. When food is grown on soils, which contain all 72 elements, it is healthy. Because it is healthy, plants grown in this soil are healthy. Insects and diseases do not attack. Insects are nature’s garbage disposal agents. Too often we choose to kill the insects and we eat the garbage. Disease is also nature’s way of eliminating those things that are not healthy, whether they are plants, animals or humans.
The food we eat is severely deficient in over 60 vitally important elements. Many practitioners of alternative medicine and a growing number of doctors believe that this is the cause of large numbers of physiological and mental diseases such as cancer, auto–immune disease, late onset diabetes, degenerative and chronic diseases, allergies and birth defects. Dr Carole Hungerford’s book “Good Health in the 21st Century” provides a sound scientific explanation of the thinking behind this claim. Her book won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award in 2006. Dr Hungerford rejects the routine cocktail of medications with their complicated interactions and side effects, and shows how to provide a chance for minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids to do their health giving work.
Trace elements are:
• Essential in the assimilation and utilisation of vitamins.
• An aid in digestion.
• A catalyst for hormones and enzymes.
• An aid in replacing electrolytes lost through perspiration.
• A protection against toxic reactions.
Reinstatement of trace elements in our soils eliminates all plant diseases, pest and insect attack. This eliminates the need for use of toxic agricultural chemicals, which are used with frightening frequency on our food.
On Tamborine Mountain we have proved that the claim of adding the full range of trace elements and balancing the major elements is the way to grow healthy crops. Customers at the Green Shed see the evidence and comment regularly on it. If this strategy can make a difference to plants, we ask the question: “Why don’t we use the same strategy to improve human health?”
Most research into trace elements seems to be done with the intention of finding out the effects of having too much of a particular trace element. There seems to be only a little work has been done to identify the beneficial role played by individual trace elements. Research has shown that:
• Chromium shortage may cause heart condition, disruption of the metabolism and diabetes,
• Indium stimulates metabolism,
• Molybdenum functions as a co-factor for a number of enzymes that catalyse important chemical transformations eg xanthine oxidase catalyses the breakdown of nucleotides to form uric acid which contributes to the anti oxidant capacity of the blood,
• Boron promotes bone and joint health. Adequate intake of boron in conjunction with magnesium helps prevent calcium loss and bone demineralisation in post-menopausal women. Anecdotal studies suggest boron may alleviate symptoms of osteoarthritis.
• Zinc deficiency is associated with anaemia, delayed growth, birth defects, spontaneous abortion, impaired sexual maturation, sterility, slow wound healing.
Reference: http://www.truehealth.org/
Some essential trace elements
Silver, aluminium, gold, boron, barium, beryllium, bismuth, bromine, niobium, cadmium, cerium, cobalt, chromium, caesium, copper, gallium, germanium, mercury, iodine, indium, iridium, lanthanum, lithium, molybdenum, osmium, lead, palladium, platinum, radium, rubidium, ruthenium, antimony, selenium, silicon, tin, strontium, tellurium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, zinc, zirconium.
Written by Bev Buckley, Growing Healthy
http://www.growinghealthyorganicfood.com/
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