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Welcome to the blog website for Growing Healthy Organic Food. Our blog contains many resources on organic farming and healthy gardening, including stories, videos and other topics. Our blog is completely free.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Shona & Troy on our community farm
Shona and Troy with produce to take home after working on their plots.
See adjacent post for more information.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Growing peas
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
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
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Next time you reach for the RoundUp - STOP!
Glyphosate
Next time you reach for the can of RoundUp to clean up a path or a patch of unwanted grass or weeds, stop for a minute and think of the harm you might be doing to your farm and garden soil, the waterways and rivers, the micro-organisms that support life on this planet, your own health and the health of those who are yet to be born.
Glyphosate is without doubt, a disaster in the making. We are only now beginning to understand some of the dangers of unfettered use of RoundUp in commercial agriculture and in our own home gardens. Even more disturbing is the escalating use of RoundUp in commercial agriculture, particularly in genetically modified crops.
The problem with products like RoundUp is that they appear to be very effective. They do the job we want them to do. They allow us to clean up unsightly weeds and overgrown areas with little effort. This quick fix causes a vast number of highly dangerous, long-term problems.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in RoundUp. On its own it is very poisonous. Combined with some of the other ingredients contained in RoundUp, glyphosate becomes even more dangerous.
RoundUp kills weeds and grass extremely quickly but it is a short-term solution. When grass is killed, it is quickly replaced by weeds so that weed infestation increases because of the application of RoundUp. The quantity and type of weeds change, and become more and more invasive when RoundUp is used. Some parts of the world, in particular the USA are seeing the growth of "super weeds" which cannot be eradicated because they are so tough and they grow so fast. Weed growth increases because the type of weeds that grow in any area are a response to soil condition: the greater the imbalance of nutrients in the soil and the less organic matter it contains, the greater the weed problem.
Round up causes soil nutrients to be tied up leaving the soil more and more unbalanced. According to Don M. Huber, Eneritus Professor, Purdue University: "It is not uncommon to see the available of copper, cobalt, iron manganese, nickel and zinc deficiencies in soils to intensify in soils where RoundUp is applied. Glyphosate in soil and root exudates also stimulates oxidative soil microbes that reduce nutrient availability by decreasing their solubility for plant uptake, immobilize nutrients such as potassium and deny plant access to soil nutrients through pathogenic activity. Plant pathogens stimulated by glyphosate include ubiquitous bacterial and fungal, crown and stalk rotting fungi, vascular colonising organisms that disrupt nutrient transport and cause wilt and die-back and root-nibblers that impair access or uptake of soil nutrients."
Mineralisation of plant residues that have been killed by glyphosate release accumulated glyphosate into the soil in toxic concentrations that can kill whatever is planted subsequently. Plant death occurs through increased plant susceptibility to common soil-borne fungi such as Fusarium and Phytophthora that are stimulated by glyphosate applications.
Roundup kills weeds but it is not selective: it kills anything it contacts. It is also a potent micro-biocide. It is toxic to earthworms and mycorrhizae. It reduces the number of microbes that convert insoluble soil oxides to plant available forms, nitrogen-fixing organisms and organisms involved in the biological control of soil borne diseases that reduce root uptake of nutrients.
For many years Monsanto, the manufacturer of RoundUp claimed it was a bio-degradable substance but court cases in Europe have demonstrated consclusively that this claim is not true. RoundUp no longer has the word bio-degradable on its label.
Because it is not bio-degradable it:
* Persists and accumulates in soil and plants for many years.
* Accumulates in food and feed products to enter the food chain and it has been demonstrated that it is highly dangerous in terms of human health. Many scientific studies have been done which demonstrate this is a major concern.
* Can damage trees and shrubs planted following its use because it is taken up by these plants through their roots.
* Stimulates soil-born pathogens, thus reducing nutrient available.
* Inhibits nitrogen fixation.
* Increases mycotoxins in stems, straw, grain and fruit.
* Inhibits uptake and translocation of iron, manganese and zinc even when glyphosate is present at very low, non-herbicidal rates.
Professor Huber says: "Introduction of glyphosate, an intense mineral chelator, into the food chain through accumulation in feed, forage and food and by root exudation into ground water poses significant health concerns for animals and humans."
Bev Buckley. For more information visit learn more
Next time you reach for the can of RoundUp to clean up a path or a patch of unwanted grass or weeds, stop for a minute and think of the harm you might be doing to your farm and garden soil, the waterways and rivers, the micro-organisms that support life on this planet, your own health and the health of those who are yet to be born.
Glyphosate is without doubt, a disaster in the making. We are only now beginning to understand some of the dangers of unfettered use of RoundUp in commercial agriculture and in our own home gardens. Even more disturbing is the escalating use of RoundUp in commercial agriculture, particularly in genetically modified crops.
The problem with products like RoundUp is that they appear to be very effective. They do the job we want them to do. They allow us to clean up unsightly weeds and overgrown areas with little effort. This quick fix causes a vast number of highly dangerous, long-term problems.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in RoundUp. On its own it is very poisonous. Combined with some of the other ingredients contained in RoundUp, glyphosate becomes even more dangerous.
RoundUp kills weeds and grass extremely quickly but it is a short-term solution. When grass is killed, it is quickly replaced by weeds so that weed infestation increases because of the application of RoundUp. The quantity and type of weeds change, and become more and more invasive when RoundUp is used. Some parts of the world, in particular the USA are seeing the growth of "super weeds" which cannot be eradicated because they are so tough and they grow so fast. Weed growth increases because the type of weeds that grow in any area are a response to soil condition: the greater the imbalance of nutrients in the soil and the less organic matter it contains, the greater the weed problem.
Round up causes soil nutrients to be tied up leaving the soil more and more unbalanced. According to Don M. Huber, Eneritus Professor, Purdue University: "It is not uncommon to see the available of copper, cobalt, iron manganese, nickel and zinc deficiencies in soils to intensify in soils where RoundUp is applied. Glyphosate in soil and root exudates also stimulates oxidative soil microbes that reduce nutrient availability by decreasing their solubility for plant uptake, immobilize nutrients such as potassium and deny plant access to soil nutrients through pathogenic activity. Plant pathogens stimulated by glyphosate include ubiquitous bacterial and fungal, crown and stalk rotting fungi, vascular colonising organisms that disrupt nutrient transport and cause wilt and die-back and root-nibblers that impair access or uptake of soil nutrients."
Mineralisation of plant residues that have been killed by glyphosate release accumulated glyphosate into the soil in toxic concentrations that can kill whatever is planted subsequently. Plant death occurs through increased plant susceptibility to common soil-borne fungi such as Fusarium and Phytophthora that are stimulated by glyphosate applications.
Roundup kills weeds but it is not selective: it kills anything it contacts. It is also a potent micro-biocide. It is toxic to earthworms and mycorrhizae. It reduces the number of microbes that convert insoluble soil oxides to plant available forms, nitrogen-fixing organisms and organisms involved in the biological control of soil borne diseases that reduce root uptake of nutrients.
For many years Monsanto, the manufacturer of RoundUp claimed it was a bio-degradable substance but court cases in Europe have demonstrated consclusively that this claim is not true. RoundUp no longer has the word bio-degradable on its label.
Because it is not bio-degradable it:
* Persists and accumulates in soil and plants for many years.
* Accumulates in food and feed products to enter the food chain and it has been demonstrated that it is highly dangerous in terms of human health. Many scientific studies have been done which demonstrate this is a major concern.
* Can damage trees and shrubs planted following its use because it is taken up by these plants through their roots.
* Stimulates soil-born pathogens, thus reducing nutrient available.
* Inhibits nitrogen fixation.
* Increases mycotoxins in stems, straw, grain and fruit.
* Inhibits uptake and translocation of iron, manganese and zinc even when glyphosate is present at very low, non-herbicidal rates.
Professor Huber says: "Introduction of glyphosate, an intense mineral chelator, into the food chain through accumulation in feed, forage and food and by root exudation into ground water poses significant health concerns for animals and humans."
Bev Buckley. For more information visit learn more
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