So-called “Roundup-ready” seeds — for crops that can withstand the non-selective herbicide glyphosate — have become popular in conventional farming because farmers can spray entire fields with Roundup to kill a variety of weeds but not the crop. Much easier than cultivating or spot-spraying. But as with many “advances,” we now are finding unforeseen consequences.
There are two ways to protect your family from being exposed to an overdose of glyphosate: Grow your own food using organic methods, or buy organic. I do both.
Read about the science of this important aspect of food safety.
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The weather has been relatively warm and sunny lately, so I decided Earth Day would be a good time to start spring planting, somewhat earlier than usual.
I also wanted to introduce my new garden helper, Harper. She is a 3-year-old yellow lab I adopted on March 31 from BrightSide Animal Center, where I serve on the board of directors.
She’s a good dog, but I have to watch her in the vegetable garden. She likes to eat the asparagus as soon as it comes up!
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There are many books I’ve loved, but Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” is one that actually changed my life. After reading Kingsolver’s saga of living a rigorously local diet, I realized that with my vegetable garden and the farms and ranches nearby, I could eat almost entirely locally without too much effort. I’m not doctrinaire about it — I still want coffee, bananas, lemons — but I have been making a conscious effort to choose what is grown or raised locally. Much of it I grow myself.
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Thriving summer and winter squash, eggplant, onions, brussels sprouts. At left, raspberries. In background, beets, asparagus, lavender, lettuce, swiss chard, radishes and carrots.
In the high desert of Central Oregon we typically have a short growing season because even when the days are very warm, nights are cool enough (below 50 degrees) that plants stop growing until it warms up the next morning. This delays maturity by about two weeks.
This year, however, we’ve had unusually warm evenings, as well as unusually hot days in July. That extra warmth — plus a lot of regular watering — gave us vegetables on steroids this year.
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