As a gardener, what we are seeing is rather disgusting. When we think of organic, we think of organic matter like compost, wood based mulch, leaves, etc. Yes, even manure folks!!! We don’t like to step in it, but we love what it does for our garden. However, what many of the marketers out there consider organic will turn your stomach.

We recently purchased an “organic” fungicide to assist us with a mild fungus problem on our pepper plants. These are the exact warnings we are quoting from an totally “organic” product we purchased on recommendation from a local grower as an “organic” fungicide.

“Harmful if inhaled, avoid breathing…”. “If inhaled, call a poison control specialist”. “Have the product container or label with you when calling a poison control center or doctor or going for treatment”.

OK, so, this stuff is “organic”, but it can kill you or make you very ill if you inhale or consume it. Further warnings indicate it is quite hazardous if it contacts your skin so they recommend long pants, eye protection, gloves, etc. It is similar in most ways to the warning on chemicals for removing paint!

Now, imagine picking that “organic” produce treated weekly with this wonderful safe organic substance and giving it a quick rinse under the faucet thinking how wonderful it is and how delicious it is. You just ate poison. Was it good?

POISON CAN BE TOTALLY ORGANIC!!! Cyanide is a case in point and it is one of the most deadly toxins on the planet.

Plastic, on the other hand, is totally inorganic. It is harmless unless you wrap it over your air passages so you cannot breathe, and we contact it each day with no harm whatsoever.

The organic myth is a fairy tale.

Don’t fall for it. It is a marketing ploy to get you to pay more for your produce, meats and even for garden pesticides.

If you want truly safe (not necessarily organic) produce, grow it yourself, don’t use anything but basic household products like baking soda and soap (without phosphates)  to safeguard your crop, and let the bugs and fungus win if they come anyway, which they likely will.

To eat “organic” is to pay more and it means little else.  The American food supply is the safest in the world by a wide margin. We have an enormous number of people looking over us. And organic or non-organic products can be safe and help grow better produce or raise better beef, chicken, pork, etc. The news media makes you believe we are under attack from toxins every day because it makes news NOT because they care about you. Our meats and produce are the best and safest in the world. Eat them. Enjoy them. And above all, if you feel the need to eat organic, we suggest you check out the cyanide section at your local grocer.

Photo by: Pilliebee on Flickr

The lettuce that we see today, actually started out as a weed around the Mediterranean basin. Served in dishes for more than 4500 years, lettuce has certainly made its mark in history with tomb painting in Egypt and identification of different types of lettuces by various Greek scholars. Christopher Columbus introduced lettuce to the new world and from there, lettuce in the United States began cultivating.

Benefits

Most dark greens are good sources of Vitamin C and other nutrients.The rule of thumb is, usually, the darker the greens, the more nutritious the leaf.

Types

There are four main types of lettuce and under each type there are different varieties.

	Butterhead (includes Boston and Bibb) Loose heads, grassy green leaves, butter texture, mild flavor. Good examples are Boston lettuce, which looks like a blooming rose, and Bibb lettuce that has a small cup-shaped appearance.
	Crisphead The least nutritious of the salad greens, this pale green lettuce takes on the cabbage appearance with its leaves more tightly packed together. An example is the Iceberg lettuce. It’s known for the crispy texture and very mild flavor.
	Looseleaf This variety doesn’t grow to form lettuce heads, but is instead the leaves are joined at the stem. Good examples of this variety include: oak leaf, red leaf, and green leaf.
	Romaine or Cos This lettuce has gained tremendous popularity in the past decade as the key ingredient in Caesar salads. It has a loaf-like shape with darker outer leaves. It’s strong taste and crispy texture has been favored by those who like Iceberg lettuce.

Selection and Storage

Lettuce is a delicate vegetable and great care should be taken when selecting and storing. Most lettuce is showcased on ice or in refrigeration. When selecting your leaves, be sure that they are fresh and crisp, with no signs of wilting, slim, or dark spots or edges. Remember when selecting your lettuce that the darker outer leaves are the most nutritious.

Lettuce tends to keep well in plastic bags in the crisper section of the refrigerator. Iceberg lettuce keeps the best, lasting around two weeks, while Romaine, ten days, and butterheads types and endives lasts approximately four days. The very delicate greens don’t last very long, so it’s best to buy only as much as you need at one time and use immediately.

Salad greens should not be stored near fruits that produce ethylene gases (like apples) as this will increase brown spots on the lettuce leaves and increase spoilage. Greens that are bought in bunches should be checked for insects. Those leaves that have roots should be placed in a glass of water with a bag over the leaves and then placed in the refrigerator.

Preparation

Generally lettuce is eaten raw, so consider removing any browned, slimy, or wilted leaves. For all lettuce types, you should thoroughly wash and ‘dry’ the leaves to remove any dirt or lingering insects. If you eat lettuce often, it’s wise to invest in a salad spinner. Simply rinse the leaves and place in the spinner to remove the excess water.

In addition to their most common use in salads, you can also braise, steam, sautè and even grill certain lettuce varieties to create a wonderful and different taste treat. Try halving a head of radicchio or romaine lengthwise, and brush on some extra virgin olive oil, and grill until they soften and just begin to brown-absolutely delicious.

via Fruits and Veggies matter

One secondary treat we already mentioned was radish sprouts. Many other plants offer sprouts as a byproduct as well when you sow them in your garden. When two or more plants grow too closely together, you must weed out the smaller plants. Those smaller plants, in many cases, are edible.

What can you eat as a sprout?

1. Radishes
2. Beans
3. Peas
4. Carrots
5. Lettuce
6. Cabbage

Don’t munch on tomatoes or pepper plants though; tomatoes are poisonous enough to make you sick to your stomach. Peppers just don’t taste good as sprouts.
Another great byproduct of your gardening is greens. We have been pleasantly surprised by many of the greens we have harvested. One, radish greens, turned out to be an awesome cooked delight. A bit of garlic and oil into the frying pan turns these into a flavorful green similar to spinach. What is amusing about the greens is that they are much larger than the radish itself! So, if you discarded them, you would be throwing away most of the edible part of the plant.

Other greens that are quite edible and you can add to your cooking or salads are:

1. Carrot greens
2. Turnip greens
3. Beet greens
4. Onion greens
5. Chives

You can even steal these greens while the plant is growing and not hurt the final product at all. Plucking beet greens off the plant may even stimulate better growth of the beet itself. Same goes for the others.
Greens are healthful and, in many cases, have more nutrients than the intended vegetable. They taste great and make wonderful side dishes or can be integrated into many recipes as you would spinach or other greens you are familiar with. So, don’t waste them! Eat them!

When you generate food waste, you have the option in some cases of pouring it down the drain (garbage disposal), throwing it in your trash or composting it. If you have access to a town or city sewer system, dumping your food waste down the drain may seem quite appealing. Certainly, it is simple. But if you have a septic system, then you know this is not a great idea.

It isn’t a great idea if you have city or town plumbing either. The cost of processing the waste, the potential damage it does to our environment and the burden it places on society all make it a rather thoughtless and selfish act.

Throwing it in the garbage tends to have nastier consequences. It draws flies, the waste that builds up needs to be picked up by your garbage pick-up service, and once in the dump, it can draw vermin, birds and animals to the site.

Another consideration, if you are a gardener or have other need for compost, is that it is an incredible waste. Your biodegradable waste can form compost which can be used in your garden or yard and is extremely rich in plant nutrients.

We do recommend, however, especially if you have a smaller yard and don’t live in the country on a multi-acre lot, that you definitely use a composting bin or barrel that can be closed. You can make your own, but do it. Otherwise, the pile will attract some animals and pests you didn’t plan on.

Inevitably, though, pests are drawn to compost bins and heaps. Such flies and other annoyances are best kept distant. You should keep your composter at least 50 feet to 100 feet from your house. If you choose to use a compost heap instead, you should keep at least 100 to 200 yards away from your house.

Also, never keep the heap in your garden. It is tempting, seeing as that is where most of your compost will go, but it draws garden variety pests as well seeking an easy meal. My father liked to keep his compost pile in the garden and consequently had frequent troubles with moles, woodchucks and the like drawn by the available food source, and then they would additionally discover a smorgasbord all around of fresh garden vegetables as well. Just like at the zoo, the best motto is, “Don’t feed the animals”.

Our experience with the composter has been quite interesting. We have had it in place for about a year, and despite pouring all of our food waste into it (no animal waste, bones, pits or solid items) it remains about half full for the past six months. Natures creatures are munching on our waste and creating a very rich black compost. It is a gradual process, especially here in New England, where winter stalls the process, but it delivers rich compost.

Other than the obvious result, it did something else we did not expect. The composter surprise is that it draws flies away from your home. We keep our composter about 100 feet or so from our back door. We cannot smell it from even 10 feet away. But the flies can.
During summer time we were always plagued by fruit flies when our fruit was a bit ripe. A ripe banana or other fruit would draw them like, well, flies. We did not like to have fruit in the house during the summer primarily because of this. This was especially true of bananas, which we could not refrigerate.

Since utilizing the compost bin, we have not seen a single fruit fly in the house and have fewer house flies. The odor draws them away from the house. We now have fruit at the ready available to eat all summer long, and the flies are happy helping us generate compost rather than annoying us in our kitchen.

All around, the composter is a great idea. It is ecologically friendly, cutting back discarded waste. We get compost from it, obviously. And it draws flies and insects away from our home. You should definitely get one, even if you never thought of it before. As your waste disappears into usable compost, you are doing yourself and your environment a huge favor.

What to throw in your compost bin:

1. Vegetable waste of any kind. This would include waste products from making your salads, rotted vegetables, and anything that didn’t go over at dinner. We even put in an entire large pumpkin and it disappeared within 2 weeks or so into compost. Just don’t add anything hard like an avocado pit. They take too long to compost. Some say not to use cooked vegetables as well. YMMV.

2. Fruit waste. This is pretty much anything you would expect left over after eating or preparing your fruit or making fruit juice, but no hard items such as peach pits or mango pits.

3. Coffee Grounds. These add a great medley of nutrients that are very beneficial to your lawn or garden. You can apply them directly, but they are great in compost as well.

4. Fish waste including skin, fish heads, etc. Just about anything from a fish is great for the compost bin. Just no shells that will take forever to compost. Note, if your compost is close to the house, or you are using a compost heap, you may want to skip this recommendation.

5. Egg shells. Nice calcium source.

6. Some cooked meat waste is fine, but get it out of the house fast. No bones. Note to only do this inside a compost bin or it will attract pests. And no raw meat. If pests do become a problem such as raccoons and the like, stop adding meat.

7. Stale or garbage pasta, bread or rice. Note to only do this inside a compost bin or it will attract pests.

8. Leaves, just don’t overdo it. Don’t rake your yard into your compost bin. Mulch them instead.

9. Grass. Again, just don’t overdo it. Mulch it as well in large amounts.

10. Used paper towels and napkins (only if used to clean up spills of wipe your face at dinner). Do not compost towels used with chemicals and only compost towels and napkins that are made from all natural products.

11. Cheese and milk products. Note again, to only compost them in a sealed compost bin. They will attract pests in an open compost heap.

12. Horse or Cow manure.

13. All cotton underwear or socks.

What not to add:

1. Bones

2. Pits

3. Weeds, and this is most important. Weeds often have seeds that will survive the composting process. Then the compost will carry the weeds to the garden or lawn where it is applied.

4. Tomato clippings or cuttings from garden plants. Many plants acquire disease, and even though composting may kill most of bacteria and viruses, we still think it advisable to avoid composting them and potentially spreading disease.

5. Branches or any solid yard waste.

6. Newspaper & junk mail, we have seen some recommendations to compost your newspaper and junk mail. Don’t do it. Ink is not a healthy addition to your garden, especially not colored ink. We have seen it said that many newspapers have changed over to vegetable based dyes which are safer, but we would rather not trust that until we know for sure.

7. Used tissues. These are disease spreaders. It is unclear if the diseases could survive the composting process, but we don’t want it in our garden.

8. Human or pet feces, we have seen some recommendations saying you can use it. Don’t. However, horse manure and cow manure are fine.

9. Fat or used vegetable oil. It can attract pests, but it also can interfere with the friendly critters involved in the composting process.

Our little garden may be no exception this year. One plant showed signs of sickness and we had to pull this one out to hopefully prevent spread of the disease. We immediately treated the area with a relatively strong, but organic, fungicide, Neem.  And we may continue to treat our plants weekly now that disease has reared its ugly head.  These diseases can spread rapidly and within two to four weeks, every plant could be showing signs.

Ripping out the entire plant may seem a bit draconian, but one plant is small pickings relative to our entire crop.  It is extremely disturbing seeing this type of disease this early.  We are usually well into July or early August before we see any signs.  Perhaps we are just more alert to the dangers after the past few years and are considerably more aware of what we see.

This one is looking like either early blight or septoria leaf spot. Both are fungal diseases, and we will be doing our best to nip this problem in the bud.  Unfortunately, we did notice one neighbor that plants his tomatoes annually in the shade, with signs of the disease on several plants already.  He unfortunately plants his tomatoes much too close, thinking more is  better, and also plants them in an area with no light.  Lack of sunlight helps the disease spread as does overcrowding.

When you let it happen to your plants, you could end up impacting your entire neighborhood or even local growers.  Often, novice gardeners are not aware of the trouble they cause and disease they spread.  If you are going to grow a garden, limit it to the few plants you can grow well.  Planting 4 plants that all remain healthy and have a nice yield is vastly preferable to 16 sickly plants with substandard yield and with the potential to spread disease to everyone else’s gardens after all their hard work.

Don’t be greedy.  If you want more plants, dedicate more space to your garden.

Taken June 27th 2010. Planted in early May 2010.

What can we do?

Continue reading the article “Plant Disease” here…

A “side crop” by our definition, is a crop of vegetables you plant alongside your intended crop. Say, for example, you planted an onion patch. You notice there are huge gaps between your plants and it seems like such wasted space. So, you grab a packet of seeds and throw some in the soil with the hope that you will make use that wasted earth.

Radishes are ideal for this role as a secondary crop. They grow much faster than just about any traditional garden vegetable often reaching maturity within 30 days. Most other plants take two to five times as long to yield a crop of edible goodies. This allows you to grow and harvest radishes in the voids while you wait.

Radishes are quite delicious once mature, but they also make amazing sprouts. The entire plant is edible from the roots to the greens. When you plant radishes, if they come up too close to each other, you must weed out the weaker plants. But never fear, they are quite tasty on your salad, sandwich or just as an interesting healthy snack In fact, radish sprouts can be grown solely for that purpose. We occasionally plant a small pot of radish seeds and pluck them when they reach about an inch or two in height for this exact reason.

Radishes are also used by farmers for reasons one may not expect. Research has shown that radishes help other plants grow! So planting radishes prepares soil for the planting of other crops and naturally and organically provides nutrients to other plants.

“…forage radishes bore holes into the ground, loosening the soil. The radishes capture, store, and then release nutrients back into the soil, so they also can reduce the need for fertilizer in the spring.” – The CS Monitor

Radishes, we have found, also provide another great purpose we had not thought of until we used them in some of our planting spaces. They displace weeds. Normally, weeds grow much faster than the desired plant and overrun your garden, but the radishes act as natural soil cover and grow fast and strong, displacing weeds that would otherwise have occupied the same space. Essentially, they are living mulch.

Check out our radish plants in the garden.

How do you plant them?

It is this simple, assuming you have some radish seeds.

1. Soften the soil with a rake, hoe or shoevel.
2. Sow the seeds in about a half inch gully or just sprinkle them about in the softened soil.
3. Rake the soil back over the seeds.

Whoops, is that it? When you water your other plants, the seeds will sprout.

We recommend that you look for radish seeds on the cheap. We picked up a number of them last year for 10c a packet. Many have not discovered the wonders of garden radishes, so they tend not to be as popular as the standard garden faire. When you see them in a dollar store or elsewhere for bargain basement prices, grab a few packets. Then throw them in your garden and reap benefit from this garden marvel.