NO State of the Garden Report because September stinks

Sorry, but it's still in the 90s. I did finally discover a crop of radishes struggling out of the ground and mixed among them, a tiny sprig of carrot or two. And I finally saw one--exactly one--sprig of lettuce coming up. I should mark that one and save the seed from it.

With that in mind, I'll instead review a book about seed saving and much more.




The Third Plate

Field Notes on the Future of Food

by Dan Barber

Wow. Chef with a conscience. Does he overstate the importance of Master Chefs' ability to influence the direction of everyday eating?  Maybe, but he's onto something, too. When The Restaurant Scene turns its focus to a food, then everyone has to have it--from Ruths Chris to Golden Corral. And in the case of bluefin tuna, prosciutto, or even the kindly avocado, environmental destruction follows.

His journey in search of really sustainable agriculture and really tasty eats takes him all over. It's a delicious ride. You get to visit a fish farming operation off the coast of Spain; you meet the geese of Eduardo Sousa in Extremadura; you travel with wheat and corn over the ages and the continents. And best of all--you get to make up your own mind. No preaching. Well, yes, preaching, but no absolutes. There are many roads that lead to heaven...and on right through it. He's looking to the future--of food!

Points: where is this fixation on 'heirloom fruits and vegetables' leading us?  An heirloom variety is one that is uniquely suited to perform well and taste great in a particular time and place. Which isn't now and isn't here.  To have good tasting food, are we limited to living in the past?  My answer is easy--the Brandywine tomato plant I grew produced a great tasting fruit. I enjoyed it very much. Note my adjectives--'a' and 'it'. Wish there'd been a second one.

But we are not stuck in the past--we can go on producing great tasting, productive regional varieties of tomatoes in modern days, if we just choose to try our hands at selected the best seed and passing it around.  And the same goes for other crops--but we've got a difficult row to hoe.  Big Ag has the market cornered.

Here's a take on GMOs you probably never considered. One of the first successful uses of genetic modification was to put a gene in corn that let it withstand the herbicide roundup. Farmers could go on spraying roundup right on the corn, all summer long. That right there is enough to creep me out. But there's more--GMO seeds can be patented. What does that do to the traditions of farmers who want to save the 'best seeds' for replanting or developing new varieties?  Why do farmers have to give up their birthright--to save seeds, try experiments, and improve the crop? We've been doing it for 8000 years--let's not give it up without a fight!