To any and all newbies who drop by as a result of the article in Matador, welcome! Please feel free to look around, check out the videos, and let us know what you think in the comments or by email.
Thanks for stopping by!
Samson, Mom, and the rest of the family
Posted in announcement | Leave a Comment »
Taraxacum officinale
The name dandelion is a corruption of the French dent de lion meaning lions tooth which refers to the shape of the leaves. Dandelions are little power houses. You can use all parts, flowers, leaves, roots even the seed heads, which automatically prompts you to make a wish. Also, ever notice that there are no dandelion puffs right before a rain? They all drop off so they are ready for a good drenching when the rain arrives. This gets them a head start on reseeding themselves. Leaves taste best when they are young. Like some older people I know they get bitter as they get older. So leave them alone. However, in the fall after a hard frost the bitterness is dispersed and you can enjoy them once again. I wish this worked the same way on people.
The white stuff in the leaves and stems is natural latex. In a pinch it will re-stick that stamp you pulled off and saved because it didn’t get cancelled by the Post Office. It works.
One ounce of the fresh leaf contains large amounts of Vit A, calcium, sodium, potassium, and trace elements. The root of the plant is the part most often used for healing purposes. It is a blood cleanser. Good for cleansing the liver, kidney and gall bladder. Collected in either the spring or fall, fresh dandelion roots can be peeled parboiled and sautéed to be served as a tasty vegetable.
Many European herbalist regard dandelion as one of the best herbs for building the blood and curing anemic conditions. I grab a leaf and pop it in my mouth when I am watering it. It’s all good.
Because of the dandelion and its yellow flower that we see so often I am adding a feature so we can preserve the flowers for later. The new feature making Flower essences. It is very easy to do, packs a wallop medicinally and can be used with any flowers. So, here is more about the dandelion and a feature on how to make flower essence.
dandelion
http://www.learningherbs.com/dandelion_coffee.html
That Learning Herbs site above is a very interesting site on wildcrafting. It also offered a wildcrafting game for kids ages 4-adult that I had to have. It arrived yesterday. It is very clever. I particularly like the cooperation aspect of the game (Nothing like monopoly, which I always hated). The idea is to get to the huckleberry patch, pick 2 pails of huckleberries and then back to grandma’s before dark. You have trouble along the way, scraped knees, bee sting, etc and the plants with pictures explaining which ones to use for the trouble. What is really cool is you can share the plants you have collected, help players that are falling behind by picking berries for them or giving them your turn. You win when everyone arrives safely back to grandma’s house. It can be played in conjunction with an online webpage that enhances the story and details on the other plants on the board. I learned some stuff I didn’t know and that is always fun. This is not a Milton Bradley production. This s a Family operation and it is very unique. Guess what the grand kids are getting for Christmas?
Flower EssencesYou just have to try this. I have bought Bach’s flower essences before, Major (my puppy dog) and I are partial to Rescue Remedy. Couple drops under the tongue calms everything down, but they are expensive, $11.95 for .25 ounce. I didn’t have a lot of dandelions so I used what I had, red clover, yarrow, honeysuckle violets and borage. Instructions said do flowers separately. As you can see I don’t always follow the directions. I put everything into one bowl.
Bowl of Flowers for essence
I am going to give you a quick rundown of what I did and then you check out the link below for more details.
Flower essence recipe: http://www.thedance.com/herbs/flhow.htm
Curly dock in the fall
Curly dock is easy to spot in the late summer or early fall. It’s tall red seed stock is a head turner in open fields. Related to Buckwheat and rhubarb. The seeds are a great deep yellow dye source. You use the root at this stage. Dock root has a reputation among herbalists as an effective tonic and cleanser for the whole system. They use it to strengthen the circulatory system, the blood, liver, kidneys, and bladder. Dock has been identified as a laxative. A tea made from the root of the plant is famous in Chinese medicine as a treatment for chronic constipation. Good to know if you are on Vicodin. You don’t boil dock like other roots, you steep it. Place a teaspoon of chopped up dock in a cup and pour boiling water over it to the very top. Cover it and let it steep for 30 minutes. Drain, reheat and drink.
Top pic is Curly dock in the fall. The pic bottom left is curly dock in the middle of summer. It’s a perennial so you could use the root at this point. Don’t eat the leaves now too bitter. Pic bottom right is Spring dock. Eat the leaves now. Nice lemony taste.
Curly dock mid summer
Curly dock in the spring
Here is more information on what to do with dock. http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/cook/RUMEX_CRISPUS.htm
Find it – Jewelweed – ID it
This is a good one to find especially when you are out wildcrafting and come in contact with Poison Ivy/Oak. I just recently found this plant for the first time while I was collecting spring water. There was poison oak everywhere and right next to the poison oak was this little flower that looked like a baby orchid. I picked it and took it home to id it and it was jewelweed. The indians say that a cure is within arms reach. I can attest to the power of this little plant. Cassie gets poison oak really bad. We have tried a lot of things to relieve the itching. Jewelweed is one of the best topical applications we found that really helped. Here is a video that gives a good closeup of the plant.
and here is a more detailed explanation of Jewelweed.
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Jewelweed.html
Wow, I am over my limit again. There is just so much to talk about. More wildcrafting next week.
Wildcrafting part 1 Getting Started
Wildcrafting part 2 Mugwort, Wormwood, Yarrow and Red Clover And a conversation with God and St. Francis.
Wildcrafting part 4: The CAT’S MEOW A LIFESAVING PLANT
Posted in community, nature, plant identification, sustainability | Tagged curly dock, dandelions, Jewelweed, poison ivy, poison oak, Wildcrafting, yellow dock | 5 Comments »
Mugwort-Artemisia vulgaris
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mugwor61.html
I have to tell you Mugwort and Wormwood are very close. They are related and they are both good herbs to wildcraft. So here is a pic and description of Wormwood. Two for the price of one.
Wormwood-Artemisia absinthium
The leaves on the wormwood are more deeply lobed and more of a silvery color than the mugwort. Wormwood is a great find and has quite a history. It is one of those biblical herbs as is fennel and yarrow.
http://www.herbsociety-stu.org/bible_herbs.htm
Yarrow-Achillea millefolium
http://www.altnature.com/gallery/yarrow.htm
Yarrow comes in pink, white and yellow. A reader was nice enough to point out that the white yarrow and not the yellow as I had originally posted, is the native. Good to be able to set the record straight. Thanks Judith.
Native yarrow is very prolific and reseeds itself almost desperately which is good because there is so much you can do with it. I just learned you can take one leaf, chop it up and put it on your compost pile to speed up decomposition. Works so well with other herbs too.
Red Clover-Trifolium pratense
http://www.herbwisdom.com/herb-red-clover.html
You can find red clover everywhere. Red is really pink and there is a white clover but the medicinal properties are different. It also reseeds itself and is, as is with all clovers, great for the soil. All the herbs I have mentioned here that are so beneficial and part of the wildcrafting art are regarded as weeds by the makers and producers of lawns. Ortho and Scotts have weed killers to protect the precious over pampered, waste of space we call lawns from the likes of Mother Nature.
How to use:
Dose may vary from person to person, but general guidelines are as follows:
As you might guess I am not a fan of lawns. I am sorry. They are nice to look at when they are all green and manicured. As a kid I hand mowed about a quarter of an acre of lawn every week which I actually enjoyed doing. I don’t like lawns because I think today they are a colossal waste of time, money, water and effort. Josh, #2 son, sent this to me about a year ago knowing how I feel about lawns. This is right on and what we call garden humor. Enjoy.
GOD: Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.
ST. FRANCIS: It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers “weeds” and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
GOD: Grass? But it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It’s temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week.
GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?
ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
ST. FRANCIS: No Sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.
GOD: Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?
ST. FRANCIS: Yes, Sir.
GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.
ST. FRANCIS: You aren’t going to believe this Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.
GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It’s a natural circle of life.
ST. FRANCIS: You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?
ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.
GOD: And where do they get this mulch?
ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.
GOD: Enough. I don’t want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have they scheduled for us tonight?”
ST. CATHERINE: “Dumb and Dumber”, Lord. It’s a really stupid movie about…..
GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.
Happy Crafting.
Wildcrafting part 1 Starter Guide
Wildcrafting part 2 Mugwort (bonus plant Wormwood) Yarrow, chickweed, and red clover
Wildcrafting part 3 dandelions and making flower essences
Wildcrafting part 4 The Cat’s Meow-A Real Lifesaver
Posted in community, diy, health & beauty, nature, organic, organic gardening, plant identification | Tagged Mugwort, red clover, Wildcrafting, wormwood, yarrow | 6 Comments »
http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2010/12/23/wikileaks_cables_reveal_us_sought_to
http://www.naturalnews.com/030637_GMO_sugar_beets.html#ixzz17PTsJVAm
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030902_GMOs_Australia.html#ixzz19xG51U4i
January 3, 2011
It just keeps getting better and better.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030896_Monsanto_collapse.html#ixzz19xGq7KUN
Posted in community, GE, Genetically Modified Organism, GM, gmo | Tagged court overturns sugar beet ruling, court rulings on monsanto, latest info on Monsanto, Monsanto | Leave a Comment »
Wildcrafting is the ancient art of taking care of yourself by taking care of Mother Nature. A tried and true method of not only survival and sustainability, but also a way of promoting abundance, diversity and showing gratitude to dear old MOM who is always looking to shower us with blessings. It is a way of collecting seeds, nuts, plants, roots, flowers from the wild. Before there was processed food and drive thru, before refrigerators or farms or agri business, before the neanderthal or the missing link there was wildcrafting. Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it ( Cole Porter lyrics ) Let’s do it… Let’s wildcraft.
For starters understand the principal. Mother Nature provides us with everything we need to survive. There is quite an etiquette that goes with wildcrafting. A whole bunch of rules that are spelled out for people who have lost all touch and connection with their roots. What once was obvious natural behavior practiced by indigenous people whose life depended on knowing the rules has become a lost art. Here are the rules. http://home.klis.com/~chebogue/p.conWild.html Read them and understand them before you head out into the wild blue yonder.
For now just apply good common sense.
When you have graduated to the next step you will need to check with local authorities and see what plants require a picking permit. Some herbs like the fiddle fern and Echinacea are protected. Some areas are protected. Check to make sure. You don’t want to be picking protected plants in restricted areas. In the mean time, Trust me. Mom has a lot of goodies up her sleeve and there usually is an abundance of what you need and can use within arms reach. So let’s get started in our own backyard and neighborhood.
Clean pickings is important. No pesticides, herbicides, snail, or rat poison, or roundup around. If you don’t know, leave it alone. Getting a positive ID is critical. Know your plants. Mother Nature has a wonderful way of mimicking herself. This is especially true in the mushroom department. So we are not going to do mushrooms here. You need an expert in this area. One mushroom with an ever so slight variation hardly visible to the human eye can be the deadly mimic to the edible variety.
An entire group of Maidu Indians died from collecting mushrooms from their usual foraging spot. The mushrooms had been contaminated with a wild spore that they had no way of knowing had settled on the mushrooms. This put me off of hunting mushrooms on my own.
Wild carrots, fennel and poisonous hemlock have exactly the same flower arrangement the only difference is hemlock has a spotted hollow stem. We are going to start you off wildcrafting in familiar surroundings. This will teach you how to look for plants, see plants, and learn about their secret life.
Here is a picture of my front yard.
It is 5‘x10’ and has over 100 wild herbs. spices, domestic and foreign. Can you find the yarrow, spearmint, ginger, horseradish, mustard, burdock, motherwort, vervain, ephedrine, fennel, wild radish, red clover, wooly mullein, scarlet pimpernel, dandelion, mugwort, violets, sage, comfrey, jasamine, rose hips, lavender, rosemary, honeysuckle, aloe, millet, onions, nasturtiums, plantain, borage, thyme, yellow sulfur plant, knot weed, curly dock, geraniums, apple, lemon, apricots, guava, cherry, bamboo, cattail and I still have not found a good use for crab grass but it’s there. I can promise you this wildcrafting can become an obsession.
I will do three plants per blog. Lets start with the common scarlet pimpernel. This is a little darling. So many uses. Find it.
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/pimper33.html
Next. Salsify.
When I first saw this in the wild I thought I had found a new source of gold. This huge over sized dandelion looking seed pod shimmered like spun gold in the sunlight. The wildflower book describes the color as brown but I am telling you it is gold. It grows wild. Brought some seeds home and it grew. The root looks like a carrot and taste like an oyster. Leaves are eatable. Taste best if harvested before it flowers. Find it.
Here is how you pronounce it and more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlUVTPokwh4
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artsalsify.html
Plantain (not the banana) Another one of those hidden treasures with secret powers. There is broad leaf and English plantain. Picture is English variety. The parallel venation is a dead give away. The Indians chewed a leaf (saliva is the secret ingredient) mixed it with sap from the pine tree applied to splinters, etc. foreign objects needing to be removed, and within 24 hours the object was drawn out. Find it.
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/placom43.html
(Note: I endorse these links because I like them. They are not advertisements, and I get no kickbacks. That’s nice huh?)
More next week
Part 2 Wildcrafting: Mugwort, Wormwood, Yarrow, and Red Clover
Part 3 Wildcrafting Dandelions, Curly dock, Jewelweed & Making flower essences
Part 4: Wildcrafting: The CAT’S MEOW A LIFESAVING PLANT
Posted in community, health & beauty, nature, plant identification, sustainability, sustainable lifestyle | Tagged foraging, mustard, plantain, scarlet pimpernel, surviving in the wild, wild foraging, Wildcrafting, yarrow | 3 Comments »
The signers of the Declaration of Independence were from all walks of life with different points of view and political beliefs. Not unlike our current Congress. And yet,they could all agreed on one single fact. King George III, Monarch of England was a tyrant. The Declaration of Independence indicted the king for Britain’s misdeeds. George III’s rhetorical transformation from symbol of monarchical benevolence to tyrant provided the ultimate justification for revolution.
The Declaration of Independence was our first breath, our first heart beat that separated us at birth from the tyrannical despot Mother England. You can not read the Declaration of Independence today without realizing that there is not one grievance in the Declaration that does not exist today. 234 years ago these grievances were found to be so intolerable and egregious as to cause a revolution. If we need a reason to declare our independence from a tyrannical and unruly mob that is our government then all the right reasons are all here, Read it and Weep.
The equivalent to a Declaration of Independence is a Writ of Mandate. A Writ uses all the tools available in a democracy to overrule a corrupt Congress. A Writ has the power to order elected officials to do certain things like uphold the Constitution. It is a revolution without the blood. A Writ is a court order so Congress is duty bound to obey the order or be in contempt. You could end up in jail on a contempt charge. I think a Writ would work very nicely on the issue of Campaign Finance Reform. And that would just be the first of many reforms we could enable using a Writ. A Writ of Mandate is democracy in action. With this latest development and the suspension of the First amendment I feel We need to do something pretty quick folks because it seems like we are losing it.
Posted in community | Tagged Declaration of Independence, July 4 2010, Obama suspends First Amendment | 4 Comments »
How to Make Mayo in a Blender. (Why?)
Over the past year or so we have blogged about sustainability and how to make a transition to a more practical and healthy lifestyle. We have talked about GMO’s, dirt, worms, native plants, container gardening, companion gardening, safe sex in the garden, GMO’s, clotheslines vs. clothes dryers, blue belly lizards and Lyme disease and of course GMO’s. How to make Mayo in a Blender seems a little off topic. A subject perhaps that was not even a blip on your radar screen of things you need to know.
I can hear you thinking “ I don’t care about how to make mayo.” “Is that really important in living a sustainable lifestyle?” “Learning how to grow healthy food and kids now that is important and something I can relate to.” It is true you can live without mayonnaise. If everything came to a screeching halt and you couldn’t get mayo well that would not be the end of the world. So, where am I going with this anyway? Have I finally jumped the tracks and run amok? Not exactly.
This is about way more than making mayo. This is about you learning how to read between the lines. This is about you learning how to learn. This is about you doing something that you didn’t ‘think’ you could do or didn’t think was that important. This is all about you.
Our shows and blogs gave you a reason why you needed to change things. And then we showed you what happened when you made the change. We showed you the pitfalls and mistakes and changes and adjustments we had to make along the way. The Clothesline episode was a real learning experience on so many levels. And our first Garden with the Giant Mutant Sunflowers and out of control tomatoes well, we shared it all. We showed you a direct correlation between cause and effect. Always the choice to do it was entirely in your hands.
Making Mayo is going one step further. Making Mayo is about you coming up with the reason why you need to know this and discovering for yourself how it will affect your attitude and approach to life.
“Really?” All that is going to happen from learning how to make Mayo in a Blender? Whatever. O.k. Here are some of the reasons I think you will make. “This is not important to me. I haven’t got time to do this. This doesn’t make any sense to me. This is silly. I don’t want to know how to make Mayo in a blender. I don’t really care about this.” If you think any of these responses were a good reason not to learn how to do this then let me point out what was really going on in your mind.
All of the above responses were excuses why you couldn’t do it and not reasons why you need to do it. What you were really saying was, “I don’t think I can do it. What if I make a mistake? I don’t want to fail. What if it doesn’t turn out? I have never done this before. I don’t know how to do this.”
The point of this whole exercise and this series that I am Calling Green Eggs and Ham Try it series, is to show that all the reason you need to do something is because you can. You can do this little exercise in how to make Mayo in a blender because you don’t need an excuse not to. You need a reason to do it and the reason is You CAN do it. And I promise you that this is just the first little baby step in a wonderful journey and experience on finding out who you are and what you are capable of. This is about you making changes because you know if you don’t do it someone else will do it for you.
Sure it may not work out exactly according to the instructions then it again it may be better. It may not taste as good as you expected or it may be even better than you expected. Who knows? The point is now You Will know. You don’t have to wonder what the outcome will be or if it will work or what it will taste like, or if you can do it. You will know because you did it and found out for yourself. Now you can make the necessary changes to get the results you want. You can build on this new knowing experience and apply it to everything else in your life. Again, with the wild and extraordinary claims about this silly exercise.
Do you know of any babies that after falling down the first time they tried to walk stayed down and never got back up again. I don’t know of any and why is that? First, babies haven’t learned yet how to make excuses. So getting up and doing it again was the only thing to do and eventually one step leads to another and the race is on. Do you think a baby asks the questions like “where is all this going to lead? What happens next? Why am I doing this? You know the answer to this because you are the answer. You are walking, talking, running, and it all started with one baby step for no other reason than because you could.
Making Mayo is you taking your first steps outside of your comfort zone. This is a baby step.
Now watch this video on how to make Mayo. Make fun of all the grammatical mistakes, the lousy audio, the stumbles and fumbles I make along the way and giggle and laugh at me like I did. I would be the first to admit this is not very professional because I in fact don’t know what the heck I am doing. But that didn’t stop me. I am learning. Nobody starts out perfect. I am getting better. And honestly there is also a real sense of pride and accomplishment in this little piece. I really didn’t think I could ever film myself and even more remote was the idea of editing this to make a video. I love proving myself wrong more than anybody. I was really surprised and absolutely delighted with how much I was able to do just by doing it. I am not expecting an Oscar. But who knows? If I keep doing it maybe it will happen.
I promise you, you will learn something not only about yourself but also about the world around you. I promise it will trigger something else in your brain that will lead to other adventures you never knew existed. Now do it. Make this Mayo in a blender. You know why. Because you can.
Posted in community | Tagged blender mayo, learning, making mayo | Leave a Comment »
June 24 ,2010
Who in Congress is a Monsanto lover and opposes labeling GMO’s? Find out here and take action. http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob230.htm#SEC3 Also Dennis Kucinich has 3 bills in Congress related to labeling GMO’s. Here in California Feinstein is a Monsanto lover. But Barbara Boxer is co-sponsoring labeling legislation with Kucinich. Barbara’s got my vote.
June 21, 2010
Huffington Post
Supreme Court Case a Defeat for Monsanto’s Ambitions
This is not a break out the Champagne decision but it is sure worth a good glass of wine.
What does this mean?
The trial court based its injunction on its finding that, in approving the use of the alfalfa seed without conducting an EIS, USDA had failed to answer substantial questions concerning the extent to which deregulation would lead to the transmission of genetic traits to the crops of organic and conventional farmers and also whether the deregulation of the Roundup Ready Alfalfa would lead to the development of Roundup Ready Weeds.
This is the real news to take from today’s Supreme Court ruling – farmers and ordinary citizens concerned about the potential harms of GMOs have surmounted the essential threshold legal issue of whether they have standing to sue – a question the nation’s highest court answered today with a resounding “Yes!”
This site called ecocentric explains the ruling in lay terms.
June 5,2010
Tell Congress to Label Genetically Modified Foods!
Non-GMO Month Planning Updates
This October, retailers across the country will celebrate the first ever Non-GMO Month, putting the spotlight on Non-GMO Project Verified food and products. Coordinated by UNFI, Whole Foods Market, INFRA and the NCGA, in collaboration with the Non-GMO Project, Non-GMO Month will raise consumer awareness about the GMO issue and celebrate consumers’ right to choose non-GMO. A Non-GMO Day on October 10th (10.10.10) will feature speakers, film screenings and other educational events.
Vendors who enroll in the Non-GMO Project before June 15th will receive free ad space in UNFI’s October Specials catalogue. Contact us now to participate in this and other exclusive promotional opportunities!
Retailers interested in bringing Non-GMO Month to your store are encouraged to complete our online registration form.
I am thinking about printing up this registration form and taking it to some local stores to see if they would like to participate. Then giving them some contact info and see what happens.
CODEX, MONSANTO AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER.
MONSANTO AND HEALTH: WHAT DOES IRRADIATED?
MEAN?
http://current.com/technology/89334840_codex-alimentarius-food-and-monsanto.htm
Posted in community | Tagged GE, labeling GMO's, movement to label GMO's, NON GMO project | Leave a Comment »
Tomatoes are America’s most popular home-grown crop.
6 Things You Need to Know to Grow Great Tomatoes.
First: Know your tomatoes.
Vining tomatoes are indeterminate which means they produce all season, need staking. Some indeterminate vining tomatoes are Early Cascade, Early Girl, Quick Pick, Better Boy, Big Girl, Delicious, Beefmaster, Brandywine most cherry types and heirlooms. Grow vertical, tower, Can remove suckers.
Vining Tomatoes
Bush tomatoes are determinate which means they are much more compact and grow and put out all at once. Rutgers, Roma, Celebrity are bush tomatoes. Only grows so high. Great container, patio plant. Removing suckers is not necessary.
Bush tomatoes
Second: Temperature:
Tomatoes stop growing when the temperature is below 50 degrees and above 90 degrees. They can get sunburned. Protect them from hot temperatures over 90 degrees. If the leaves get burned they are now using all their energy to heal themselves and not making tomatoes.
Third: Planting:
When planting tomatoes take all but the first 3 set of leaves off the plant and bury up to the bottom set. This makes more roots. The more roots you have the more plant you have. The more plant you have the more tomatoes you have.
Fourth: Water:
Nothing likes wet feet except bog plants. Keep Soil Moist but not wet. Water early morning so the plants have a chance to dry off during the day. Only water the roots. Don’t get the foliage wet. Water droplets can burn holes in the leaves. Moist, damp conditions promote fungus, disease and invite insects.
Fifth: Fertilizer:
Tomatoes are heavy feeders. Feed them organic fertilizer like worm tea, bat guano, fish emulsion once a week. To encourage root growth put a little Epsom salt around the plant. Magnesium sulfate encourages root growth. Healthy roots, healthy plant. Roses love a shot of Epsom salt too.
Need to Know: NPK nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (N-P-K)
Represented with numbers like 6-4-6. First number is percentage of N Nitrogen. This grows leaves. Makes plants grow faster and greener. Lawns like a lot of nitrogen. Tomatoes not so much.
Second number is P phosphorus: Phosphorous aids in root development and increases flowering ability and bloom size. Bone meal is high in phosphorus great for bulbs and petunias. Tomatoes not so much. It is all about balance. Too much of a good thing is still too much.
Third number is K Potassium or Potash. This aids stems and branches.
Stems are the transportation system that carries nutrients and water to all parts of the plant. Good source of K wood ashes, compost, manure (well seasoned)
The key here is a good healthy soil that has all the organic ingredients necessary. Make the plant work by giving it a healthy environment and it will thrive. Too much false stimulation from inorganic fertilizers like Miracle Grow makes the plants lazy and they become addicted to fertilizers and forget how to grow. Worm tea is alive with microorganisms. Works with plants and soil.
Fifth: Mulch.
Cover with at least 2 inches of grass clippings and/or wood chips. This provides weed control, nutrients and prevents water evaporation.
Sixth: Sunshine
Tomatoes, like onions, need at least 8 hours of sunlight to do their thing.
That’s it. You are good to go.
Little food for thought: Tomatoes are by botanical definition a fruit because they have seeds, as do peppers, green beans, squash and cucumbers. Tomatoes got reclassified a veggie to avoid a tariff on fruit production. Oh well, that makes more sense at least when it comes to ingredients I would use in a fruit salad. Bon appetite.
Posted in community | Tagged 6 tricks to growing great tomatoes, determinate tomatoes, fertilizer for tomatoes, fish emulsion, grow great tomatoes, indeterminate tomatoes, NPK, worm tea for tomatoes | Leave a Comment »
Flanders field
So much tension in the world today. The torpedo incident between North and South Korea. The unprecedented BP disaster in the Gulf. The Israeli attack on an aid ship to the Gaza. German President resigns over remarks on the Military. 1500 Indian Farmers Commit Mass
I am trying to make sense out of all this. And I am not having an easy time of it. Writing about how to grow bigger tomatoes, or keep the bugs at bay seems trite in comparison to current events. I know there is always something happening and going on in the world though to be honest I could not tell you what was happening last year at this time when I was writing about Bamboo and Natives plants. These time seem different. The intensity, severity and the sheer magnitude of recent events seems to be compounding its effect. Little is getting resolved or fixed before something else collides into the mix.
I had to get a blog up but nothing seemed appropriate. That is until this morning. This seems appropriate. This video offers information we could all use and when applied to our lives could have a lasting and beneficial effect.
There is something for everyone. Scientific proof, appeal to reason, and a feeling that connects us all together as human beings. By explaining, in this very engaging format, what is going on with the human race does help to explain why I am feeling the way I do. Not much has changed except perhaps a better understanding of who I am. And for whatever reason this seems to make a difference. I guess all it takes to change the world is a change of heart.
Hope you enjoy this and if you find it worth while please pass it on. It is titled Empathic Civilisation.
Posted in community | Tagged civilization, disasters, empathic civilisation, empathy, feeling, feeling bad, feeling better, gulf disaster, understanding ourselves, worlds a mess | Leave a Comment »
 | goji actives curitib… on Kowabunga Let’s go … |
 | Blanca on Play with your Food. Have FUN… |
 | aseacaptainsdaughter on Play with your Food. Have FUN… |
Current episode! Upcoming local events
Mom
Izik
Denette
samsonblackwell
Hole in the Fence 
You must be logged in to post a comment.