Depends on how they are grown. Take a look at this article titled The Green Revolution by Adam Federson at http://www.energybulletin.net/19525.html . While the article gets off to a rather dark start, it ends on a hopeful note. And the good news is that since you are reading this blog and other postings on the Kitchen Gardeners website you are probably already a part of the solution.
Thankfully, t's not me wearing the panty hose, it's the squash. My 30' x 60' raised bed garden does not have the luxury of space for sprawling plants. So to have my squash and eat it too, I trellis them. Only these Buttercups got bigger than expected, forcing a little creative intervention to keep them from breaking off the vine before theyget ripe. Better they wear them than me!
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I don't even have any ripe tomatoes yet but I've already salted them. A friend of mine, John Langlois of Foggy Bottom Farms (www.foggybottomfarms.com) turned me on to a new, all natural product that is derived from the sea. Actually, it's not salt as we think of it, but is a concentration of over 90 essential trace mineral that comes from naturally dehydrated sea water. At first, I was highly skeptical and concerned about damaging my soil and my plants. The word 'salt' just kept sticking in my mind. But John is a progressive organic farmer with a talent for findiing unusual yet outstanding products. Since this bright guy had ordered 500 lbs of it for his garden, I decided to try it, too. So far, I'm pleased to report that things are going quite well.
After the initial application was tilled into the soil, I kept waiting to see a big boost in growth. But that didn't happen. Instead, gradually over the past 5 weeks the tomato plants have gotten larger, more stout that normal and without a trace of disease. The same for the beans, eggplant, squash and cucumbers. The early harvest of squash and cucumbers even tasted better than usual, offering a slightly richer flavor. Diluted applications in the form of a foliar spray which I am applying every two weeks seem to really help keep the diseases under control - something that is quite an accomplishment here is the very humid South. It's even held back the notorious black spot on most of the roses. Of course, to keep the vegetables and flowers in top shape it has still necessary to keep up with regular applications of organic pest controls, too.
I'll keep you posted on this experiment as the season progresses. In the meantime, if you are curious you can check out www.SeaAgri.com. They aren't paying me to endorse their product. I just believe in passing on a good thing to other gardeners when I find it. Afterall, good goes around.
On a recent, unseasonably warm day we discovered this 'green' anole sunning himself in our garden. Green anoles turn brown when temperatures drop below 60 degrees. He willingly posed for several photographs and blinked kindly at me when I thanked him for visiting us. I hope he will stick around. Our organic garden provides a safe haven for him. His only real worry is a hungry hawk.
I found the following article in the Organic Consumers Association Newsletter dated 11/30/05. It makes some excellent arguments for eating locally grown foods. Some of the statistics are rather startling. Read on!
Gas Guzzling Food
Sustainable Business
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/features/feature_template.cfm?ID=1275
The SUV in the Pantry
by Thomas Starrs
I spend a fair amount of time thinking about how to reduce my family's
dependence on energy, particularly energy derived from fossil fuels. I
commute to work by bicycle or bus, install compact fluorescents when light
bulbs burn out, replace major appliances with the most efficient ones I can
afford, and cast jealous glances at my friends who drive hybrids or
alternative-fueled vehicles. But until recently, I didn't think of myself as
an energy glutton because of the food I eat.
Then I read an astonishing statistic: It takes about 10 fossil fuel calories
to produce each food calorie in the average American diet. So if your daily
food intake is 2,000 calories, then it took 20,000 calories to grow that
food and get it to you. In more familiar units, this means that growing,
processing and delivering the food consumed by a family of four each year
requires the equivalent of almost 34,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, or
more than 930 gallons of gasoline (for comparison, the average U.S.
household annually consumes about 10,800 kWh of electricity, or about 1,070
gallons of gasoline). [Webnote: This last sentence should read... "for comparison, the average U.S. household annually consumes about 10,800 kWh of electricity, AND about 1,070 gallons of gasoline"] **Please see OCA webnote at foot of this article**
In other words, we use about as much energy to grow our food as to power our
homes or fuel our cars.
To view the entire article paste this link into your browser:
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/features/feature_template.cfm?ID=1275
Even though this is not directly related to kitchen gardening, most gardeners have a reverence for trees so I thought this was worthy of sharing. Wish my chainsaw-happy neighbors would take note. Perhaps rising energy costs will indirectly save some trees.
From The Real Dirt Newsletter / Organicgardening.com
Trees Are Cool
According to the USDA, the cooling effect of a healthy tree is equal to 10 room-size air-conditioners operating 20 hours a day. Planting trees in our cities will absorb 33 million tons of CO2 every year and save $4 billion in energy costs, says the National Wildlife Federation.
Sowing a seed is a gesture of hope for things to come, and of faith that the natural order of life is at work, bringing to us nourishment for the body, mind and spirit.
copyright ammyers 2005
