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I feel as if I’m in a bizarre Wonderland that is unfortunately called the political reality in America! The faster I run towards devouring new information about the negative health effects of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup Ready (RR) herbicide) and GMOs, the more I’m frustrated by the continuing attacks on our body politic by Monsanto and their minions. 
We’ve raided the shelves of the Kailing library to create a list of books that cover a wide range of topics and represent thinking separated by thousands of years. These books are centered on the relationship we have with the earth and each other, with our communities and surrounding ecosystems, with the plants and animals around us, and with the food we eat. 
American agriculture is at a cross-roads: a point where we can either apply our scientific knowledge to create a vibrant and healthful food and farming system for the future, or double down on an outdated model of agriculture that is rapidly undermining our environment and our health. 
I am a novice baker trying my darnedest to learn how to make good bread. I would rather have bought a book by Michael Pollan called Baked. In his book, Cooked Michael talks about his time with guru bakers, farmers, and millers. He reminds us that to make good bread you only need a few basics: flour, water, salt, yeast, time, and heat. Here’s our take on local and regional grain and flour, and baking bread. 
Dr. Chensheng (Alex) Lu, Associate Professor of Environmental Exposure Biology at the Harvard School of Public Health, explains why reducing pesticides in your diet is critical to reducing the toxic effects of pesticide exposure for you and your family. 
It was time to pursue getting the new livestock guardian dog! Our friends, the Klauke’s, who had purchased our ewe lambs a few years earlier, had acquired a breeding pair of Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, and were raising guard dog puppies.The Anatolians were native to Turkey, and were used to guard huge flocks of sheep and goats from wolves on the Anatolian Plain. 
As two Midwesterners who moved to Puget Sound, we found out exactly how little we knew about seafood. After all, the fish we grew up on came out of lakes and streams. Today fishing industries around the world – both finfish and shellfish – are continuing to harvest as large a quantity of fish as possible, mostly without regard to the remaining fish stocks, the environmental effects of wild and farmed catch, and the careful labeling and identification of the product in restaurants and markets. And to make matters worse, we are facing the introduction of genetically engineered fish into the American food system. 
If you think watching a documentary about wild fish sounds boring, this film may well change your mind. It provides sobering insight into the inner workings of government agencies, and includes rare footage of the bureaucrats tasked with food and environmental safety. It reveals how the very agency tasked with protecting wild salmon is actually working to protect the commercial aquaculture industry, to devastating effect. 
I had never seen the cherries so beautiful! The birds and I were in a cherry picking frenzy! There was plenty for all to enjoy, although I did protect one tree with the “famous inflatable fake snake.” The birds would not go near it, but they still were free to stuff themselves on the other two trees. We had been enjoying cherry pies, tarts, coffee cake, and cherry topping for ice cream. It was good that I was getting plenty of exercise! 
It’s Spring and we’ve got strawberries! Well, actually we have strawberry flowers! Fragaria vesca – the wild woodland strawberries native to the Pacific Northwest – are starting to bloom! Those lovely little white flowers (generally 1/2″ to 5/8″ across) begin blooming here in early to mid-April and soon produce tiny sweet fruit. Fruit that is often no bigger than the nail on your little finger. |
 Video: Seed Saving Around the World
Kate Flint, Australian gardener and seed saver, talks about her seed saving passion.
The Growing Revolution is the story of Jubilee Biodynamic Farm in Carnation, Washington.
Pig Mania
Crown S Ranch, Winthrop WA
(Click the image for a larger version.) |
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