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Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Mar 13, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

Planning your garden? Check out the Cool Foods Garden Guide for all kinds of useful help! This is the garden guide I think I've needed my whole life. They break it down so easily, I really think I might be able to grow something!! If only I had a yard...
Bill Marler shares the story of Stephanie Smith. She was a dance instructor when she ate an E. coli-tainted burger at age 20. Now, ate age 21, afer nine months in the hospital (including two in a coma), she hopes to be able to walk again. Wow.
Set your Tivo for HBO's Death on a Factory Farm, premiering March 16 at 10pm. It's a documentary that follows an animal rights undercover investigator for six weeks on a factory hog farm in Ohio. Just a word of caution - it's pretty graphic.
Bryant Terry, co-author of Grub with Anna Lappe, has a new book out: Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine. Hmm, I might be interested in this one.
Alternet says our greatest concern isn't diet or exercise - it's neighborhood. Very interesting comment on Americans' health problems.
An interesting trend in wine-making: Making the bottles lighter to use less glass and have a lighter footprint on the planet.
A tax on chocolate? Ohhh, hell no! Fortunately, this wasn't proposed in the U.S. And even if somebody DID tax chocolate, I'd still eat it.
Will Obama appoint a salmon czar? Some groups are asking him to do so, to coordinate fishing and protect wild salmon so that we can continue to have a sustainable salmon supply.
Is the banana in trouble? This article takes a look at bananas' lack of genetic diversity. This opens it up to great risk if a disease were to start wiping it out, and it looks like that might happen...
On the subject of bananas, Chiquita wants a suit against them dismissed. The suit alleges that Chiquita paid off Columbian paramilitary groups that killed a lot of people in Columbia.

Jill Richardson :: Sampler Platter

Tags: Bill Marler, HBO, Bryant Terry, Wine, salmon, Columbia, Bananas, Chiquita, (All Tags)

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Sampler Platter | 3 comments

My garden family got some new additions today (4.00 / 3)

I found a lovely crimson grape vine that was bigger and more established than ones I've been growing for three seasons now.

Also I got some seeds to add to my seed bank.

Something called Pak Choi Bonsai Hybrid. I wonder if it's any different than the Bok Choy I planted three weeks ago.

Genovese Basil
California Poppy (I'm going to try and bait the bees to come pollinate my garden)
Mesclun
Scallions
Sweet Spanish Yellow Utah Jumbo Onions
Early Scarlet Globe Radishes (these are the all red ones, I've got the half red and half white ones growing now)
and Cilantro

I'm gonna try and get a hold of a digital camera because some of the new leaves in my garden right now are just gorgeous!

by: Curtis Abbey @ Fri Mar 13, 2009 at 23:12:34 PM UTC

That Foods Garden Guide link is great (4.00 / 2)

Although I'm a little suspicious of the growing zones. I'm surprised that you could grow the same things in Redding, CA that you could grow in Seattle, WA. This USDA climate map tells a different story, and looks psychadelic.

The Garden Guide calmed one of my concerns about avocado trees. I bought one a few years ago, that had it's roots shredded by gophers. I almost got another one today, until I read the tag. It grows to 25' tall and 30' wide! Or maybe it was 20' 25'. I wasn't sure I wanted to get it, especially if it won't grow in this zone. The old one that is dying, or died, I brought down from Chico, CA. It never really grew in the years it was here. It produced little tiny avocados, last years were only about the size of a golf ball.

Maybe I can control the size of the tree. Did I get this link from you? link to Backyard Orchards.. this part is really cool the historical prices

A Salmon Czar is much needed. The salmon restoration projects have been receiving funding, but their is a central command that is badly needed. I can't even find a map that has all the salmon restoration projects listed. If Maine's Lobsters were disappearing I think we'd be hearing a lot more about this. I think too many people believe farmed salmon is the answer. When farmed fish are fed with ocean fish anyway!

by: Curtis Abbey @ Sat Mar 14, 2009 at 00:10:34 AM UTC

Death on a Factory Farm (4.00 / 2)

This film is going to be a big deal. Several animal groups are talking about it. The industry magazine Pork talked it up: "Attention all animal agriculture personnel - producers, employees, veterinarians, allied industry, bankers, accountants - if you work in or around animal agriculture, you need to pay attention."

by: Daniela @ Sat Mar 14, 2009 at 22:16:58 PM UTC