People seem down on grains but it’s always been a cheap way to feed people. We never thought grain was the most healthy food but it’s a filler to keep us alive. Non gmo , open pollinated are much better in my opinion for nutrition but not production.
2 Likes
Nutrition of most food crops we grow is determined by how it is grown plus genetics. Use common commercial growing methods with fertilizer, dense planting, weed spray, pest spray, and you will wind up with similar nutrition content whether the seed are commercial hybrid or open pollinated. Use bio-intensive organic methods with organically amended soil, organic pest control, and reduce the seed per acre just a bit and the nutritional value will rise significantly.
When it comes to making a choice between commercial hybrid vs open pollinated, I lean heavily in the direction of best flavor. With tomatoes, open pollinated varieties win hands down. Corn is a slightly different story because sweet corn hybrids have been selected for sweetness, tenderness, and production. I’ve grown some excellent open pollinated sweet corn over the years, but it is variable in all three significant traits.
5 Likes
Interesting… No work gardening…path of least resistance:)
2 Likes
When we were dirt farmers and used round up ready like everyone does we realized Noone tests nutrition or cares about it when they buy grain. That is a hard truth every farmer comes to terms with. Thousands of gallons of sprays go on the fields. In time I realized it was not the direction I wanted to go long term. Planted hay instead which requires a fraction of the sprays if any at all.
2 Likes
This has been an issue for farmers for a lot of years. They are paid by weight/volume. The more corn they grow the more money they are paid. Does not matter one bit whether the corn is a huge load of starch or whether it has a bit more protein. They are paid by weight/volume. This is why farmers don’t grow high methionine corn. They are not paid for the extra protein, plus the higher protein varieties are a bit less productive.
3 Likes
My grandfather, who lived to 100, ate some form of grain every day. Many of his friends and most of his family also lived long heavily lives eating similar diets. Personal observation makes it difficult for me to believe that grains, themselves, are the Big Bad Villain. Yes, ultra-processed grains stripped of bran, germ and other nutritional aspects are not healthy. Nor are modern farming practices.
In my opinion, our current populace eats too much, too fast and sleeps too little. And they don’t move either. No gym can substitute for the daily work-about one gets while raising their own food… exercise for the mind, body and soul!!!
Thanks to all for making this forum a healthy, happy place to learn and converse.
Now to prepare a breakfast of old-fashioned oatmeal(organic), fresh milk and fruit from the freezer. My hat is off to the farmers who grew the oats and flax without glyphosate.
12 Likes
Got our gardens finally planted after many delays due to too much wet weather. These were planted out/sowed over the last three weeks.
Beans-
Eight rows (20ft each) of beans, two rows each of Mountain and White half-runners, two rows Rattlesnake beans, one row each of Celebrity and Triomphe de Farcy.
Corn-
Four rows (25ft each) of Honey Select
Two rows (25ft each) of Ambrosia, Peaches and Cream
Potatoes-
Three rows (25ft each) of Pontiac
One row (25ft) Yukon Gold
Peppers-
9 jalapeño, 3 sweet banana, 3 Hungarian wax
Cucumbers-
1.5 row (25ft) of Straight Eight
1 row (25ft) Armenian
Pumpkins-
5 hills of Sugar Pie
Okra-
1 row (25ft) of Clemson spineless
Tomatoes-
39 plants, various varieties, all grown indoors
Have more space to plant, so may plant some more corn, and cauliflower plants.
7 Likes
Scored some thick gauge wire tomato cages for $3 a piece. Slightly weathered 5ft cages, but look very sturdy. Think I got a good deal on them.
Got my puny tomatoes planted out Thu, got them 42in apart in their rows, about 48in between rows.
New half runner bean sprouts
9 Likes
I’ve staked tomatoes and I’ve let 'em flop. At 48" middles, I’d let 'em flop if my garden.
1 Like
Obviously I don’t have enough of the cages, so I will probably stake the rest of the tomatoes with tobacco sticks. Might even use the cages for some cukes. I don’t like to let them sprawl, makes it easier for diseases to spread. I’ve got some black weed barrier, but don’t know if it’ll be enough.
I’m going to use my 4ft tree fencing to use as a trellis (supported by t-posts) for my beans. I got a 100ft roll I’ve never used, plus a few cages from dead trees that obviously don’t need them anymore. Won’t be enough for all 8 rows, but will help.
Ground looks dry because we haven’t had any real rain in a week, but supposed to get some tonight.
2 Likes
Thats a stealoncages. Just cut tree limbs in the woods and pound them in the ground for the tomatoes and its free!
3 Likes
Sub door, what are two people going to do with all those tomatoes? I am still trying to use up canned tomatoes from a couple years ago when I had a bumper crop.
2 Likes
Sorry my phone changed your name!
1 Like
The majority of USA food used to be grown by farmers whose water was supplemented by lakes which are now in the 22nd year of drought.
Coastal California, Texas & Florida now have a very severe greening disease problem.
The government has legislated a USDA meat inspector shortage by doubling work load inspection requirements to make our meat safer.
Grain from the location which previously supplied 40% of the world’s grain now won’t.
Every nation will now want the USA food supply.
So, I highly recommend you build your greenhouse now!
4 Likes
We can most of them, dice them, make veggie soup, salsa, etc. We go thru quite a few quarts every year. And fresh eating, of course.
If we can get just half of them to produce halfway decent, we’ll be happy. Our problem is keeping them weeded and storms knocking them over, even when staked.
2 Likes
Im trying the basket weave method this year… I think the hip people are calling it the Florida weave.
1 Like
Florida weave works best with determinate varieties because the posts are only 4 ft long. I use a similar setup for indeterminates using 6.5’ t-posts with 6 plants between posts. I stretch hay twine (7000 ft roll, fairly heavy) and tension it to the posts at the end of the rows. At the end of the season, the strands of twine are 5 feet up the posts.
1 Like
dehydrate and powder them. if vacuum sealed with o2 packet it can last for a long time. can do that with any fruit or veggie but they got to be cracker dry. when i have alot i use my oven also.
1 Like
growimg lots of flint corn and aramanth for that reason.
1 Like
i prefer to grow bush determinate cultivars for that reason. you can pack more plants closer together to make up for not having indeterminants. its better in our short growing season also.
2 Likes