UC Blogs
2012 Heirloom Expo
For those of you who read my blog entry last year around this time, you know that I had attended the first annual Heirloom Expo at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa last year. Having trouble keeping away, I attended the Heirloom Expo again this year on September 11, 2012 (the Expo usually runs for 3 days in early-mid September, from Tuesday to Thursday). It was just as well organized and entertaining, as it was last year. What made it especially memorable this year, was because some of the heirloom vegetables on display were grown and harvested by my former neighbor (see the pics featuring melons and eggplants). To clarify, the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company has a research plot just 2 doors down from where I used to live in Suisun Valley, and it is there that they grew umpteen varieties of eggplants and melons which they displayed at the Expo.
One of the vendors at the Heirloom Expo, was Paul Palmer of the Los Olive Homegrown Gourmet Garlic company (aka the “Garlic Guy”) located in the San Ynez Valley, which grows, according to an August 2010 blog post by the company, over 61 varieties of rare garlic (see pics). Check out Paul’s website here-http://www.garlicguy.net/99639385, which contains sample photos of some of the amazing varieties he grows. I spoke with Paul regarding what his secret was to successfully growing garlic, and he told me that he amends his soil with at least 25-30 tons of high quality compost per acre. Now most of us city-dwelling garlic lovers do not have an acre to do what Paul does, but we can take that same principle and scale it down to our backyards (where we can exercise greater control over our growing environment than on a farm) and produce some amazing, beautiful, and rare garlic every year which you can then save and trade with friends and family, and replant each year.
As for me, I grow garlic each year and have found success in growing several varieties such as German Hardneck and Ichelium Red. This year, in addition to the Ichelium Red, I will be planting seed garlic from Paul, varieties which include Spanish Morada (hot), Spanish Benittee (hot), Thai Purple (less hot), Red Razan (medium, all-around variety) and Fabermadour (a baking garlic which, according to Paul, is good for spreads). I will report back the results next June when I harvest!
Many varieties of eggplant. (photos by Betty Homer)
Melon varieties.
Baskets of gorgeous garlic.
Fall is the Time to Fertilize!
I visited a grower recently who noticed his alfalfa wasn’t coming back as quickly after cutting this summer. He had taken plant tissue...
Unfounded fear of GMOs keeps good food out of the marketplace
Food created through genetic engineering and conventional breeding are safe and they deserve equal treatment in the marketplace, a UC Berkeley biotechnology expert told reporter Lisa Krieger of the San Jose Mercury News.
Peggy G. Lemaux, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, says fear of the unknown can stop genetic engineering from helping consumers. She genetically engineered wheat to produce grain that is less allergenic and might be better tolerated by people with wheat allergies. Because of anti-genetic-engineering sentiment, she said, companies that could take it to market did not embrace it.
"No one is interested in moving it to the marketplace," Lemaux said.
The Mercury News article was centered on Proposition 37, an initiative on California's November ballot that, if passed, will require labeling on genetically engineered food.
/span>So Bee It
Honey bees on blanket flowers (Gaillardia). Honey bees on Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia). The Girls of Autumn....not unlike The Boys of...
Honey bee on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Things Are The Same All Over
I was reading an article in my latest issue of YANKEE MAGAZINE about invasive plants in New England. I know that you’re wondering why a Native Californian would be reading a “foreign” magazine like that. Interesting articles, good recipes, and, of course, problems we don’t have in California – except for some of invasive plants! Right off the bat, I didn’t recognize some of the plant names: Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), Japanese Stilt Grass (Microstegium vimineum), but others were quite familiar. Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora), any one, or how about Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is quite the pest back East and is a pest here – plant one tree and some you can have your own forest! Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) doesn’t have many enthusiasts anywhere and how about Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)?
Why are these plants considered as pests; the answer is very simple: all of these are plants which are not fussy about soil, location or water needs. They would grow in concrete as my mother used to say. They crowd out the native plants and trees which have their own niches in the eco-system and thus eliminate the variety in the landscape.
“They” say that a “weed is a plant which is growing where it’s not wanted”, but again “what is a weed is in the eye of the beholder”. I find it rather pathetic that the Porcelainberry (Ampelposis brevipeduncluata) that I baby and carefully nurture in a pot in my front yard is considered to a rampant, out-of-control monster in New England. I wonder if somebody back there would trade me a Cotoneaster (a real pest out West) for a Mile-a-minute Weed (Persicara perfoliata or Polyonum perfoliatum) – I’d like to see if their Knotweed is faster than ours!