Baker Creek gets a thank you

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company is pleased to be teamed up with Asma Eschen in her effort to assist the people of Afghanistan. Asma is co-founder of Bare Root Trees Project and led the 2011 delegation in conjunction with First Presbyterian Church of Anselmo, California. Their mission was to plant and distribute heirloom seeds donated by Baker Creek and to plant trees in areas near the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Distributing Baker Creek Seeds

Asma wrote that while the sights, sounds and smells of Kabul and neighboring communities and country side were foreign to her senses, there was nothing foreign about the truly warm welcome they received from the Afghan people as demonstrated by their smiles, their eagerness to communicate, their gracious acceptance of the mission and their genuine sense of humor.

Asma and her delegation helped to plant the trees because the holes had already been dug by the people who were to receive them. The seeds, however, were give to those industrious people who expressed delight at receiving them. Asma is certain the seeds will be planted and nurtured.

Ms. Allen planting trees with the boys of Alice Khan community…Spring 2012.

The delegation enjoyed the food which they described as a treat to their taste buds: meat, vegetables, fruit, rice and bread (nan) but made delicious with spices the Afghans know how to use. It was a blessing for them to experience a part of a country, a city, and a people that seem so different at first glance but prove to be more alike than not.

It was Asma’s second time to visit Shark-E-Naween community. The community people welcomed the delegation and showed them how well the apricot, mulberry, and pine trees were growing. The seeds that had been given the past three years were growing and producing fruit and vegetables, and the people had learned to save seeds to plant in following years.

Each community always welcomed the delegation with a hot lunch with such fare as lamb/vegetable soup, Afghans Palue (rice dish), green onions, radishes, mint and peppers from their gardens.

Lunch with Council members of Parwine community of Refugees.

In 2011, the Bare Root Trees Project had installed a generator for the community water pump, distributed bout 5,000 trees and over 500 packages of seeds. This year they are taking over 2,700 packages of seeds donated by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, church members, and Asma’s students. Asma points out that it is amazing to witness the changes that these trees and seeds have brought to the communities, and how much Kabul also has changed. She states, “I can honestly say that the country has finally found its rhythm and people are much happier and there are more colors everywhere than before. Including that young women wearing colorful scarves and clothing, not just blue ‘Chadarie.’”

Jere and Emilee Gettle work extensively to supply free seeds to many of the world’s poorest countries, as well as here at home in school gardens and other educational projects. Projects such as Asma Eschen’s help to fulfill the Gettles’ goal to educate everyone about a better, safer food supply and fight gene-altered Frankenfood.

For more information on the Bare Root Trees Project visit http://www.afghans4tomorrow.org/

Post By William Woys Weaver

I have been enjoying the benefits of hardy lettuce all winter and still find myself astounded by the huge haul of greens I harvested for dinner on New Years Day 2012. Global warming may have a silver lining for those of us want to eat from our gardens all year around, but this should also remind us that we may soon need to revise what we mean by “winter” greens. One of the hardy winter lettuce varieties that has always done well for me, even under the snow, is Cracoviensis, which you can find in the Baker Creek catalog here.

This is actually a medieval lettuce that turns quite bronzy when grown in cold weather. The cold stunts its growth, so it stays close to the ground until spring rather than shooting up the way it does in warm weather. It was originally grown as a stem lettuce like Celtuce since its succulent stems could be cooked like asparagus, although without the asparagus flavor.

Mennonite horticulturist Jacob B. Garber (1800-1886), who lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, reported in 1855 that he had been growing this lettuce for a number of years and that his wife cooked it just like asparagus. Garber had gotten his seeds from a man with missionary connections in China and was thus growing it under the vague Chinese name hoo sung. This only goes to show that Cracoviensis probably originated in China, but moved west during the Middle Ages. By the 1350s it was growing in the royal gardens of king Casimir the Great of Poland, hence its name Cracoviensis in reference to Krakow where the royal castle was located. The castle is still there even though the royal gardens have long since disappeared. Just the same, we are left with a puzzle: how did the Poles cook the lettuce in the 1300s? Most likely it went into soup or it was poached in vinegar and served like an appetizer. Lettuce was considered “cold” in the medieval dietary system of humors, so it was always served with something “hot” like ginger, or with strong spices like cloves, cinnamon, or even garlic. Yes, one can easily imagine medieval Polish cooks preparing the stems with garlic sauce, in fact, I tried it and it is not too bad!

William Woys Weaver is a culinary historian living in Devon, Pennsylvania, were he maintains the Roughwood Seed Collection consisting of some 4000 varieties of food plants.

Post by Kathy McFarland

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds contracts with more than 200 farmers to grow and harvest seeds. When our seed grow-out manager approached me about growing and harvesting seeds, I thought I would give it my best shot. I have been a gardener for many years, but until fairly recently had never really considered that I should be saving my own seeds. It was easier to just buy new seeds to plant every year.

Needing someone to grow and harvest Lemon Drop hot pepper seeds, Randel gave me a very small zip-lock bag containing 30 tiny pepper seeds. I took them home and very carefully planted each one in its own cell in plastic seed starter packets filled with seed starter medium. I set them on my dining room buffet which is one of the warmest spots in our house. Even though we heat our house with wood and keep it warmer than most homes, I knew those little pepper seeds would need something even warmer to help them to germinate. Failing to find my heating pad that I was sure I had stored in one of the closets, I resorted to pulling out a rubber hot water bottle. Filled with hot water twice daily and placed under the seed tray, it worked great to help those little guys along to germination.

I was excited to soon have a single tiny pepper sprout growing in one of the seed starting cells. From thereon, I checked those seed trays first thing every morning and first thing after arriving home each afternoon to see how many new sprouts had reached up out of the “soil.” The number of sprouts kept growing till it topped out at 22. Realizing that a 73% germination rate wasn’t exactly terrific, I accepted it as what I had to work with,.

I tended those little starts, trying to give them just the right amount of moisture and as much light as I possibly could. And then I realized that I had a trip to NYC planned and knew that I couldn’t leave my little Lemon Drops untended for a week and expect them to live. A co-worker graciously came to my rescue and volunteered to look over them a few days. Knowing her green thumb, I quickly took her up on the offer. One problem solved, with more to come.

Back from my trip, I found that those little pepper plants were ready to take back home and begin the hardening off process. Getting them home in the late afternoon and expecting a couple of more hours of warm sunshine, I set the tray of pepper starts out on the driveway while I went for my daily 4-mile walk. I was on my way back home when the dark clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and huge raindrops began to fall. After deciding to run the rest of the way home to beat as much of the approaching storm as possible, I quickly ducked into my husband’s workshop just as the hailstones began to bounce around on the ground.

I was listening to those marble-to-golf ball size hailstones hit the metal roof of the shop when I suddenly remembered that my pepper plants were out there taking a severe beating! Fearing that I would get a concussion if I ventured out into the hail storm, I waited till the pounding on the roof decreased before running out to check my tray. While I found that a few of the plants were indeed bent and broken, I was pleased to see that many of the tiny plants were still standing upright.

I continued putting out the tray of starts daily to harden off. The next problem was that I realized the pepper plants were outgrowing their tiny cell packs and we were still having frost at night so that I couldn’t yet set them out into the garden. I had no choice but to find larger cups and repot those little guys until I could be sure we were having frost-free nights.

Finally, I was convinced that it was safe to plant out in the garden. Living on a quarter-section (160 acres) of Ozarks farmland, I had to decide where to root those valuable plants. Knowing that peppers needed to be isolated by at least 500 feet to prevent cross pollination if the seed were to be viable for replanting, I had to plant them somewhere other than my kitchen vegetable garden where I wanted to grow my already-favorite varieties of peppers.

I decided to add the Lemon Drop pepper plants to my perennial garden that I had located in an older garden plot at the former homesite a quarter-mile away on the property. I had access to water and kept garden tools in an old shed there. What I didn’t think about, though, was that my dogs are a great help in keeping wild animal pests out of my garden. Having no dogs at the old garden, I quickly discovered that something—most likely deer or turkey—were munching the tops off my Lemon Drop pepper plants. I had to put fences around them to stop that.

By the time those pepper plants had become about 2 feet tall, they were quite bushy and loaded with small elongated green peppers. Being in a drought year meant that I had to water frequently and nurture the plants along till the peppers matured from lime-green color to bright yellow. Finally, it was time to harvest the seeds, which turned out to be much more time-consuming that I had appropriated time for. Donning rubber gloves, I sliced each pepper lengthwise and scraped the seeds into a large shallow pan, saving the pepper flesh for freezing and dehydrating to season dishes later. Soon sneezing and coughing and with eyes tearing, I learned very quickly that I needed to work in a well-ventilated area.

After hours of slicing peppers and removing seeds, I placed the seeds on the table under a ceiling fan in the sun room to dry for at least 2 weeks. Feeling a little discouraged when I put the seeds into a ziploc bag and took them to Randel, I was surprised that he appeared to be pleased with my amount of seeds, though I thought I didn’t have very many. He pointed out that Lemon Drop pepper seeds are very small and I had, indeed, harvested a couple of ounces (more than he had expected of me apparently). That encouragement kept me harvesting more seeds as they matured till frost. More importantly, I had fulfilled my commitment to Randel and Baker Creek, having produced enough seeds for a listing in the 2012 Baker Creek Seed Catalog.

Farming and gardening are always risky business. There are always the unknown variables of crop-damaging weather, lack of or too much rain, destruction by wild animals, etc. It is easy to see why seed companies vary their seed listings a little from year to year. The seed from particular varieties simply may not be available in a given year.

Kathy McFarland is a Baker Creek employee and a life-long Gardener.

Post by William Woys Weaver

I think it was my interest in 18th century kitchen gardens that first drew me to old varieties of Connecticut onions. We don’t often think of onions when we think of backyard gardens, but to tell the truth, if you cook as much as I do, onions are basic. Being Pennsylvania Dutch, I grew up with the old idea that you can never add too many onions to your pot. Imagine my surprise when I first started growing Red Wethersfield: they were too beautiful to cook! All I wanted to do was pile them into old fashioned baskets and admire the still life painting that they created in my mind.

Wethersfield Red Onion

Back in 1997, when I first published Heirloom Vegetable Gardening (now available on CD from www.MotherEarthNews.com ) I think I was one of the first to look at old-time Connecticut onions as an investment for the future. Names like Southport White Globe, Southport Red Globe, and Yellow Danvers evoked an agricultural history framed in time when the muck lands along Connecticut’s rivers were converted into onion fields, and the Nutmeg State led the nation in exporting those onions up and down the coast. Red Wethersfield onions were mentioned in Philadelphia market accounts as early as the 1780s when they were sold as “rope onions,” that is, braided up like garlics.

Old Seed Catalog Art

Have you ever tried braiding onions? You have to harvest them when the tops are turning to brown and straw-like. It’s a great way to store the onions and at the same time, decorate the kitchen; indeed they fill the room with a wonderful, savory aroma. Red Wethersfield is also an excellent storing onion, much better than the common red Spanish onions we now find in supermarkets today, and from a gardening standpoint, they are excellent for high yields. Why did they ever drop out of fashion?

Colorized photo of an old onion field in Connecticut

I know for a fact that Red Wethersfield was popular with the Pennsylvania Dutch because this is the onion they used years ago when pickling red cabbage or when making potato salads.

They also made nice decorative additions to the mixed vegetable pickles that locals in my region call chow-chow, well, the culinary uses are as endless as your imagination.

Wethersfield Red onion

Red Wethersfield onions are flat, about four or five inches in diameter, so they are wonderful when braided up with the White Portugal (also called Silver Skin) heirloom onion that was a great favorite in Pennsylvania where I live – they do well because we are on the same latitude as Lisbon. White Portugal is also flat so the combination of the Red Wethersfield and the White Portugal onions in a three-foot braid is really eye-catching. Too bad we don’t see this more often in farmers’ markets; it’s a great way to attract customers and both varieties have similar keeping qualities. Happily Red Wethersfield was one of the stock onions that have made Comstock, Ferre & Company famous since 1811, and the firm continues to promote this onion classic to this day. In fact, it has become something of a company mascot, and no harm in that because this is one mascot that is also good to eat!

Wethersfield Red Onion is available form Comstock Ferre Co. at http://comstockferre.com/onion/wethersfield-large-red.html

William Woys Weaver is a culinary historian living in Devon, Pennsylvania, were he maintains the Roughwood Seed Collection consisting of some 4000 varieties of food plants.

Post by Susan Audrey

With herbs, you’re pretty much guaranteed two things: the plant is an heirloom (as herbs, for the most part, have not been crossed, selected or hybridized) and they’re “going to pay the rent.” In other words, they’ll give you something back for the space they’re taking up in your garden.

If you’d like to know more about herbs, you can discover almost everything from one source—master herb grower, herb columnist, author, and creator of all-things-herbal, Jim Long of Blue Eye, Missouri.

A back injury and a series of serendipitous events helped transform this former landscape architect into Mister Herb, a walking-Wikipedia of herb lore, herb growing and gardening tips, herb recipes, and herbal remedies, which include everything from an herbal dream pillow that encourages sweet dreams to an herbal nail fungus soak that’s recommended by medical professionals.

Jim grows 250 to 350 culinary and native medicinal herbs in his herb garden located between Branson, Missouri and Eureka Springs, Arkansas in the heart of the Ozarks.He has been a columnist for The Herb Companion magazine since 1990, has a regular column in The Heirloom Gardener(http://rareseeds.com/magazine) and The Ozarks Mountaineer magazines. His syndicated “Ozarks Gardening” column runs in newspapers across the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks, and he’s authored 25 books on herbs, gardening and cooking. He also travels extensively throughout the year lecturing to groups and at national conferences and travels abroad in search of new culinary plants to grow, photograph, and write about. Jim will be a featured speaker at the National Heirloom Exposition (http://www.theheirloomexpo.com/) coming up Sept. 11-13, 2012 in Sonoma County, California.

In a recent phone interview on a 75-degree February day in Missouri with roosters sounding off in the background, Jim shared all kinds of interesting and inspiring tidbits about herbs.

Eight Important Herbs You Should Grow

If you’re new to herb gardening—and even it you’re not—Jim recommends growing this staple garden of culinary herbs: basil, chives, mint, thyme, parsley, marjoram/oregano, fennel, and cilantro. There’s nothing like fresh herbs for cooking.

Conducting nationwide surveys of retail nurseries, wholesale plant and seed companies, Jim found that the most popular and most used herb today is basil. The secret to keeping this popular culinary herb sweet, he shares, is to keep the plant clipped. If you don’t keep basil harvested, the leaf flavor changes from sweet to somewhat bitter, he stresses. And don’t be shy, he adds. Think of the plant as you would a hedge, don’t just pick a leaf here and there. The more you harvest basil, the faster it puts out new leaves with the best flavor. Harvest sprigs, even limbs, he says, it won’t hurt the plant.

There are, of course, all kinds of basils to enjoy. In his garden blog: http://www.jimlongsgarden.blogspot.com, Jim mentions growing Genovese, sweet, Thai, lemon, lime, boxwood, spicy globe, clove (also known as Indian sacred), green pepper, and Greek columnar. Imagine a slightly different flavor for your homemade pesto sauce this year.

Meet the ‘Hardies’: The Most Adaptable Herbs
Wherever you live in the country, these herbs, for the most part, will adapt fairly easily: basil, parsley, chives, sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano. They don’t require much pampering, according to Jim, and can stand moderate drought.

Do visit Jim’s Website (http://www.longcreekherbs.com/virtual-tour.php) for a virtual tour of his herb garden—you’ll be inspired to try growing some less common varieties, too. (In-person visits are by appointment only.)

The “Herb of the Year”

To celebrate “The Herb of the Year” as designated by the International Herb Association, Jim’s Website currently features recipes for this year’s lucky winner—the rose. Yes, the rose is an herb and a very tasty one at that.

All roses are edible, says Jim. They are a relative of the apple. You want to be careful, however, he warns, and stay away from roses from floral shops and grocery stores, as they have often been treated with chemicals to aid in maintaining their perfect, bite-free appearance and to extend their longevity. It’s best to dine only on roses you know have been grown organically. The most fragrant, usually the older heritage roses, which are bred for their fragrance, are the most flavorful, he adds.

A quick and easy way to embark on this perhaps new-to-you culinary experience is to pluck some rose petals from a bush in your garden after the morning dew has gone and the heat of the day has not yet come and toss them into a green salad, Jim recommends. Or, chop up some rose petals, mix into cream cheese and spread on toast. Jim’s blog also includes information and videos on how to create rose petal syrups and butters as well as a delicious-looking rose petal cake. Munching on rose petals also provides you with a little Vitamin C.

Medicinal Herbs from Civil War Days

Medicinal herbs from this era had a big impact in providing improved healing remedies, Jim shares, for everything from quickly stopping a soldier’s bleeding to hormonal balancing in women.

One quick and easy Civil War era remedy is thyme tea, good for gargling with to soothe a sore throat and rinsing your mouth with to help heal bleeding gums. Thyme is actually the primary active ingredient in Listerine, Jim reveals. The recipe for an herbal mouthwash: Simply pour 3 cups of boiling water over 2 heaping tablespoons of dry or 4 tablespoons of fresh thyme; cover with a plate or plastic wrap and let steep for about ten minutes. Strain and let cool to your comfort level before using to gargle with.

From Early Newsletter to Perpetual Blog to Books
When Jim was healing from the back injury he sustained working on an architectural landscape job so many years ago, he entered contests to pass the time. He won a few, including a ski trip to Colorado, which, of course he couldn’t use. But he flew to Colorado anyway and visited a friend who he discovered had a new MAC computer. Jim had already toyed with the idea of writing a newsletter featuring information about herbs, but a “test drive” of the new computer cinched the idea for him and is what launched his decades-long herb and garden writing career. You won’t find his newsletter any longer, but you can find scads of information on growing herbs, cooking with herbs—everything herb—on his blog, which he updates frequently, as well as in his over two-dozen herb growing and cooking books.

If you’ve always wanted to learn more about growing and cooking with herbs—and even if you haven’t—Jim’s writings will inspire you. I can’t wait to pluck some rose petals from my backyard bush and toss them in a salad!

Susan Audrey is a Northern California writer, editor and photographer. She can be reached at tosusanaudrey@gmail.com

A sweeping bill to require labeling of GMO ingredients in processed foods was discussed before the Connecticut General Assembly’s Environment Committee on February 22, in the states capital, Hartford. Testimony was taken from opponents and proponents of the bill, designated HB5117, and entitled AN ACT CONCERNING GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED FOODS. (Read the full text of the bill here.)

The bill calls for labeling of foods that contain, or may contain, GMO ingredients. Agricultural products would have to be labeled with labeling containing the words “Genetically Engineered,” either on the label or upon signage prominently displayed at the point of sale, or, in the case of processed foods, the package would be required to carry the words “Partially Produced with Genetic Engineering” or “May be Partially Produced with Genetic Engineering.”  There would be exemptions for meat and alcohol.

Moreover, the bill would require the Connecticut Department of Agriculture to create regulations around “best practices,” for Connecticut farmers “who cultivate commercially any genetically-engineered crop. Such regulations shall require the implementation of practices by such farmers to:

(1) Eliminate or minimize the degree to which such genetically-engineered crop affects neighboring lands, and

(2) minimize the amount of herbicides used by such farmers to eradicate herbicide-resistant weeds.”

The bill also contains consumer protection language, would require the state to publish and update a list of agricultural commodities known to contain GMO’s, and would set up procurement guidelines whereby the state would give preference to non-GMO products.

Representatives of the food and grocery industries, as well as mainstream farmers’ trade organizations, gave testimony opposing HB5117. Their arguments generally took the position that such regulations are unnecessary, since there already exists national-level labeling laws, such as USDA Organic/NOP certification and labeling, by which consumers can already tell when products are GMO-free. Other concerns included the fear that compliance will raise costs in an already uncertain economy, and that regulating the issue on the state level would be unfair to Connecticut producers and retailers, since Connecticut is a very small state.

Many opponents went further, claiming that GMO products are exempt from current labeling requirements, such as those that mandate listing preservatives, chemical, and allergens in foods, because the USDA has already established that GMO foods are perfectly safe and in no way different from conventional food products.

Proponents of the bill disagreed, claiming that there has been little actual testing by USDA, and even that negative information about the safety of GMO products has actually been suppressed. A host of organic farmers, green-and sustainability advocates,  organic trade groups, and individuals offered testimony as well, citing their belief that the public is definitely afraid of GMO content in foods, and of GMO crops in the environment. Several of the proponents indicated their belief that, while several other states are considering similar proposals or ballot initiatives, the fact that none has yet been passed presents Connecticut an opportunity to provide leadership to the states, since labeling requirements clearly are not going to be created anytime soon at the federal level.

(Read the full testimony here)

The bill, which is a “raised bill” meaning that it originated within the Environment Committee, will now be further considered by the committee leadership, which may decide to eventually submit it to the General Assembly for possible passage.

Randel Agrella is a Baker Creek Employee, an avid anti-GMO activist, and owner of Abundant Acres Heirloom Nursery.

Last week my husband and I got the privilege of meeting Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Seeds for the first time.  I can honestly say that I have never met a more genuine person.  We only had a few minutes to chat with him as we stopped by the Petaluma Seed Bank, but in the first five seconds of chatting with Jere you know how passionate he is about what he does.  I left there feeling like I needed to do more.  It used to be all I cared about was what I did on our little third of an acre lot, here in Sacramento.  Now I know I can do more to make change happen; one person at a time, one state at a time, and one country at a time.

With that, we have my first ever guest blog post thanks to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.  Kathy McFarland from Baker Creek is here to tell you about a new California Intiative we are trying to get on the November 2012 ballot that simply requests that food sold in retail establishments that contain genetically modified crops are labeled with that information.  Read on for more information:

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company owners Jere and Emilee Gettle are in Petaluma, California, working fervently to ensure that Americans are entitled to know what is in the food they purchase.

Having always been interested in pure food, the Gettle family has joined the Label GMO effort in California where they also own the Petaluma Seed Bank, a retail outlet for Baker Creek seeds.

Much of the world already requires labeling for genetically engineered foods.  Fifty countries, including Japan, China, and the entire European Union already label foods with genetically engineered ingredients.  Americans, too, deserve the right to choose between foods containing GMO and non-GMO ingredients.

The Committee for the Right to Know is a grassroots coalition of consumer, public health, environmental organizations, and food companies in California that is seeking the labeling of genetically engineered foods (GMOs).  On November 9, 2011, the coalition submitted the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act to the State Attorney General for the title and summary, prior to circulation as an initiative measure for the November 2012 election.

The initiative needs 504,760 valid signatures by April 20 to make it on the November 2012 ballot.  Signatures can be declared invalid and thrown out for a number of technical reasons.  Therefore, the campaign plans to collect a significantly higher number of signatures to make sure they have enough valid ones to qualify.  It is imperative that anyone interested in having the right to know what is in our food should sign the petition.

Jere Gettle teamed up with Pamm Larry, founder of labelGMOs.org, to raise awareness of the initiative.  He designed a special seed packet to be used for the campaign.  The seed packets, packed with Baker Creek’s non-GMO San Marzano Tomato seeds, are being distributed free all over the state of California.  The San Marzano has been a favorite tomato of California gardeners for generations, and the campaign packets have become instantly popular.  Anyone who would like to help distribute the free packets at farmers’ markets, gardening events, or any other venue may simply email  jeregettle@gmail.com with a mailing address and number of packets requested for distribution.  Thousands and thousands of the special packets have already been sent for distribution, and many more thousands are being printed and packed.

While other states are also working on campaigns to get GMOs listed on nutrition labels, the Gettles are currently concentrating their efforts in California where there is large population of like-minded people in support of the measure.  The feeling is that if the initiative passes in California, then other states will quickly follow.  In most cases, it will not be financially feasible for companies to develop food labels listing GMOs only for the California market and also develop food labels without the listing for other states.

Anyone interested in joining the effort to require GMO ingredients to be labeled should contact www.labelGMOs.org to find out where they can sign a petition, how they can be trained to gather signatures, how they can donate to the campaign, or simply where they can get more information.  Our right to know what is in our food depends on this ballot.  Please don’t wait to contact Jere Gettle at jeregettle@gmail.com or Pamm Larry at labelGMOs.org..  Let’s get labeling on the ballot!

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company is excited to be a part of the quickly expanding heirloom revolution. The movement is growing by leaps and bounds as more and more people understand the importance of preserving our plant heritage and diversity.

Baker Creek has teamed up with YourGardenShow.com to provide gardeners a chance to grow great gardens and win great prizes in the Grow It Forward contest. YourGardenShow.com is a social network for gardeners by gardeners. It provides a place for gardeners to share their garden photos, tips, and more.

First of all, 1,000 gardeners across the USA will receive free packets of Baker Creek heirloom seeds to plant in their gardens. Participants will then photograph the progress of their gardens and post the photos on YourGardenShow.com.

Enter the contest for multiple chances to win monthly prizes of garden tools, supplies and more. The GRAND PRIZE winner will receive accommodations and air travel to attend The National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, California, in September. Go to http://www.yourgardenshow.com/grow-it-forward to enter the contest and your chance to win.

The United States Department of Agriculture has recently released an updated version of the Plant Hardiness Zone Map. The color-coded maps can often be found printed on the backs of many seed packets, in many garden magazines and catalogs, as well as on the internet. Gardeners use the maps to determine appropriate growing zones for plants.

See a detailed map of your area at: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

The new version of the map came out of a joint effort of the USDA and Oregon State University, and has much greater detail than the previously used 1990 version.

Press releases by the USDA and other sources indicate that the several zone changes reflect warming temperatures, based on a 30-year study of cumulative weather data (1976-2005). It is important to note that the zone designations represent the average annual extreme low temperatures at a given location during a particular time period. They do not reflect the record coldest it has ever been or ever will be at a specific location, but simply the average lowest winter temperature for the location over a specified time. Low temperature during the winters is usually considered a crucial factor in the survival of plants at a given location.

Compared to the 1990 map, zone boundaries on the new map have shifted by about 5 degrees F throughout much of the nation. The new map includes two new zones in hotter climates: zone 12 (50-60 degrees F) and zone 13 (60-70 degrees F). The higher the zone number, the warmer is the average low temperature during wintertime. Each zone is a 10-degree Fahrenheit band, further divided into A and B 5-degree Fahrenheit zones. The new map also takes into account changes in elevations and closeness to large bodies of water that can influence temperature, something the old map did not address. As a result, there is a slight northward warming trend indicated on the map, but also a few colder areas in mountainous regions. It is significant to note that no geographic location experienced a change of more than one-half zone designation.

The design of the new Plant Hardiness Zone Map is particularly useful on the internet. An interactive version can be found at http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb and allows the user to enter a zip code to obtain the plant hardiness zone for a particular area, or use a drop-down menu to highlight a particular state and its plant hardiness zones. The zones offer important guidelines for all growers, whether they garden small plots, farm large acreages, or grow orchards or forests.

Everyone knows that an oil spill is not good for the environment. Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser has been traveling the world for years, spreading the word that GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are just as detrimental—to the land, wildlife, farmers, our food supply, and to us.

Percy’s story is a famous one. He’s the canola farmer who battled the chemical company Monsanto for a decade and received, with his wife, Louise, the Right Livelihood Award in 1997 for fighting to defend biodiversity, the rights of farmers, and the future of seeds.

Initially, in 1998, Monsanto took the Schmeisers to court for patent infringement, claiming that they were growing the biotech giant’s patented GMO canola. It didn’t matter, according to Canadian patent law, that Monsanto’s GMO canola, freshly cut on a nearby farmer’s land, had drifted onto the couple’s farm and that they had no control over the ensuing GMO canola plants sprouting there. Nor did it matter that Percy and Louise had spent 50 years growing non-GMO canola crops on their land, working as seed developers and researching disease control. According to Canadian patent law, Monsanto could take the couple’s entire crop from them or make them destroy it. According to patent law, Monsanto now owned the crop.

For 10 years, the Schmeisers were in and out of court with Monsanto, fighting to keep their farmland, farm equipment and home as well as fending off a million-dollar lawsuit Monsanto filed against them claiming punitive damages. According to Percy, during the course of these legal battles, he and his wife were subjected to threats by the biotech giant and asked to sign release forms stating that they could never take Monsanto to court, no matter how much the company’s GMO plants contaminated their farm. These release forms also stated that—if the Schmeisers signed them—they would lose their freedom of speech, they would not be permitted to talk about the terms of their settlement with Monsanto. (For more details, visit http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/17/percy_schmeiser_vs_monsanto_the_story.)

All told, the couple endured four legal battles with Monsanto. The fourth battle brought a victory for conventional and organic farmers, setting a precedent that if a farmer’s land is contaminated with GMO seed or plants, that farmer can seek retribution in court, which is what the Schmeisers did. They got Monsanto to pay for the removal of GMO plants from their land. (This was not for the initial contamination of their land but for a later contamination.)

The hard-earned personal victories for the Schmeisers included getting to keep their home and farm and not having to pay Monsanto a million dollars in punitive damages. The couple did not sign any release forms barring them from filing additional lawsuits against Monsanto or silencing them from talking about their settlement with the chemical giant. And, they are far from being quiet about their personal struggles with Monsanto. Percy talks at roughly 100 locations a year about his battle with Monsanto, the ill effects of GMOs on the environment, on farmers’ rights, on our food supply, and on our health. (He’ll be speaking in Northern California at the National Heirloom Exposition, which will be held Sept. 11-13, 2012, at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.)

Pollen Doesn’t Read Signs

One of the most important points Percy is hoping to stress these days is that once GMO seeds or plants are introduced into an environment there’s no containment. “You can’t contain pollen flying in the wind or spread by bees, or seeds dispersing, whether by wind or transportation by farmers’ processing,” he says.

This does not only affect the conventional farmers, Percy stresses, but also the organic farmers. Crops that have become predominately GMO crops, such as corn, canola, soy and cotton can no longer be raised organically, he says, “so their (the farmers’) freedom of choice is taken away. They cannot continue on as an organic farmer in those crops. Organic farmers should become aware of the dangers, that they could lose their organic certification overnight if their neighbor happens to grow a GMO crop similar to the conventional organic crop that they’re growing,” says Percy.

Another potentially dangerous process, Percy would like consumers and non-GMO farmers to know about is “gene stacking.” This process creates GMO seeds or plants that can have as many as eight genes in them, he explains. “What are the effects on health? We don’t know at this time. But you have to remember that every time you transfer a gene from one higher life form to another, you can never do it by itself, you have to use a virus or bacteria, and in the case of canola, you have to use an antibiotic-resistant marker gene. Those items are all in your food now that you never had before.

“One of the biggest concerns also by the population now is the massive increase in the use of chemicals. With GMOs, you’re now using at least four times more powerful, more toxic, more dangerous chemicals than we’ve ever seen on the face of the earth before in the growing of our food. What about the effects on our health in regards to our water, our soil, our air, and, as I said before, on our food?”

On Farmers’ Rights

“Farmers should always have the right to use their seeds from year to year, develop them and plant them from year to year,” says Percy. “Farmers should never lose their rights to their own seed and plants if it’s grown on their own soil and farm property, because when you lose that right, you’re going to lose biodiversity, which we have already, because, as I mentioned before, you cannot stop the contamination of GMOs into other crops.

“Farmers should have the opportunity to purchase seeds that they want. That it’s not only GMO seeds. . .those rights should not be taken away. Basically, now if a farmer wants to grow canola here (in Canada), they can only buy GMO canola seed.

“The biggest issue that I’m concerned about is the whole new fear culture amongst farmers,” Percy shares, “in regard to the contracts and what happens to a farmer if he (his property) is contaminated (with GMO plants), his loss of rights, and not only that, but Monsanto’s investigators coming out to a farmer’s farm and going out into his field and taking samples to see if he’s growing Monsanto’s seed, in this case soy beans or corn or canola, without a license from them.

“It’s very difficult for a farmer to stand up to a corporation,” adds Percy, who can most certainly attest to this.

“These companies call themselves ‘life science’,” he adds, “but to me, it’s not anything about ‘life science,’ it’s ‘death science’.” The chemical companies attempted to introduce what has been dubbed “the terminator” gene in Canada a few years ago, he explains. “This is how it works. The terminator gene is put into a seed. When the seed is planted and becomes a plant, all the seeds from that plant are sterile, in other words, it will not germinate, so that would definitely force a farmer to buy seed from year to year.

“But there’s a greater danger to that,” he adds, “in that the terminator gene, if it’s in a plant in the pollination stage, can cross-pollinate with cousins in its own plant variety, in other words, in your organic farmer’s crop, in your conventional farmer’s crop, and render all those seeds sterile also. But it doesn’t really stop with plants. Terminator gene, if it’s inserted in any higher life form can cross-pollinate or enter into any higher life form, whether it’s a bird, a bee, an animal or ultimately a human being. That’s the greatest danger we have now on the face of the earth, the termination of the future of life, where corporations would own the control of seeds and plants with the terminator gene.”

Even more ominous is the development of what is called the “cheater gene,” Percy reveals, and how the terminator gene and the cheater gene could be used together (neither has been approved for use as of yet). A possible use, if approved, could involve inserting both genes into a seed, according to Percy. This seed would grow a plant that “will not produce a seed unless you spray a chemical on the cheater gene. So when you spray a chemical on this plant with the cheater gene in it, it will produce seed. Then the terminator gene will kick in on the seed and render that seed sterile. That would give the corporations total control of all our future seed supply.”

This would not only affect commercial farmers, Percy stresses, but farmers’ market growers—everybody. “When GMOs first came out, a lot of consumers thought, well, that’s a farmer’s issue, that really doesn’t effect us. Believe me the patents on genes effect everybody.”

What can we do?

As consumers, our power is in educating ourselves about GMOs, according to Percy, and in persisting in getting foods containing GMOs labeled as such. Also, we can “cast our vote” for a non-GMO food supply by purchasing non-GMO foods.

“That’s why there’s a new movement afoot in Canada and the United States, and it’s called ‘The Right to Know’,” the right to know what’s in our food. In other words, we should have labeling,” Percy stresses. In Europe, foods containing GMOs are labeled as such. “We are about the only two first world nations in the world that do not have labeling, and we think that it’s absolutely criminal that we don’t know what’s in our food, one of the most important things in our life.”

For more information regarding “The Right to Know” in California, visit www.labelgmos.org. At the national level, visit http://www.opencongress.org/people/representatives to find contact information for your local congressman or congresswoman to urge their support of the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (H.R. 3553).