Celebrate “culture” in agriculture & share skills like growing, cooking, canning

Carrie Seal-Stahl's Blog – October 2008 Archive (6)

The Future of Food - MUST SEE

The Future of Food Trailer

I just finished viewing this documentary produced by the wife of the late Jerry Garcia. I knew some of what was contained in this video already, but did not connect some of the practices to one another until viewing this vid. This documentary discusses Genetically Modified foods, Monsanto's questionable practices concerning patenting seed and plant life, "terminator seed" technology, and more.

I highly recommend this… Continue

Added by Carrie Seal-Stahl on October 25, 2008 at 1:49am — No Comments

First Frost...

I knew it was coming, though I'm never prepared... Burrrr....

I'm never ready for winter, and I can never wait til it's over. I guess I just have to keep looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the January arrival of the 2009 seed catalogs. The worst is the wait between the arrival of the catalogs and mid-March when you can actually get some of those seeds started indoors, and if it's been particularly mild, get some of your greens out in the ground...

Added by Carrie Seal-Stahl on October 22, 2008 at 7:50am — No Comments

Say NO to NAIS!

The National Animal ID program was originally designed to give the big beef producers help in getting export markets which required disease controls. The idea is that every single livestock animal in the United States will be identified and tagged. All livestock animal movements will be tracked, logged and reported to the government. The benefit is to the big factory farms who probably do need this type of regulation. They get to do single ID’s for large groups of animals. Small farmers, pet… Continue

Added by Carrie Seal-Stahl on October 19, 2008 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Garden Soil Microbes Good For You!

New study published at Psychology Today finds that soil-borne microbes boost the immune system and aid in psychological wellness! Click the link below to read the article!

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20080917-000006.html

Added by Carrie Seal-Stahl on October 18, 2008 at 7:30pm — No Comments

Tucking the Garden Away for the Winter...

So it's that time...

The time to pull up my annuals and tuck everything away. The vegetable garden has all been pulled up and turned for the season (save the 2 Brussels Sprouts still producing) and I'm just about done with the last weeding of the herb garden. Brian's raking leaves right now that I'm going to use to mulch up my perennial herbs. I'm going to *attempt* to keep my rosemary over-winter by super-insulating it from snow. It's listed as a perennial for zones 8-11 only, but… Continue

Added by Carrie Seal-Stahl on October 17, 2008 at 6:24pm — 1 Comment

Final Herb Harvest 2008

I finally got motivated and finished harvesting the herbs for this year. There is a cold front on it's way, so I got out there this morning and got everything ready for storage for the winter. I am hoping my periennial herbs will make it safely through the winter and cut them back accordingly. My haul included: Genovese Basil, Italian Parsley, Chives, Garden Sage, Rosemary, Thyme

I froze the parsley and hung the rest to dry. Woody stemmed herbs like dill and rosemary should be… Continue

Added by Carrie Seal-Stahl on October 14, 2008 at 11:40am — No Comments