Category Archives: Food Security

Whole Foods Market Creates non-GMO product line

July 7, 2009 – 8:53 am

I just got this in an email from…

The GE News List is produced by Thomas Wittman and the Ecological Farming Association, and supported by a generous donation from the Newman’s Own Foundation.

Whole Foods Market® Partners With Non-GMO Project to Label Company’s
Private Label Food Products Using New Third-Party Standard

Whole Foods Market Encourages Other Retailers & Branded Product
Manufacturers to Make Similar Commitment to Non-GMO Food Supply Chain

Press Release
Source: Whole Foods Market
On Tuesday July 7, 2009, 9:16 am EDT
AUSTIN, Texas, July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Whole Foods Market
(Nasdaq: WFMI – News), the leading natural and organic grocer, today
announced a commitment to the Non-GMO Project – a non-profit
collaboration of manufacturers, retailers, processors, distributors,
farmers, seed breeders and consumers – to use the Non-GMO’s Product
Verification Program (PVP) in connection with Whole Foods Market’s
private label products.


(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090707/DA42720)
The PVP is the nation’s first system designed to scientifically test
whether a product has met a set of defined standards for the presence
of genetically engineered organisms.

“From the moment GMOs were approved for use in the U.S., we
recognized the need for transparency, but there was no definitive
standard by which to evaluate or label products,” said Margaret
Wittenberg, Whole Foods Market global vice president of quality
standards. “We searched high and low for years for a way to do this
and now, thankfully, the Non-GMO Project has answered that challenge
by creating a standard and a practical system by which manufacturers
may measure their products. At last, shoppers concerned about foods
made with genetically modified ingredients will be able to make
informed choices.”

According to the FDA, as much as 75 percent of processed food in the
United States may contain components from genetically modified crops.
Despite the abundance of products with genetically modified
ingredients, a Pew Initiative study on Food and Biotechnology shows
that 59 percent of Americans are unfamiliar with the issue of
genetically modified ingredients in food.

“In 30 other countries around the world, including Australia, Japan
and all of the nations in the European Union, there are significant
restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs, due to
environmental impact and concerns about GMO safety,” said Megan
Thompson, executive director of the Non-GMO Project.

While Federal law requires organic producers to comply with certain
non-GMO requirements identified in the USDA organic standards, there
is no standard for labeling GMOs in non-organic products.

The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to
allowing consumers to make informed choices and to working toward the
sustained availability of non-GMO options. Whole Foods Market is a
member of the group, which is a collaboration of manufacturers,
retailers, processors, distributors, farmers, seed breeders and
consumers. Together these members have established a working standard
and have developed North America’s first independent third-party
Product Verification Program.

The PVP uses a process that combines on-site facility audits,
document-based review and DNA testing to measure compliance with the
standard. For a product to bear the seal it must undergo a process
through which any ingredient at high risk for genetic contamination -
soy or corn, for example – has been shown to meet the non-GMO
standard through avoidance practices and testing.

Once a product has been approved through the PVP it can be described
as being verified by the Non-GMO Project and/or be labeled with the
Non-GMO Project’s compliance seal. The first Whole Foods Market
private label products to bear this seal are expected to be in stores
before the end of the year.

“Since there is no U.S. regulation regarding disclosure on products
manufactured with GMO ingredients, we are committed to helping our
shoppers make confident choices by knowing that what they are buying
has been verified as meeting the standards of the non-GMO Project,”
said Michael Besancon, senior global vice president of purchasing at
Whole Foods Market. “We are excited to partner with the Non-GMO
Project, and we strongly encourage other manufacturers and retailers
to act now and submit their products to the PVP as well. Taking a
stand together will make a more significant impact on our overall
food supply, which will help the environment and consumer choice in
the marketplace.”

Whole Foods Market applauds The Natural Grocery Company, The Big
Carrot Natural Food Market and Good Earth Natural Foods, the early
partners of the Non-GMO Project, and the companies that have lent
major support to the project and participated in the initial piloting
of the PVP including Eden Foods, Organic Valley, Lundberg Family
Farms, Nature’s Path Organic and United Natural Foods, Inc. Together
with numerous other companies and organizations, they created an
authoritative non-GMO standard.

Whole Foods Market invites the industry to join an educational
webinar on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 1 p.m. CDT, to learn more about the
Non-GMO Project and the PVP. Webinar details are available at
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/nongmoproject.

“As you can imagine, the level of diligence involved will require an
enormous amount of effort at every step in the manufacturing
process,” said Joe Dickson, Whole Foods Market quality standards
coordinator and Non-GMO Project board member. “The more participation
we have in the program, the more rapidly the industry will realize
efficiencies. Economies of scale will ultimately have a real and
lasting impact on the available supply of non-GMO ingredients.”

Since 2004 Whole Foods Market strives to offer private label products
made with ingredients that have not been genetically modified. By
using a system that includes the evaluation of products, ingredients
and manufacturing facilities through audits, on-site facility
inspections and testing, Whole Foods Market is furthering that
commitment.

About Whole Foods Market®

Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market
(www.wholefoodsmarket.com), a leader in the natural and organic foods
industry and America’s first national certified organic grocer, was
named “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” in 2008 by Health
magazine. The Whole Foods Market motto, “Whole Foods, Whole People,
Whole Planet”(TM) captures the company’s mission to find success in
customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and
happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and
environmental improvement. Thanks to its more than 50,000 Team
Members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the “100 Best
Companies to Work For” in America by FORTUNE magazine for 12
consecutive years. In fiscal year 2008, the company had sales of $8
billion and currently has more than 275 stores in the United States,
Canada, and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market, Fresh & Wild(TM),
and Harry’s Farmers Market® are trademarks owned by Whole Foods
Market IP, LP. Wild Oats® and Capers Community Market(TM) are
trademarks owned by Wild Marks, Inc.

Contacts:  kate.lowery@wholefoods.com – 512 542 0390

By Farmer John | Comments (0)

Seeds, Bees and Rwanda

February 17, 2009 – 10:07 am

We received this email today and wanted to address Molly’s question for all of our readers.  First here is the email….

“Hello,
I came to your site via the beecharmers site which I loved!

Your seed project also sounds amazing. I am living in Rwanda and one of the
things I am talking about with some folks is starting a national seed saving
program. There are NO seed saving skills here among farmers and most of the
seeds that you can buy in town are single generation monsanto seeds. It is
such a shame, and the audacity of a company to sell single seeds to people
who cannot afford to buy them every year. Ugh.

Anyway, I am contacting you because I am working with some beekeeping
associations (who work with beautiful tree-trunk hives around one of the
national parks) to get some of their honey into a national market so they
can generate some income and keep their beekeeping tradition alive. Though I
am not sure we will ever pursue organic certification, we would like to have
our trainings include organic methods and record keeping.  Where can I find
organic standards for apiaries if there aren’t really any organic standards?
What standards do you use? And for record keeping, are there some good
samples of record keeping for organic hive management. Currently there are
no records being kept and so we are starting from scratch. I would really
appreciate anything you can pass along.  I hope when I come back to the
states I can visit  you. It sounds like you have some amazing and important
stuff going on!”
Many thanks,
Molly

First off, thanks so much for writing us Molly!!  It is good to hear the perspective from some who is in Africa.  I was reading a new book on seed last month written by woman in Africa who was championing Monsanto for bringing Genetically Modified seed to her country.  She thought their seed would be an answer to the starving she has seen throughout her life.  She went on to validate all of Monsanto’s rhetoric in her book.  I was beginning to wonder if Monsanto didn’t pay for this book to be published as it is a know fact that most GMO seed has in fact produced less yields instead of more.  This woman was extremely well educated holding multiple degrees and yet she saw Monsanto as some sort of knight in shining armor.  At first I found the book interesting from another person’s perspective, but then I just got so sick to my stomach that I was physically ill.   I literally through the book down in utter disgust.

I’m so sad to hear that people there are not saving seed.  Even when people do save seed it is threatened by contamination from GMO pollen.  I remember a teacher here in California growing corn for the Hopi Indians of the South West part of North America.  When we asked him why he said their homeland was being contaminated with GMO pollen.  The corn they had grown for thousands of lifetimes was no longer growing the way that it had in the past.  Strange mutations were occurring and crop losses were causing corn shortages.  The Hopi people had sent some of the last uncontaminated seed to our teacher who was growing it here in an isolated region and then sending it back to them yearly so that they could have clean seed stock from which to grow their food.

The sad truth is there is no where safe anymore we have learned.  A couple of months ago we had a picnic with a dear friend.  She had invited a friend of hers who used to be a climatologist in England to the gathering.  This lady laughed at our ideas of growing seed in isolated areas.  She said they had conducted extensive weather samples on the coast of North America looking for pollutants that travel across the ocean from China’s coal factories.  They found plenty of pollution, but the one thing that stunned them was the amount of GMO pollen that was in those samples.  China is one of the world’s largest growers of GMO plant material.  They even have entire genetically modified forest of trees for their lumber industry.  Now here was proof that Gentically Modified pollen was traveling the trade winds to be dumped on our “isolated” gardens here on the West Coast of North America!

If we can do anything to help the people of Rwanda let us know.  We can start a seed saving campaign on our seed company website.  We could send you seed from open pollinated heirloom seeds gathered by anyone who wants to participate.  We could form a network of seed savers in fact just for this purpose.  I feel an idea hatching!  Perhaps, each year we can send seed to a different group of people throughout the world.   Incredibly important would be teaching people how to save seed.  One of the best books I know of is Suzanne Ashworth’s Seed to Seed.  I’m having lunch with her on the 19th, perhaps we can talk about publishing her book in different languages.  Maybe she already has.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to send seeds and information on how to save them to people who’s only choice now is Monsanto?  What do you think?  Would you be willing to start this on your end?

As for the bees….

I would love to see pictures of the hives you describe there!  Can you send us photos to share?  Sadly, there is not a standard here for “organic” honey production.  However, there is a source called International Quality Assurance. If you click on that link it will give you some excellent guidelines to consider when trying to produce “organic” honey.  Also, I’m sure you have heard of Makana Meadery in South Africa, but in case you haven’t they have some excellent ideas we have used ourselves.  So many people here in North America rely on buying the bee keeping supplies they need never giving a thought of how to create the things they need themselves like our grandfathers did.  Makana gives excellent “how to” manuels of making your own foundations for exmaple.  I would get in touch with them if you already haven’t as they seem to be an excellent source of information.

Let us here from you please!  I would love to post your response here.  Lets get this program up and going.  I will put an announcement on our seed company website.  I will talk to Suzanne about her book.  Let’s see if we can change the world one seed at a time!  Farmer John

By Farmer John | Also posted in Front Page | Comments (0)

The Creation of a Seed Company!

February 6, 2009 – 3:59 pm

Ok, so we have been quiet and nothing has been posted here in a while.  That normally means we are up to something!

In this case it is the creation of an heirloom open pollinated seed company….Sustainable Seed Company

The web is not totally finished as we have not got all the pictures, descriptions and seeds in yet.  AND we haven’t gotten all the bugs, spelling mistakes and grammar issues out!  But it is up for the the world to see because we didn’t want anyone ordering their spring seeds and not knowing we started a seed company!

You will have to read the web to find out the reason for all this….

By Farmer John | Also posted in Front Page | Comments (0)

It’s not about fear, it’s simple economics!

November 17, 2008 – 1:39 pm

Table of contents for Act Now

  1. It’s not about fear, it’s simple economics!

I was talking with a friend this morning about the changes that are occurring in our world – such as the scarcity of food, rising fuel costs, farmland losses due to topsoil erosion, freshwater availability – and I was asking him how he was planning for the future – how was he going to mitigate any major changes that could cause “modern society” to come to a grinding halt.

I was speaking of course about becoming more self-sufficient, how did he plan to (as Farmer John says) “disentangle” himself from being only a tiny cog in the huge economic and agricultural machine that is todays world.  Did he have a garden?  What about a few chickens for his eggs?  How about planting some fruit trees so he could at least have fresh fruit for a few weeks a year?  Was he off the grid?  Did he have compact florescent as his light bulbs?  How about keeping his tires inflated or oil topped off so he used less gasoline?

These are all relatively harmless things that are becoming mainstream.  Not a huge leap.  It’s still allows a comfortable way of living.  However, he’s still in the middle of a big city, still buys 95% of his own food, 100% of his own fuel (car and electricity).  In a word, he’s still “dependent” on that giant machine called the global market!

I asked him to think back to this summer and how dangerously close we, as a country, came to loosing our food security.  We were down to less than a month of grain reserves.  That was the lowest we came as a nation in over 20 years to not meeting our own food needs!  That doesn’t count the additional cost we as a nation have to pay to transport and ship that food since we aren’t a local food producing economy.

If oil goes up, if food supplies go down, if costs of production rise (since fertilizer comes from natural gas, it will) what happens then?  What happens when supplies get slim and demand keeps up or raises (if the population goes up)?  You have runs on things.  Remember the articles about Costco and Sam’s clubs rationing wheat and rice sales to one bag per customer?

Well to be blunt, people begin to get desperate and buying up stuff which makes things MUCH more expensive!  If you believe in Peak Oil, if you believe that a higher demand coupled with a decreased supply equals worldwide problems, if you believe that honey bees are in trouble and having a harder and harder time doing their job, if you believe this is a throw-away society, then it’s not about fear!

It’s about being prepared for when things happen that are out of our control.  Buy seeds today – not in two years when they’re skyrocketing costs are prohibitive.  Buy those garden tools today – not when your worried about cutbacks at work and how you’re going to put food on the table.  Buy (or help to buy) land today – not when you’re 200 miles away sitting at a desk pushing papers – those papers will be there in two years, but the fertile land that has been worked for two years and produces beautifully will only be a dream.

Things take time to develop and grow.  Gardens take time to become fertile, water systems need time and several seasons to be prooven, housing takes time to construct, people need time to adjust to new ways of living.

If you’re not prepared today to move from the city and become a farmer, I understand!  There are those of us who are further along that path than you.  Let us pave that road for you.  You don’t have to do it now, but someone does!  If things aren’t prepared NOW, when things shift and change, they’ll be too expensive, or worse, simply NOT AVAILABLE!

As I said in the title, it’s not about fear – it’s about economics…what you put in today is an investment in the future.  Buy low today so that higher prices tomorrow won’t limit your choices.

By theobill | Also posted in Community, Front Page, Land for Communities, Permaculture | Comments (0)

Seed Saving Principles

November 5, 2008 – 6:18 am

The mission of the Foundation of Sustainable Living is the education and research about, and practice of, living sustainably both technically and socially.  We propose to invest skill sets and knowledge in individuals, and to promulgate such knowledge via the internet, multimedia publications, workshops, and a speaker’s bureau.

However, without access and control over the germ plasma of appropriate, reproducible food, fiber, fuel, and medicinal plants nothing else we do will matter.  Non-Hybridized seed saving, production, distribution and the ability to grow our own plant derived needs is the base line of the entire agrarian part of what FOSL proposes. Control of our own plant needs is the only possible basis for long term regional localization of food production – the non-negotiable heart of the survival of the human race.

Quote from the Zend-Avesta

“He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers.”

Some of the other areas defining the importance of seed saving include:

  • If there is an interruption in the distribution system, we may no longer have access to sources of seed that we take for granted now.  We need to start accumulating seed NOW for the crops we will need in the future for food, fuel, fiber, and medicine. Local growing and saving seed as a routine practice is the highest priority for sustainable living so that local communities have broad enough genetic diversity in the future to deal with the changes in climate and/economies that are coming.
  • Food security is being independent of corporate seed sellers by growing our own seed, and preserving diversity in the face of adversity:  global warming will cause imbalances in pest/predator relationships, and diseases and pests will have new ranges, potentially challenging or even wiping out common commercial varieties.
  • The nature of the globalization process and the perceived economics imperatives practiced by the increasingly larger Corporations are expressed by those who control seed worldwide as no interest in preserving regional varieties. If we are to survive in the future it is incumbent on local growers to preserve and increase biodiversity by using plants’ natural sexual reproduction, rather than cloning or breeding hybrids that will be infertile or will not grow true.
  • Developing varieties that are well adapted to the climates and soils of each particular region by repeatedly selecting vigorous seed over several years has a 12,000 year history and is the highest expression of man’s backbreaking work and genius.
By Parker | Also posted in Front Page | Tagged | Comments (0)

Chores, chores, and MORE chores!

October 19, 2008 – 9:56 am

It’s not easy farming, which I’m slowly learning! The garden needs cleaning out. The chicken coop needs to be cleaned and new bedding put in. The eggs need to be collected. The rabbits have to be fed, watered, and their cages cleaned. The bees need checked or going on a swam call (yay!). The apples need picked, cleaned, cut, cooked and canned. The list goes on and on!

Click to continue reading “Chores, chores, and MORE chores!”

By theobill | Also posted in Front Page | Comments (0)

What flavor of poison would you like on your produce today sir?

October 18, 2008 – 7:32 am

So I’m reading an organic agriculture book last night and it was talking about how Methyl bromide was used in “conventional” agriculture. It is sprayed on the dirt (before they plant) to kill “bad bugs”, it is used to turn tomatoes red, it is on strawberries (you are nuts to eat a store bought strawberry if you had any clue what is on them anyway), broccoli, sweet potatoes and the list goes on.  So I do a little search on Methyl bromide…

topmbusers“Methyl bromide, a widely used fumigant in agriculture, is one of a number of chemicals—including refrigerants such as freon—being phased out of use worldwide under the Montreal Protocol signed by the U.S. and 182 other countries. The Protocol is an international treaty aimed at reducing or eliminating use of chemicals that contribute to the depletion of the atmosphere’s ozone layer.”

The EPA says “Methyl bromide is irritating to the eyes, skin, and mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract.  Dermal exposure to methyl bromide can cause itching, redness, and blisters in humans. Neurological effects, including lethargy, forelimb twitching, tremors, and paralysis, have also been observed in animal studies.  In a human mortality study, a higher incidence of death from testicular cancer was identified in men occupationally exposed to methyl bromide.”

What idiots would put this on food or in the soil where food is grown?  WOW, not only are they spraying the sprayingmbstuff on our veggies, but it depletes the ozone? It gets deeper because it is now being phased out the agricultural industry is now using something even “BETTER”…chloropicrin!  What is chloropicrin you ask?

Lets go to Wikapedia… “Chloropicrin was used in World War I as a chemical weapon, called ‘PS’ by British, ‘Aquinite’ by French, and ‘Klop’ (green cross) by Germans. After WW II, however, the importance of chloropicrin for military use decreased and, today, has vanished. In the chemical industry, it is widely used for organic synthesis, in fumigants, in fungicides and insecticides, and for the extermination of rats.

Chloropicrin vapor is highly poisonous if inhaled. As a chemical warfare agent it is a powerful irritant from the group of pulmonary agents. It causes lachrymation, vomiting, bronchitis, and pulmonary edema; the lung injury can be fatal. Very low concentrations cause burning sensation of the eyes, which may serve as a warning.”

Don’t worry you are not inhaling it, you are just consuming it.  The label only says its toxic if inhaled. Ok, I don’t know about you, but has the world gone completely mad? Knowing things like this and the GMO factor why would you ever buy another piece of fruit or veggie that didn’t come from your own garden or trusted ORGANIC farmers market?

Chew on that for a while…

By Farmer John | Tagged | Comments (0)

Is the food you eat killing you? Can you trust Kellogs?

October 14, 2008 – 9:53 am

Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds

This new book by Claire Hope Cummings reads like a science fiction novel about some other planet.  It is hard to believe we have allowed big business and governments to do the things they have done to our food supply.  I’ve followed GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) for a while now, but have a hard time finding real facts on the web.  However Claire has done the research and better than that she has seen the industry first hand.  She was an environmental lawyer for twenty years, four of them with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.  She gives clear and shocking facts for all those that care about the future of monsantofood to see. (I’m assuming you already know a bit about GMOs and know they are already in your food supply.)

Here are some of the startling facts:

  • 97% of 75 vegetables whose seeds were once available from the USDA are now extinct.
  • Everything imaginable has been engineered into food.  There is corn that produces the hepatitis B virus, corn with a human contraceptive, corn with jellyfish genes that glow in the dark, and corn with chicken genes. There are human genes in tobacco, sugar cane, and rice!   (Remember despite company claims these engineered plants are know to be transgenic!  Meaning they cross these species barrier and don’t just stay in the one engineered plant!  BT (designed to kill bugs biting the plant) which was designed to stay in corn has now been found in the guts of honey bees where it destroys the “good bacteria” responsible for food digestion.  It is also found in humans or anything that eats this corn!!)
  • There are now many world wide studies confirming that GMOs are hazardous to human and environmental health.  One out of Ireland showed that food-related disease doubled during the same time that GMO food was introduced.
  • Rats fed GMO corn had blood cell formation problems, and those fed GMO soy had liver problems, which were even worse in rats red GMO canola.
  • These companies are not required to label food products is the US containing GMOs as they are in Asia and Europe.
  • Between 1999 and 2005, there were 115 documented case of GMO contamination, twice as many in the US as in any other country.
  • Monsanto, Syngenta, Pioneer/Dupont and Bayer now have a decade of experience with contamination.  They have been fined, chastised by consumers, and sued by farmers, but they have done nothing.
  • Over 80% of processed foods sitting on the grocers shelves contain GMOs.

Don’t think you have eaten GMO’s?  Think again, one study tried to find at least one small group of people without GMO contamination for a comparative study and could not find one person that wasn’t already contaminated!  You eat Nabisco or Kraft foods?  Then you eat GMOs. Kraft Foods spun off from Altria Group (formerly Phillip Morris) and became its own public company in 2007.  Phillip Morris…mmm…you remember the tobacco with human genes in it?  Mmmmm wonder what that is used for.  Hope you don’t smoke!

How about eating anything made by General Mills?  General Mills manufactures breakfast cereal, yogurts, baking mixes, dinner mixes, fruit snacks and grain snacks, among other products. In 2007, the Minneapolis-based company employed 28,100 people and reported sales of $12.4 billion.  General Mills has not provided transparent information about its use of genetically engineered products and has fought proposed regulations requiring the labeling of GMO foods.

How about Kellogs? Kellogg’s produces several lines of breakfast cereal and foods, such as frozen waffles and toaster pastries. The company, based in Battle Creek Michigan, employs over 26,000 people. In 2006, Kellogg’s reported sales of $10.9 billion. Kellogg’s has worked to block US legislation requiring producers to label items containing GMOs.

Are you starting to get the point?  You are being experimented on by big business.  You think the government protects you?  Think again, GMO slips through the cracks and is a self-regulated industry providing their own reports to the government on safety.  Hundreds of these companies executives now sit in key positions in our government.

monsanto1Your tax dollars even went into the development of the terminator gene! Complements of the USDA and your hard earned tax dollars!  Now Monsanto uses it in there seed so farmers must by seed from them every year instead of saving it from year to years as humans have done for millenia.  Now one large company controls the very food you put in your mouth.

Cargill, the second largest privately owned corporation in the US and one of the largest producers of GMO,s (read this link to understand the depth of which this company owns the food supply) owns the following companies or supplies them with GMO laden foods either directly or through animal feeds:

  • McDonalds
  • J.M. Smuckers
  • Coca Cola
  • ACCO Feeds
  • Nations second largest beef processor
  • You know I have to stop here, the list is exhaustive!!!  I could type for another hour and not get them all down here, but you get the point.  Research it for yourself.  Learn, educate yourself and start growing your own food.

How do you stop this from happening to your food?  With your $, stop buying contaminated food.  Next time before you shop go to this web who keeps an an on big business and find out what is in your food.  You vote with your $ when it comes to big business.

By Farmer John | Also posted in Safety | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Sun Dried Tomatoes…tis the season!

October 6, 2008 – 4:30 pm

Principe Borghese One of our favorite tomatoes is the Principe Borghese and we have many starting to come in from the garden.  The Borghese is a favorite here in California for sun drying.  It is an old Italian heirloom tomato that becomes amazingly intense with a rich flavor as it dries.  We dry them and then store them in mason jars for later cooking.  A handful thrown into a salad or sauteed with fresh garlic, olive oil and pasta make a yummy meal.  I’ve had some stored now for over 3 years that still retain a rich deep flavor.

An easy tomato to grow and a prolific bearer you can’t go wrong with these tasty little tomatoes.   Sauce of course can be made from these tomatoes, but this year we are using are Roma tomatoes for that.  We also had a wonderful friend give us a box full of Brandywine tomatoes that are going into the sauce along with basil, garlic and rosemary straight from the garden.  Last year we put away 18 jars of sauce.  It was just enough, but we didn’t dry any of the Borghese.  So this year we should be prepared for the wonderful flavor of summer during those dark, dreary winter days.  Seeds can be obtained at one of our favorite heirloom nurserys.

By Farmer John | Comments (0)

Making Apple Cider Part I

September 27, 2008 – 2:39 pm

Esopus Spitzenberg ApplesWow, we did this last year, but had the help of Mom and Dad while they were visiting.  This is tons of work, but more fun with more folks.  We did get some help picking, but all of our friends whimped out on the making part.  I’m sure they will be around when the hard cider is ready!

First you must start with the clean apples.  After harvesting we clean and grade our apples into two piles.  Premium (few worms and bruises) and seconds.  We use the premium apples for our juice and the others for hard cider and vinegar.  We have discovered if you soak the apples in water overnight the nasty little apple worms crawl out and drown!  For actual apples we use what friends offer us since we don’t have land yet with apples on it.  We do have several trees in buckets just waiting to be planted though!  Anyway, there is a whole craft in creating cider and we are just beginning to learn.  The first thing is blending your apples types for just the right taste.  Most of the apple cider varieties are old English heirloom apples, but there are many American heirloom varieties.  To learn more visit the this site that has wonderful descriptions of each.  To purchase some of these varieties which can be nearly impossible to find, go to Green Mantle nursery. If you are really into this and live on the West Coast like us.  Email me for a more specific list of what does great in our cool mountainous region or ask Green Mantle Nursery.  Tell them Farmer John sent ya.

So we got Esopus Spitzenburger apples this year from a new friend of our in the valley below us.  This tree Apple Presswas a favorite on the East Coast for many years.  It has a great fruity sweetness.  Now, if we were master crafters we would have one of the other apples needed to bring in some of the high tannin levels that give the cider that edge.  However, that will have to wait till we get our trees in the ground.  Next you will need the apple press.  We have come to love the Correll Press.  We rent ours for about $55 from The Beverage People.  Since you only use them once a year it is not a bad item to rent so ya don’t have to store it.  However, once we are a part of a sustainable community it would be someting the community would own.  Here you see that this model has two press baskets.  This is wonderful since it allows you to shred apples in one and be pressing the other at the same time.  A real time saver!

ShredderThis model has an electric shredder.  Also a time saver, but with more parts to break and something that would have to run on solar in the future.  So we have plans to buy a model with a  manual shredder.  The actual shredding part is a breeze.  You simply make sure your press basket is below with your press bag in it (nylon bag kind of like cheese clothe) and start shredding.  There is kind of a rhythm to Shredded Apples watching the flow in to the basket below and loading the apples above.  You will get the hang of it.  Once this basket is full you move it over to the press part of the apple press.  Here you will place the pressing cap on top and start loading the pressure with the screw.  Make sure to have your catch pan ready to catch the juice.  See Part II

Some great books with more information pictured below.  Just click on them

Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider, Third Edition Apple Cider Vinegar, 56th Edition: Miracle Health System (Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar Miracle Health System: With the Bragg Healthy Lifestyle) Making the Best Apple Cider Cider, Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own, Second Edition

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