I had the good fortune of learning years ago (Boy Scouts, cooking merit badge) that the common weed purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is edible. Outside the United States, (more…)
July 4, 2011
Purslane: More than a weed
Posted by ramblinrobert under Agroecology, Food preservation, My garden, my life | Tags: omega-3 fatty acid, Portulaca oleracea, purslane, weed |[2] Comments
June 28, 2011
Genetically Modified or Genetically Engineered?
Posted by ramblinrobert under Agroecology, Genetic stock, Industrial agriculture | Tags: cross-breeding, genetic engineering, genetic modification, Industrial agriculture, selective breeding, transgenic |Leave a Comment
This recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides evidence that people have been doing selective breeding of plants–using evolutionary concepts of selection–as early as 10,000 years ago. This work continues today.
However, I post this research here with a warning. (more…)
June 16, 2011
What’s the plural of aprium? And a note on crop diversity.
Posted by ramblinrobert under Agroecology, Business, Genetic stock, Industrial agriculture, My garden, my life, Urban agriculture | Tags: aprium, crop diversity, zaiger genetics |1 Comment
I’m struggling with language here, so any advice is appreciated. An aprium is a new fruit variety, created by Zaiger Genetics. It’s 3/4 apricot and 1/4 plum, just the reverse of a pluot, also developed by Zaiger Genetics. (Before rambling on about my garden, I should mention that the SF Chronicle had a nice article on the Zaiger family a few days ago. I visited their farm a few years ago while on a tasting tour and met them. They’re good people, and (more…)
June 14, 2011
Antibiotics and industrial agriculture’s unhealthy lock on government policy
Posted by ramblinrobert under Industrial agriculture, Politics and policy | Tags: antibiotic resistance, Industrial agriculture |Leave a Comment
Nicholas Kristof has a nice summary of one of the major problems we face as a culture, antibiotic resistance of dangerous bacteria, due to massive overuse of antibiotics in agriculture. Read his NY Times column on the topic. If you don’t know about this problem, or, even if you do, this is a must-read article. Our Federal government (we won’t get into state government problems here) no longer watches out for public health, but focuses instead on the health of large corporations. This is the tragedy of modern American politics and governance. His article describes just one instance of this in agriculture, which is just one industry where this is true.
June 14, 2011
Another experiment–Pepino dulce
Posted by ramblinrobert under My garden, my life | Tags: Pepino dulce, Solanum muricatum |Leave a Comment
Last year I heard about another fruit I hadn’t tried, Pepino dulce. It’s a plant from South America that no longer is found in the wild, but is a domesticated fruit-bearing shrub. The fruit is reputed to taste like a kiwi fruit. Last summer, (more…)
June 14, 2011
More blackberries than I know what to do with. Again.
Posted by ramblinrobert under My garden, my life | Tags: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, Urban agriculture |[5] Comments
My garden began about eight or nine years ago with a cutting from a blackberry, given to me by a guy in Berkeley. That was not only my first plant in my food garden, but it is also my first big harvest each year. It’s a well-established perennial that has produced over 50 pints in each of the past two years. I’ve had several 10-pint days of ripe berries and one blast of a day last year at 27 pints.
This year is going well. I’ve been getting a small but steady supply of raspberries and blueberries and (more…)
February 9, 2011
Moving my rainwater around
Posted by ramblinrobert under Agroecology, My garden, my life, Urban agriculture, Water | Tags: rainwater catchment |Leave a Comment
Last year I had a pretty primitive system of rainwater collection and storage, just four garbage cans and five-gallon buckets for collecting rainwater. This year I’ve advanced considerably, with three rainwater catchment barrels in place and a fourth ready to be chained into the system. For more on this year’s new setup, see my earlier post, My rainwater catchment system. Now that I’m collecting more water, and collecting it on the lowest part of my property, I’ve been wanting to figure out a better system for using the water and moving it to where it is needed.
A friend came by a few weeks ago to see my setup and told me how he moves around his laundry grey water. He has a small pump, a Simer M40, that I liked because it has two hose bibs, making both input and output easy to use in the garden. I found one used on eBay and it arrived today. 
With warm weather the past week and wind on top of that, I needed to irrigate. Plus, we have a storm coming in next week and I want my catchment barrels to be empty and ready to collect more rainwater with the next storm.
So, I tested out the pump, both for irrigation and to empty out the barrels. The pump is small, so it doesn’t put out a lot of pressure. But, there is enough pressure to hook up my hose and water my plants. The real test came when I moved over two catchment barrels of water to garbage cans elsewhere in my yard. The pump was slow, taking 12 minutes to fill each garbage can and drain half of a catchment barrel. But, it worked and I was able to do other yard work while the transfer took place. I now have 130 gallons of water stored in garbage cans and will have capacity to collect another 260 gallons of water with the coming spring storms. 
I like this setup! I’m thinking I might even get another container, a 200 gallon surplus food container, to put under my front window, then I can store water to irrigate my front yard once or twice during the summer. The pump could be used to move rainwater from a collection site to that tank.
November 29, 2010
Lindt industrializes dark chocolate
Posted by ramblinrobert under Industrial agriculture | Tags: dark chocolate, Lindt chocolate |[6] Comments
Several years ago, after a year of tasting a wide variety of dark chocolates, I settled on Lindt’s 70% dark chocolate bar as my everyday bar of choice. While not the best of all the bars I tasted, it provided a good balance of taste and reasonable pricing. In short, an ideal everyday bar for the chocolate addict in me.
Unfortunately, Lindt couldn’t leave well enough alone. (more…)
November 19, 2010
My rainwater catchment system
Posted by ramblinrobert under My garden, my life, Water | Tags: rainwater barrels, rainwater catchment, water conservation |[3] Comments
Last year I experimented with saving rainwater for irrigation. I bought four 32 gallon garbage cans and filled them up from five-gallon buckets I used as collectors. It worked, but was pretty inefficient, to say the least. However, at the end of the season, I noticed that my neighbors’ little one-stall garage, which backs up to the property line, drained into my yard. (more…)
October 24, 2010
My compost is cooking!
Posted by ramblinrobert under My garden, my life | Tags: compost, hot compost |1 Comment
I’ve been making compost and adding it to my soil for years, and my vegetable bed soil is now in great shape as a result. My earlier compost piles have had an expected temperature timeline, given the small bins I’m using, of getting hot (about 140-150° F) a day or two after I build the pile, then dropping to about 90-100° on day five.
Not so with my latest compost pile. I put the pile together five days ago. I checked it two days later and it was an astounding 160°. The next day, the same temperature. The fourth day it dropped to 155°. This morning I checked and it is still cooking away at 148°. If I keep it turned and moist (and not TOO wet with winter rains), I should have a fine batch of compost to use with my spring crops!
Update (11/5/10): Two weeks after starting this pile, it was still cooking along at 120°. I’m speculating that this pile is doing so well for two reasons: water and air. I was not as heavy handed with the hose as usual when building the pile, so I think it wasn’t water logged. I often shred materials to increase surface area and speed up decomposition. I didn’t do that with this pile, so the pieces are larger, allowing for better air flow.
