Monthly Archives: September 2008

Fretting Over My Garden

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 30, 2008
Though the humidity has departed, warm weather – and insects – linger. Hummingbirds zoom around the Mexican bush sage and Turk’s cap, and today I spotted a migrant warbler flitting about in our palm trees. It’s been dry, but I still have to do my mosquito dance while watering the garden. The glorious, easy days [...]
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I’ve signed up for the Eat Local Challenge

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 22, 2008
I signed up today for the “Eat Local Challenge”:http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/2008/08/announcing-the.html. As mentioned in a previous post, bq. The traditional Eat Local Challenge is a basic concept: commit to eating only locally grown foods for a period of thirty days. Declare “exceptions” that you will not be eating locally, and try as hard as you can to [...]
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Little Slices of September from Bill Finch

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 19, 2008
In today’s Press-Register, “more”:http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1221815761203500.xml&coll=3 “tidbits”:http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1221815747203500.xml&coll=3 on the “fall garden”:http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1221815787203500.xml&coll=3. Plant now for harvests in fall and winter.
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The organic Top 20 — A shopper’s guide

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 16, 2008
Culinate presents “The organic Top 20 — A shopper’s guide”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/culinate/mainfeed/~3/393341990/organic_top_20, which is a nice visual guide to the produce you should be buying organic because of its high pesticide content, and produce that’s safer to buy conventionally grown, frequently because thick rinds mean less pesticides make it into the fruit, or fewer pesticides are used [...]
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Local Food Production Initiative Meeting on September 15

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 12, 2008
WHAT: Local Food Production Initiative public meeting WHEN: Monday, September 15 at 6:30pm WHERE: the Nix Center, 1 Bayou Drive in Fairhope TOPIC: Ed Tunnel, retired Baldwin County Extension Coordinator, will discuss “Fruit Tree Cultivars for This Area.” ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: See “this archived post for more information on the Local Food Production Initiative”:http://gulfcoastlocalfood.org/2008/05/fairhope-local-food-production.html, centered in [...]
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Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 11, 2008
The Local Food Production Initiative in Fairhope recommends “Square Foot Gardening”:http://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gardening-Garden-Space/dp/1579548563/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221108310&sr=8-2 by Mel Bartholomew as a good book newcomers might want to look at. Although I wouldn’t call it a “new” way to garden, since it’s basically an adaptation of intensive gardening techniques that have been around for ages, it does simplify the planning. Here’s [...]
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Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 10, 2008
Via the Organic Consumers Association: “Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use”:http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug08/Energy.Food.html, Cornell University study finds.
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Dispatches From the Fields: Mowing – and re-growing – the grassroots

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 10, 2008
Grist’s “Dispatches From the Fields”:http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/17/155742/191?source=daily feature the reflections of Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season. Lotti writes: bq. Why should we care about the loss of what has come to be called the “agriculture of the middle,” the mid-sized family farms that were once [...]
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The future of food: Can Slow Food move beyond its elitist image?

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 10, 2008
If you managed to miss the media blitz, Slow Food USA recently held its Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco. It was attended by over 60,000 people. At Culinate recent college graduate Eric Hass provides a brief look at the “concluding panel in the Food for Thought series”:http://www.culinate.com/articles/opinion/slow_food_nation_panel, consisting of “farmer [and author] Wendell [...]
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Garden Q & A: Laying out your garden

By Ang Jordan | Published: September 10, 2008
From Kitchen Gardeners International, “Garden Q & A: Laying out your garden”:http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2008/08/garden_layouts.html. Addresses the basic question of whether to plant in rows or another scheme.
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