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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 14, 2015 22:23:37 GMT -5
Just noticed there is a long thread on here about it a couple of pages further on.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 14, 2015 22:01:34 GMT -5
Well there are even more toxic chemicals lurking..the news out of Hawaii from people living near the testing grounds is really horrifying. When there are billions of dollars at stake it's going to be an uphill battle, although the tide does seem to be turning, slowly.. California has now designated glyphosate officially as a cancer causing chemical - something that was known at least 10 years ago, and at least the Canadian government was informed of it. I sent the then PM Harper and all the ministers of each party who were even remotely involved with agriculture a link to a joint university study done in Ontario with greenhouse workers. I got a patronising letter back from the then government saying that the Ag people had looked into it and decided it was safe and not to worry my poor little head about it, and all the other responses were equally disinterested if somewhat more polite in saying so. With a new government in place, perhaps now we can get some traction.
However, it was distressing to read in an interview published by Modern Farmer today in an interview with the USDA secretary Tom Vilsak when this question and answer is reported:
"MF: There is a big disconnect between polls showing that a majority of consumers are very concerned about GMOs in the food supply and the scientific consensus around GMOs, which says they are generally safe to eat. What do you attribute that disconnection to?
TV: I think it goes back to when this technology was introduced into the marketplace. I think that companies that promoted this did a very good job explaining the benefits to farmers and producers. They failed to make the same case, if you will, to consumers, either by reassuring them of the safety of the product, and/or by pointing out that these products are allowing us to produce more with less inputs than we would’ve had if we were producing an equivalent amount under the old way. [With GMOs] you have less chemicals and less pesticides per bushel, or per acre being used. "
You really really have to wonder what magic mushrooms he's been eating that allows him to make such a statement with a straight face.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 14, 2015 21:42:28 GMT -5
There's a huge long discussion in Permies.com about what people are doing/have done with human waste, you might find it useful to check it out.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 9, 2015 0:35:16 GMT -5
yes just ordered some from there.. thank you !
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 8, 2015 19:43:20 GMT -5
Thank you! Now an embarrassment of riches... I was following the suggestion of looking up nurseries to see if perhaps I had missed one .. different search engines sometimes have different links for some reason.. and ran across a different site on Saltspring Island that specializes in apple trees and has 300 varieties.. no idea why I didn't find them years ago when first researching this. Neither time did I find Harry Burton, have to fire the search engines . Anyway, I emailed them this morning, hoping that they would do it, if not, I can now contact Harry Burton. One or the other of them surely will be able to solve our problem. Thank you all, really appreciate the help!
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 7, 2015 22:51:09 GMT -5
I am trying to do some of that from here.. unfortunately they are in something like zone 6 or 7 and I am in something like zone 3 so most apples struggle here at best unless specially selected for the cold long winter.. There is a place in Ontario that does grafting and is handling all sorts of heritage apples and a few others.. Siloam, who gave me the lead to someone who then referred me on to the guy who came out two years ago and was supposed to look after it all last year. I've lost the contact now.. The trees are so old now, I think they likely will need someone with a clue about what they are doing if things are going to succeed.
I am going to go west in the next month or so, maybe I will tell them to save the seeds from any apples they eat... how should they do that, do they have to be kept moist?
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 7, 2015 17:32:38 GMT -5
Does anyone know anyone on Vancouver Island that could take cuttings from some very old apple trees there? I thought we had someone lined up but he appears to have vanished.
There's a certain urgency as the trees are probably on their last legs now... they are likely close to 100 years old, they most certainly are over 80 years old and the apples are beginning to have issues for the first time ever. I remember only ONCE anyone doing anything whatever about them..cutting out and burning some branches of a couple of trees that got tent caterpillers..most were not affected at all.
They had heavy production every year of big ..many almost softball size..crisp tangy apples that made the best apple pie ever and kept without fuss for months. One tree even got split in half by lightning and both halves, lying in different angles on the ground, kept on producing apples until it got cut up for firewood a couple of years later. They ripened late September.
The standard trees may be harder to pick, but what can compare to a tree you plant once and once it starts to bear, continues for 80+ years without any care? I will be very very sad if this variety, whatever it is, vanishes forever. They're on my brother's place, and I'm over a thousand miles away or I'd have been trying to do this for the past 15 years.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 7, 2015 13:56:57 GMT -5
If seed for Job's Tears is being offered, how can you tell whether or not the seed is for grain type or just for beads? I ran across it somewhere in the last few days while looking for something else and wondered..
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 6, 2015 23:16:07 GMT -5
thank you! They seem to have members from all over, hopefully one of them will have some seed for sale.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 6, 2015 21:42:02 GMT -5
speaking of GMOs, Reuters reported that Putin is taking Russia entirely away from GMOs and industrial ag in general, in favor of organic production, saying that's a growing market and what people want so Russia intends to become the major world supplier of such food.
In another group someone reported that he is also giving a break for small producers, no property tax for anything up to 10 hectares as long as it is producing food. Astonishing.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 6, 2015 18:00:38 GMT -5
I love the print catalogs but the cost of sending them through the mail is getting to be a major cost for companies. Even sending the seed... I sent a bunch of extra seed to someone in Nova Scotia last spring.. all fit easilly in an 8x12 padded envelope = $25 and that was regular mail.Oh yes and the clerk tried to tell me it was illegal to send seed by mail, who knows where she got THAT from. The shipping and handling costs have all jumped this year ( in the catalogs I've gotton so far) Add the 25=30% premium for American money..this time last year it was at par..and that's put a crimp in things.
One way to limit the distribution of non big ag seed is to make it too expensive to send any amount of seed anywhere.
Someone was asking where to get stuff tested for GMOs? High Mowing seed says they test so they would know..
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 6, 2015 17:44:38 GMT -5
ah! did not know that. Still, it's worth a shot, some of the traits will probably persevere, even if only a reluctance to die under stress. Who knows? I might get one I like even more! Guess I will need to do something about cuttings next spring as well though... thank you
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 6, 2015 11:20:09 GMT -5
the one thing they are not addressing, which is pertinent if they are thinking to apply the results in terms of what is suitable for human food; is that gmo corn is developed precisely to be able to take in poisons such as glyphosates and not die. THAT is the crux of the problem right now, (although ideas such as jellyfish genes in potatoes is not inspiring confidence either).
So, for this test to have any validity at all in regards to the safety of GMO corn or other foods, the GMO corn should be grown as gmo corn is normally grown, with all the sprays and such. The chances of animals being able to detect a deviant gene is likely slim, although some dogs have been able to detect cancer cells growing in people. But.. animals probably CAN tell if the ear of corn contains poisonous residue, and virtually all GMO crops normally will.
If they don't do that, then the whole thing is an exercise in the category of "totally useless and probably misleading information", imo.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 6, 2015 10:57:28 GMT -5
Fedco seeds has some..they ran out very fast last year but they are back in the catalog for this year. Unfortunately the costs of shipping and handling plus the exchange rate makes them too pricey for me in Canada, but they offer free shipping in the States.
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Post by prairiegarden on Dec 6, 2015 10:50:17 GMT -5
Thought perhaps a cross but there aren't any other roses anywhere near.. maybe it had finally got enough sun that it tentatively put out some seed? Some animals won't breed if there isn't enough food to sustain the family, maybe some plants do the same? If it didn't put out seed at some point it's a mystery as to how it established itself literally at the base of a mature spruce tree, certainly nobody would ever have planted it there.
I have an unheated room, which generally runs about 5 degrees or so warmer than outside, thinking to plant them in peat pots and let them do what they want to do when they want to do it...
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