Happy May Day everyone!
Sunday and my day in the garden making sure my stuff is doing good….and the best news was…..the first tomato of the season…..
(a little outta focus but I was excited to have my first tomato sandwich of the season)
Most of us will be hitting our local farmer’s market to scoop up some of those “garden fresh” veggies……but we need to be careful….why?
Your fresh veggies from the Farm could be a con…….
NBC Los Angeles’ news team decided to do some checking around at local farmer’s markets, and paid visits to the farms where the vendors claimed they grew the food they were selling. In some cases, they found fields full of weeds or dry, empty fields. The vendors were selling vegetables and fruit they had bought wholesale, and were selling it at premium prices at local farmer’s markets, claiming it was locally grown and organic.
Source: Farmers Markets Aren’t Always The Better Buy: The Pros And Cons Of Eating Local
And there is another aspect of buying this produce…..
With farmers market season upon us, anyone looking for extra incentive to get up early on Saturday to check out the organic offerings from local growers might want to take a gander at the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen,” the organization’s annual roundup of conventionally grown produce most likely to be contaminated with pesticides.
That plural—pesticides—is no joke. Despite growing consumer demand for healthier, more sustainably grown food, many samples of the most contaminated produce tested positive for residues from not one but two or more chemical pesticides. A single sample of strawberries contained residues from a whopping 17 different pesticides.
Source: The 12 Most Pesticide-Contaminated Fruits and Veggies | Alternet
This is why I grow most of my fave veggies…..onions, peppers, tomatoes, asparagus and my fave fruit….figs, pears, plums, peaches and tangerines….that way I know they are not treated with anything harmful……
Sorry to be a bummer on this Sunday but I feel that you guys need to know what is coming your way….go enjoy the rest of your weekend……I will catch up with everyone tomorrow.
Have A Day, My Friends!
Yep…
“What we need isn’t more pills. We need clean, fresh air to breathe. We need good, clean, fresh food to eat.” — Ed Abbey
Our ignorance and greed will kill us all, without any complaints from those who refuse to think….
gigoid
Oh, and, great looking tomato!…. The sandwich would be killer!….
gigoid
It was…..a little mayo and cracked pepper on wheat….damn! chuq
As Zippy would say, “Yow!”
Nothing better for lunch…
Enjoy!
g
THanx chuq
As one not exactly “unconnected” to farming during the course of his life, little of this surprises me. But since most people couldn’t spot a pig in a line-up of sheep, I expect most folks would be surprised. A couple thoughts:
1) Farmers Markets Living in the frozen tundra of Canuckistan, one expects everything on a Farmers Market shelf during the lengthy “off-season” (other than what can be stored for long periods like cabbage, squashes, apples) isn’t grown by the farmer, or any farmer north of northern California. So those stats don’t surprise me. But it would be surprising in a region where you can grow food all year long.
But despite being farmers, you’ll still going to find some capitalists in the bunch. Those are the guys selling off-season veg from elsewhere & prepared foodstuffs made in factories. To be fair, it helps even out the seasonal peaks & valleys. And even in a place that’s created to be “fresh & local” and is smothered in hippies…spoiled little consumerist fuckers that we are, the customer still expects to be catered to with endless supplies of everything and purchase unhealthy products of convenience. The demand/expectation is SO strong, defeating the Market’s entire reason for existing is “no excuse for me having to go without what I want.” And these are the “socially conscious” consumers!
However, the “capitalist farmers” selling deceptive products are committing outright fraud. As usual, it’s not surprising to know these capitalists are largely allowed to run free. Because in our sick society, criminal capitalists are Free Range, but your average chicken gets treated far worse than a child rapist & murderer with over 400 victims to his name.
2) The Dirty Dozen I am rather surprised at how many on the “Clean 15” list are soft, sweet & tropical plants. I’d expect them to get more pesticide. And a few are quite similar to those on the “Dirty Dozen” list (ie “clean” grapefruit vs “dirty” tangerine) They’re very similar fruits likely grown side by side. That disparity in pesticide use just doesn’t make much sense.
Then again, little about our entire food supply makes sense on any level…other than profit maximization.
The whole corporate farming thing is just Wrong….the food is treated so that seeds cannot be used to grow your own we need to buy the seeds every year….I grow my own stuff…..that way I can control what I eat at least for awhile….
Thankfully, there are lots of “seed savers” out there now saving heirloom and other seeds before Monsanto & the like copyrights the entire food supply. Monsanto Motherfuckers! The kill us with their poisons, play Dr Frankenstein with our food and force farmers to sign contracts that turn millennia of standard farming practices into crimes.
I agree….they are killing us slowly…..
Quite Bragging….some of us don’t have much land. However, we do some lettuce, basil, red peppers, tomatoes and my fave chard in a tower in the front yard. I also have a 60 or so year old lemon tree, two lime trees in humongous cement pots, several orange trees, a loquat tree and a persimmon tree in the yard, so we do ok. “spring has sprung, the grass as rez where last year’s reckless drivers is”
HAPPY MAY DAY TO ALL! dru
OH YOU NEED TO ADD RED ONION TO THE TOMATO SANDWICH TO MAKE IT MINE! FOR JUST THE TOMATO TASTE, I JUST EAT IT LIKE AN APPLE WITH A VERY LITTLE SALT. nummers!
You have chard in your front yard? All I’ve got is drunken ho’s in my front yard…and I have to take the hose to them every other morning. (No, that’s not a euphemism)
Well Sedate we haven’t quite gotten to that but if we do, they’ll have something to gnaw on. Really chard is beautiful and we’re considering growing it as a hedge instead of in a pot. Hose the HOs how quaint and picturesque! hee hee hee dru
You got chard in the yard…I water ho’s with my hose. 🙂 But I probably shouldn’t water the weeds. Maybe I should switch to spraying vinegar. That works well on the sidewalk weeds.
But it’s amazing how many eatable plants can double as landscaping. Certain cabbages work great. Blueberry bushes can make good hedges. Chard, especially the more reddish chard, probably would look great. I consider it 2 for 1 gardening.
I would love to do it, but I could never plant anything eatable in my front yard. Flocks of stoned young people would gather and try to work off their “muchies”, leaving me hungry and with more yardwork.
In our old place we were at the end of a dirt street and I planted tomatoes in front of the chain link fence and just used that to tie them up. Although I never saw people at the end of the road where we were; most of my tomatoes got picked before I got to them. It was ok though cuz we had them in the back veggie garden too and they were humongous there, so the front was more as a cover. I sort of got off on feeding the zoo in front of the fence but had they been my only fruit, I’d have been pissed! dru
I am not bragging….I have 7 containers for veggies….2 pear trees, 3 plum, 3 peach 1 tangerine…..and 3 grapes….so I have a garden, a vineyard and an orchard…LOL
Really it sounds wonderful, just as long as YOU take care of it, harvest it, prepare it, and I EAT IT! xxx ooo dru