The Healing Power of… Purple?
November 13, 2008|Comments (22)
Okay, children of the eighties unite… don’t these babies look like they will open to reveal a rather ugly-faced doll with a signature on the hind end? These are the fruits of fall gardening labors. Aren’t they gorgeous? Don’t you just want to stuff them and stick them in a casserole dish? The best part? The color. Check out these Chinese eggplants!
I adore purple vegetables! Actually, purple vegetables are really amazing sources for cancer-fighting nutrients. Purple fruits and vegetables carry more anthocyanins and phenolics than any other fruits and vegetables. Not to mention that they are exceptional and exquisite… I feel like Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch right now.
But it gets better. This beauty isn’t skin-deep. These two antioxidants (which are a direct result of a purple crop’s phytochemical signature) have been at the heart of much of the hype over blueberries as cancer-fighting agents. Laboratory tests suggests that anthocyanins can slow the growth of colon cancer cells. But anthocyanins are not just in blueberries… any purple or blue produce has a hefty dose of these antioxidants, which are also proven to help prevent and battle obesity, memory loss, urinary tract health, and the basic effects of aging. Who wouldn’t want a cure for those?
Keep in mind that purple produce isn’t the only cancer-fighting produce. This is the first in a series of posts about the amazing healing properties of fruits and vegetables that you can grow in your very own backyard. Many of us sail past certain fruits and vegetables in the produce section simply because our parents never fixed them for us or we don’t think they can be covered with Ranch dressing/cheese (or we don’t know how to pronounce them properly and dread the checkout person asking us what the are). Whatever our reasons, many of us are less than adventurous when it comes to our veggies.
So, I challenge you to find a fruit or a vegetable that you have never heard of or tried before. Purchase it (or plant it) and prepare it as a side dish. Consult this list of culinary vegetables and this list of culinary fruits. Email me if you need help finding a recipe.
What’s the most exotic dish you’ve ever consumed?
Green to Gold
November 3, 2008|Comments (11)
The best way to begin conditioning soil is to delay planting a full veggie garden and plant a crop of green manure. If the folks in our area who were plagued by impossibly clay-rich soil could have known about green manure, the main source of income for the old money would not have come from inventing the formula for Coca Cola (”Co-Cola” as the locals call it) or textile mills. Columbus might have then become a Georgian-style Lexington, Kentucky or something. Instead, the soil made extensive farming and even owning horses an extremely expensive endeavor. Imagine the start up costs!
Plowing this soil requires high-quality tractors and vast amounts of compost. I sometimes imagine how difficult it would have been to settle this area with the combination of insufferable heat and humidity, predacious arachnids, poisonous snakes, mosquitoes from the Jurassic period, and soil packed so tightly that if we’d had coal available the main crop might have been diamonds.
Back to green manure… green gold for the soil. Used as a rotation crop or a ground cover to keep the soil (and thus, the veggie roots) cool, these wonderful little legumes are then plowed under to add organic matter to the soil. How important is organic matter to the soil? Lots.
Once the legumes have been turned under, they set to work improving aeration, water retention, weed suppression, and since their roots were so deep they were able to bring up nutrients that other plants could not — so they introduce those nutrients to the well-worked portion of the soil. Essentially, they act as the spa, massage therapists, and nutrition gurus frequented by celebrities and those who profited from the government bailout of certain nefarious loan companies — only for dirt.
Want a list of super-great green manures and links of where to purchase them? Oh, I’m on it!
Soil Composition 101 — Dirt
November 1, 2008|Comments (7)
Okay, so this is not a college level course on soil composition but it is brief and steady jog through the key points of dirt prep and balance. Based upon the balance between your soil’s main ingredients, we can determine a great deal about its growing potential. So what if you failed organic chemistry many moons ago and don’t know pH from polymers? No problem.
First, soil is made up of clay, sand, silt, and some biological sediment. I didn’t make up the rules, that’s just what they are, okay?
Sand is that largest particle in the soil and is irregular in shape. The sand particles do not fit together snugly, so there are gaps between the individual particles. The gaps provide a space for air and water to collect which is needed by the plant roots. The gaps also mean that the sand can be easily accessed by roots. Too much sand will allow water to drain quickly from the surface and plant roots become deprived of nutrients and water. Basically, the plants wither and die of dehydration and are then washed away completely when the rains come. Why doesn’t CSI do an episode on that?
Silt is the middle size particle and perhaps the ideal for a garden. The size of silt particles allow it to retain moisture, as well as allow ample root growth, but also have enough cohesive energy to retain nutrients well. This is like gummy Flintstones vitamins for kids — good for them and utterly fantastic.
Clay is the smallest size particle and most of us know clay better than any other form of ‘soil’. Clay and I became well-acquainted when we moved to Western Georgia and we couldn’t till a garden and were forced to build raised beds. These stubborn soil particles are small enough that they fit tighter closely and form a layer. Multiple layers fit snugly together in a way that prevents water and nutrients from penetrating. The result is that roots cannot penetrate the clay and drainage is poor. Basically, the plant dies a miserable death. On the positive side, clay isn’t necessarily all bad. It has good moisture and nutrition retention. But that same “good” moisture retention can also be a problem, as I already pointed out.
Most of us have a mix of all three particle sizes plus some organic material. Unless, of course, you are one of my neighbors and then you have only one particle size. If you look at the triangle above with silt, sand and clay at the corners, the central areas are the best soil composition. Most natural soils are on the lower part. This means that all you have to do is add a little bit of one component to balance your soil and create a productive garden space. You lucky things, you. I burn with envy.
Now that we’ve talked about soil, I’m sure that you are just itching to figure out what you’ve got in your backyard — your hidden garden potential. Okay, maybe you’re not. Maybe you already know and you’re reading this because you are just really loyal (if so, I really love you).
Whatever your reasons — take a shovel and dig a hole about six inches deep and remove the surface layer. Spoon about one cup of mix into a glass canning jar (or any clear container) and fill with 2 cups of water. Shake it up for several minutes to fully mix the contents and yell, “Yahtzee” really loudly. Let the jar sit for 24 hours and take a peek. The small clay particles will be on the top, the coarse sand particles are at the bottom.
Now you know what you need to do to improve your soil. Repeat the soil composition test in different areas of the garden and yard, then log it carefully in your garden journal or a random notebook that your kids have abandoned for no apparent reason. This log will help when you attempt to plant in those areas and must know what to add to your soil to make it work for your needs.
This is the first of many soil themed posts. I’m planning more. MORE dirt! Tune in next time for chats on green manure. Check out other totally awesome and informative posts by visitng The Very Best of Our Site. Or not. But I really hope you do.
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