Consolidation of our national seed industry can be found here, from a professor in Michigan.  Philip Howard, Assistant Professor at MSU put this together.  Pretty rockin' graph, if you ask me.

The GMO debate is a big one.

BIG.

And I'm not sure what all the answers are (yet), so on this BIG debate I'm going with my gut and urging my politicians, peers, colleagues, family - anyone who will listen - to have a voice in the BIG debate that will change the future of our food supply.  Monsanto owns a lot of this worlds seed.  Gates Foundation does work in Africa in support of GMOs, because they think it's going to solve the hunger crisis. I don't know if these things are ultimately good or bad, but I don't think that creating plants that are immune to bugs seems wise, nor do I think that feeding a world that is overpopulated is the answer to th global food shortage.  What I do know, however, is that I don't want people playing with the genetics of anything I take into my body as nourishment.  As food to fuel me. Period.

Let's consider a scientific fascination of mine, natural selection. I'm giving a good ol' hey-I-can-relate-to-this-example. We humans acclimate to various climatic conditions based on where we live.  People in Florida get more cold in the NY chill than NYers.  People in Arizona wear long sleeves when it's 78 degrees in Seattle and so on and so forth.  I've noticed my own 'natural selection' of sorts in the past three years that I've been gardening.  Used to be that I'd get hot in minutes, and I could often be found in a tank top and skirt in my gardens.  This year, I work in a long sleeve button down shirt with long pants.  Not because I'm cold, necessarily, but because I've acclimated.  My body has adjusted to my conditions.  I am learning how to survive successfully given my environment.

When you remove that natural environmental selection and instead manually and intentionally manipulate an organism to fit an environment, I believe there is a problem.  Nature will always take it's course. Molten rock finds it's way out of a volcano by cracking the earths crust. That is a natural circle and one we've come to accept. No one goes around trying to 'cap' mountains. Nature has it's way. When you start experimenting with genetics of anything, the word "natural" gets removed from the equation. It's no longer a natural selection.  It's just "selection".A selection of which I want no part, thankyouverymuch.

USE YOUR VOICE and BE HEARD.

Tell the USDA that GMO contamination of ORGANICS is not acceptable!

So, here is the short story - I am writing a cookbook!

Here is the long story - it's not out until May 2010.

Urban Pantry will be a modern, clean, hip, inviting, whiff of elegance all wrapped up in one little book about how to cook economically and eco-fabulously at home. This is not your grandmother’s musty old pantry! This is an efficient, thrifty, organized, seasonal storage space or cupboard—a home cook’s go-to place for basic food prep and sustainable meals.  I will have recipes on preserving, using whole grains, and whipping up quick meals from your well stocked urban pantry.

Got any requests?  Send them my way!

I'm off to write and brainstorm in the gorgeous Methow Valley. Stops at Blue Bird Grain Farm and Sunny Pines goat dairy are in order.  I'll be cookin' and writing, writing and cookin'.  Always on the gogo, cookin' up something tasty!

Ok, gardeners!

I am knee deep in dirt and a bit busy for blogging.  Email any questions directly to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it !

In the interim, sow some basil, mound up cukes and zucchinis at month end, and then sit back and enjoy the germination sure to happen over the coming weeks!

May is suuuuuuuch a busy month in the garden.  So busy, in fact, that I barely have time to write this and you likely have no time to read it.  So, a few bullet points for us urbanites on the gogo............

- Do not set tomato plants out until Memorial Day weekend at earliest (and do feel free to send me a bday gift this same weekend.  I like champagne & anything blue.)

- Continue to sow lettuces this month - just a few seeds at a time.  And by "a few", I mean four or five.  That's four or five heading lettuce seed (not loose leaf).  Wait three weeks and repeat.

- Potatoes go in this month! Fun! I only reco' potatoes if you have a lot of space and an entire bed (at least 3'x2') that you can dedicate them to. Otherwise, buy at the farmers market from Olsen Farms b/c potatoes are cheap AND they grow more varieties than you can ever hope for.

- May is the month for dry beans!  Get some RAFT beans and do something fun this year.  Dry them out for winter goodies - how's that for garden goodness all year?

- Sow a fun herb by seed.  Don't bother spending all your money on starts - plant Anise Hyssop, Marjoram & Lemon Balm

GOGO GARDEN

It is cold and wet in Seattle.  Don't get disappointed!  There is still time to sow peas, so for us late-starters it's actually nice that spring has taken her time. 

Sow Snap Peas and Snow Peas now and keep your fingers crossed. Also, as conditions are wet, make sure to rake up any fallen leaves or prune up any low-hanging shrub branches near your veg bed.  Slugs love this cool, wet habitat and the more inhospitable you are for them.........the better!