Inspired Creatives

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds arrived in 3 days!  I give them an A on product fulfillment.

Well, last month I was all about the crochet and knit.  I credit our multitude of snow storms here in Central Ohio for my new found crochet proficiency.  As thankful as I am to have finally grasped the basics of crochet, this month it’s time to shift gears and get ready to garden.  We’re still novices in the urban gardening thing.  Between hubby and I it’s truly the blind leading the blind.  But we spend copious amounts of time at our local garden center plying the employees for bits of garden wisdom.  Each year I think we do just a little bit better.  Who knows, by the time we’re ready to be put into the ground, we may have figured out how to get something edible out of the ground.

As I posted yesterday, I’ve got my heirloom seeds ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I’m waiting on baited breath now, praying they get here before St. Patty’s day.  I’m so excited to have so many heirloom seeds to play with this year.  I’ve fallen in love with Baker Creek and their commitment to non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented seeds.  I’m jazzed that they refuse to buy seed from Monsanto-owned Seminis, and that they boycott all gene-altering companies.  As I promised yesterday, I did look up Seminis.  In 2005 Monsanto purchased Seminis, the largest developer of fruit and vegetable seeds in the world. Many of the seeds we buy at garden centers and nurseries, sold under the brands of various smaller seed companies, come from Seminis.¹  Well, that’s an eye opener.  Two companies I bought seeds from last year are on the “Owned by Seminis” list.  Live and learn, right?

I’ve known, for quite some time, about Genetically Modified Organisms and how they’re altering our food supply.  Think Frankenfoods.  Think a salmon gene injected into a tomato to provide cold weather resistance.²  Is it a fish tomato or a tomato fish?³  I’m aware that here in the U.S. manufacturers do not have to list GMO on their packaging.  U.S. soybean production is 95 percent dominated by genetically modified Round Up Ready soybeans.⁴  So much for the health benefits of soy milk folks, unless it’s organic.  In a much-cited study from 2000, the Grocery Manufacturers of America estimated that 70 percent of food in the U.S. contains genetically modified traits.⁵  Just think what that percentage might be today?  I also know that the main kingpin in all this genetic engineering of our food supply is Monsanto and their Roundup Ready seeds, pesticides and herbicides.

I pulled this from Monsanto’s site.  I hope this doesn’t get me on someone’s black list.  Won’t be the first I’m probably on.

The Roundup Ready^® seeds contain in-plant tolerance to Roundup^® agricultural herbicides, allowing growers to spray Roundup agricultural herbicides to kill the weeds without harming the crop. Roundup Ready varieties provide unsurpassed weed control, proven crop safety and maximum yield potential. Roundup Ready products are stacked with other traits such as Bollgard and YieldGard to add insect protection.

So if I understand this, and I don’t think I do, these are seeds that have been injected with “something” to protect them from a poison that would otherwise kill the plant?  Then they’re zapped again to get rid of insects?  I wonder how this is really impacting our ecosystem?  How DID our ancestors survive without all this?

I’m not in any way an expert in any of this.  My head nearly exploded just googling for the few articles to verify what I’m saying here.  It’s just too much to comprehend.  Here’s a couple videos I’ve found discussing what we’re up against when it comes to a behemoth like Monsanto.  These are experts.  I’m not. Whatever happened to working for the greater good of all? Can’t we all just get along and plant good clean food?

1. http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-garden/2009/12/boycotting-monsanto-seminis-seeds.html [↩]
2. http://www.justmeans.com/What-if-USDA-didn-t-know-how-be-green-Part-I/10043.html [↩]
3. http://www.geneticengineering.net/atomatofishorafishtomato.htm [↩]
4. http://www.usagnet.com/story-national.php?Id=771&yr=2009 [↩]
5. http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_9716.cfm [↩]

Last night I finally got around to ordering seeds for this year’s garden.  I promised myself I wouldn’t wait till the last minute like last year (read that as the day plants are supposed to be in the ground).  It’s pretty hard to start seedlings that late in the season and expect much success.  To some it may seem a bit soon to start thinking about gardening, but we’ve learned that die-hard gardeners start right after Christmas.  This year I ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - RareSeeds.com online.  They’re a great family owned company and the catalog is coffee table quality.  All their seeds are non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented.  They do not buy seed from Monsanto-owned Seminis (ok, I don’t know who Seminis is, but I’ll look them up.  I do know and understand the evils of Monstano though).  They boycott all gene-altering companies.  They work with a network of about 50 small farmers, gardeners and seed growers and offer over 1300 varieties of seeds from 70 countries.  This is really my type of company.  Even from the start, it was nonconformist.  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds started in 1998 when 17 year old Jere Gettle sent out his first 550 seed catalogs, filling all orders himself in his bedroom.  This year Baker Creek  printed over 250,000 full color catalogs.  It’s been called the “Vogue” of seed catalogs by enthusiastic customers.  After reading nearly every description in this 120 page catalog, I ordered online last night (I’m too anxious to use the mail-in order form).  I can’t tell you how many varieties are already sold out.  The grow-your-own-food movement is really taking hold.  Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

One of the greatest things about this catalog is the seed descriptions themselves.  I’m learning things about seeds I just never knew.  Every description is a tiny time capsule of history.  Sit back and take in this description of a Granny Catrell German Red Tomato:

This meaty beefsteak-type tomato is named after Lettie Cantrell, who received seeds from a soldier returning from Germany during World War II.  She grew this tomato in the hills of eastern Kentucky for many years.  This was her favorite tomato and the only one she grew.  Each year she saved seeds from the largest tomatoes, some of which reached 2 1/2 lbs.  Our growers find it to be quite productive.  Ahh!  What a flavor!  This variety was named best tasting tomato of the year at the 2006 Heirloom Garden Show in our taste testing contest.

And now I get to enjoy this perfect bit of history in my little urban garden in Central Ohio.  I already feel such a connection!

The art of seed saving may be a dying art, but the Gettle family is certainly doing their part to revive it.  I’m so glad I found them.  And I’m so excited to have the opportunity to work with all these rare heirloom seeds this year.  I think I’ll even try my hand at seed saving myself.

Thinking gardening and crochet.

A lofty goal perhaps, but something to think about…

Our second year at gardening.  It was a blast.  Lessons learned, though.  Lessons learned…