Seeds - Surviving the Apocalypse

Seeds seeds seeds...this past week mostly consisted of filling flats and seeding flats, minus random things like taking down a deer blind, pulling a truck out of a snow bank with a tractor, and helping unload heavy machinery from a truck bed. I have a list of things I need to seed each day and have now seeded hundreds of flats with numerous varieties of tomato, broccoli, eggplant, pepper, lettuce, cabbage, onion, shallot, chard, herbs, etc. On the side I've also been reading about seeds and seed preservation. If you are interested in learning about seed saving, I highly recommend "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth.

Since seeds are obviously on my mind, let's talk about seeds some more. I'm always impressed by humanity's ability to avoid the end of the world including: Y2K, the end of the Mayan calendar, and countless doomsday cult prophesies. But no matter how many times we escape the end, people still manage to make ooldes of money selling seeds to people who have never planted a seed in their life. No matter. It goes without saying that every survivalist cache should include enough seeds to jump start the future.

There are a lot of survivalist forums on the net. From what I've read, there is a lot of confusion about what kind of seed to keep. So, here's what you should know if you want to go on a preparedness spree.

To start, it's important to understand the types of seeds you can get. When talking about seeds, several terms are thrown around: hybrid, genetically modified organism (GMO), and heirloom. The basic apocalypse seed kit will look like the can featured to the right. This one is nicely labeled with "Non-Hybrid, Non-GMO".

Genetically Modified Organisms
When selecting seeds for the apocalypse, you definitely DO NOT want to save GMO seed. GMOs are created by splicing genetic material from unrelated life forms into plant DNA for a desired trait. An example would be Monsanto inserting DNA from bacteria into corn DNA.

The reason you don't want GMO seed in a survival situation is because a terminating gene is often inserted into the seed. This means that saving GMO seed is useless because it won't produce a second generation. This feature was created to maintain monopoly over seeds and so that farmers would become dependent on companies such as Monsanto.

Hybrids
From the Johnny Seeds website:

"Hybrids are developed by the long, slow process of traditional plant breeding, which relies on natural reproductive methods. Hybrids are crosses between two or more parents with different desirable traits. Pollen from one parent plant is transferred to the flowers of the other parent plant. The seeds that develop are an F1, first filial generation, hybrid. Hybrids are identified by (F1) after the variety name." --Johnny Seeds

The reason you probably don't want to have hybrid seeds is because the second generation hybrid or F2 generation may not resemble the qualities and traits of the F1 generation. The yield may also be decreased. As with GMO seed, if you want to continue to grow the same hybrid variety, you have to repurchase the hybrid seed from the company that created it. Hybrid varieties are often patented and cost more. If you can't find anything else, hybrid seed will work. The F2 seeds are still viable, the result will just be a surprise.

Heirloom

Heirloom Tomato Varieties

Heirloom seems to be the new buzzword around town. Lately, I've been seeing more and more heirloom varieties of veggies offered at farmers markets. I've even seen heirloom tomatoes for sale at Costco (you know, the funny looking tomatoes). From the way people talk about heirloom vegetables, I thought heirlooms were the new healthier, tastier, better-than-organic veggies Monsanto hadn't gotten its grimy hands on.

An heirloom is a fancy term for a plant that has been open pollinated (pollinated by insects, birds, wind, or other natural mechanisms), and bred over time (anywhere between 50-100 years). There isn't a universal definition for what constitutes an heirloom variety. The only thing that is commonly agreed on is that genetically modified organisms (GMO) are not considered heirloom. The label "heirloom" does not mean it will taste better, be nutritionally healthier, or have been grown organically. The reason heirloom varieties look "funny" is that we've become accustomed to only recognizing the store varieties as the definition of what the vegetable should look like. However in nature, vegetables come in all shapes, sizes, colors, flavors, textures, etc. Store varieties have been bred for qualities such as longer shelf life, durability during shipping (bruise less easily), uniformity, resistance to chemical sprays, date of maturation, etc.  Heirlooms have often been bred for qualities such as flavor and resistance to local climate and pests.

The kind of seed you want is an open pollinated seed because they are varieties that are capable of producing seeds that will produce seedlings just like the parent plant. This could be an "heirloom" variety or any other variety that has been bred for a long enough time (but less than heirloom status) to become stable.

REMEMBER: Seeds have an expiration date. The viability of seeds decreases the older the seed is. So always plant new seed before old seed.

Some seeds are viable only in the year of purchase, and others can be kept for many years. If seeds have not been pre-treated or pelletized, and if they have been stored properly, here is the shelf life you can expect:

Years	Seed
1	onions, parsnips, parsley, salsify, scorzonera, and spinach
2	corn, peas, beans, chives, okra, dandelion
3	carrots, leeks, asparagus, turnips, rutabagas
4	peppers, chard, pumpkins, squash, watermelongs, basil, artichokes, and cardoons
5	most brassicas, beets, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, muskelons, celery, celeriac, lettuce, endive, chicory

Ready, set, survive!
Jack

Table Source: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-faq.aspx#questionshelflife

Day 1 - Filling Flats

Happy voluntary tax compliance day!

Today was my first day on the new job and probably one of the strangest Modays ever. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that what I did for 8 hours today constituted work. I know the novelty will probably fade and days will probably not start at 9am in the future, but still...Maybe that's why the job only pays farm labor minimum wage (if you don't know what that is, it's $5.25/hr in Minnesota). My workmates are both returning for their second year on the farm and are super knowledgeable and nice to work with.

Today I filled 112 72 cell flats with soil and moved them into the green house. I learned how to seed, label, and water the flats. I planted: Paris White (romaine), white and purple kohlrabi, lettuce, and bright lights chard. Here are some pictures of the seeds because I've never seen them before. On one hand I think it's amazing so much will grow from something so ungodly small. On the other hand, why did seeds have to be so ungodly small?! Especially lettuce seeds which are flat, slender, and extremely difficult to work with.

Here are some pictures of the farm and house I'm staying in. Since I'm the first intern here, I have a whole three bedroom house to myself. However, I find it mildly depressing to take meals all alone. I'm the only person living on this 40 acre farm at the moment.

Here are some pictures of the green house. Sauna anyone? Since Minnesota decided it's going to skip spring and keep snowing until summer, the greenhouse is filled to capacity and we are trying to find ways to move older starts out so we can keep planting.

Bright lights chard and kale in 72 cell flats.

Egg plant, basil, and peppers.

Onions are everywhere!!!

The solution? Move 100+ flats of onions on to trailers and stick them in the heated garage.

More onions in trailer #1.

More onions in trailer #2.

For added benefit, here is Skunk, the barn cat.

Skunk

I'm out for now.
Jack

Coffee - America's Favorite Stimulant

What's brewing in Minnesota besides snow storms in mid April? A coffee storm! Minneapolis based Caribou Coffee is closing 80 stores nationwide and almost completely pulling out of Chicago, IL, its second largest bastion outside of the Mini Apple (read more here). At least my friend was able to be reemployed with Caribou after being laid off. A bittersweet reunion.

With that on the table, let's talk coffee. Coffee anyone? One lump(or is it "pump" these days) or two?

I feel a mixture of awe and horror when I listen to my friends talk about coffee (especially the ones that are baristas at various coffee establishments). Get two in a room and I swear the next two hours will be spent comparing how one store makes such and such drink or sharing stories of customers and general work stress. Since I know close to nothing about coffee, I'm left nothing else to do besides listen. And frankly, I couldn't care less about whether this coffee has hints of fruit or was brewed with this or that bean. Coffee aficionados may want to slap me now. However, I do know a few things about coffee that I will share with you today.

Coffee "Bean"
Coffee "beans" are not beans in the true sense of a bean. They are the seeds of coffee cherries (the fruit of the coffee tree). Picture two coffee beans flat side face to face comprising the pit of a coffee cherry.

Coffee beans are light shades of green before roasting.

Light Roast vs. Dark Roast

"Light or dark roast?" the barista asks me. "Dark," I reply. I take take my coffee black--the darker the better. The stronger tasting, darker coffee must have more caffeine, right? According to my barista friends, it is actually light roast that has more caffeine. However, the real answer is (and true to my tax law background), it depends. Both answers are correct depending on which unit of measurement is being used to compare relative caffeine content: volume or mass. 

The process of roasting beans does several things to coffee beans. First, the longer you roast a bean, the less caffeine it has. Second, the longer you roast a bean, the more water is evaporated out. Dark roasts are roasted for a longer amount of time than light roasts. So, if you take a cup (a unit of volume) of light and dark roast, the light roast will have more caffeine. However, if you use a scale and measure out a pound (a unit of mass) of light and dark roast, the dark roast will have more caffeine because dark roast weighs less due to having less water weight.

Hot Brew vs. Cold Press
The difference between hot and cold is the temperature of the water you use to extract the taste and aromatics from the grounds. Most people tend to be familiar with using hot water to brew coffee. A coffee maker uses hot water and makes coffee within minutes. Cold pressed coffee is made by letting coffee grounds steep in cold water for 12 or more hours. I'm not going to talk about whether using hot or cold water is better, that's up to you. Both yield a different coffee product. However, there are three concepts you should know which explain what's going on when you brew and those are: solubility, volatility, and oxidation.

1. Solubility--Solubility describes a substance's ability to dissolve into something else. Adding heat generally makes things more soluble. Just as sugar dissolves more readily in hot water than in cold, coffee solids dissolve faster and more readily into hot water than into cold. One outcome of adding heat is that heat causes cholorogenic acid to degrade into quinic acid which contributes to the bitterness of coffee. However, heat also allows other acids and chemicals to dissolve into water which contribute to the signature coffee aromas and flavors we expect in coffee. Cold pressed coffee tends to be less bitter and acidic.
2. Volatility--Volatility describes a substance's ability to become a vapor. Adding heat makes things more volatile. The steam you see rising from your cup of coffee is mainly water becoming a vapor. However, do you smell anything? If you do, what you're smelling are the aromatics being lost to the air. This means that the longer coffee remains hot, the less flavor it will have. Ever had stuffed sinuses and you couldn't taste a thing? Taste and smell are closely linked. Cold pressed coffee will retain aromatics longer in water, however, less aromatics may be in the water to begin with (see solubility).
3. Oxidation--Oxidation describes the exchange of electrons when two substances come together. It's actually a much more complicated process, but you can read about that on your own. In the case of coffee, the effects of oxidation can most easily be tasted. Ever noticed that day-old coffee or rewarmed coffee has a different taste? Yum? What you're tasting are the coffee oils going rancid. Heat speeds up the rate in which coffee oils go rancid. Conversely, cold pressed coffee will taste fresh longer, anywhere from a few days to a week longer (as long as you store it in a fridge).

Fine vs. Coarse Grounds
Along with the amount of heat, ground size is another variable that affects the taste of coffee. In theory, you want to use a ground size that matches the method of brewing you will use. The finer the ground, the more surface area is exposed. The opposite is true for coarse ground. You want to use fine grounds for shorter brewing times (ie. espresso, drip, filter) and coarse grounds for longer brewing times (ie. french press, percolator). If you over steep fine grounds, you'll get more bitter coffee (more surface area is being exposed to heat/water allowing more coffee solids to dissolve). If you under steep coarse grounds, you'll have a weak coffee.

Hope you didn't need any caffeine to get through this post!

Jack

Sources:
http://petergiuliano.tumblr.com/post/22177089634/why-you-should-stop-cold-brewing-and-use-the-japanese

From Grocery to Garden

I checked my garden yesterday. The snow has completely melted away! To my surprise, I noticed that the garlic was already sending up green shoots. It's wonderful to see a bit of green when everything else is mucky and brown. I was even more surprised to see the green onions I planted last year from cuttings have started to grow back.

A couple years ago, my brother told me I could regrow green onions (scallions) if I saved the roots and placed them in water on a windowsill. The method works really well. Instead of cutting off the root, save the root with about a couple inches of the white part of the stalk. Place the roots in some water, replenishing the water as necessary. The roots will reroot and grow new green onion which you can cut off as needed. These green onions will have a longer shelf (windowsill) life than the kind you keep in the refrigerator because they are alive. The best part is the green onions will grow back in a matter of days and you didn't even have to plant it from seed.

I'm not exactly sure how many times you can successfully keep cutting back the green onions in the jar and expect new growth. The new growth is drawing its nutrients from the stored nutrients in the "bulb" which will eventually be depleted. In any case, you'll be able to tell the fun is over when the growth looks sickly or stops altogether.

Last summer, I took my green onion cuttings and planted them directly into soil in my garden after first rooting them in water. After the initial transplant shock, the onions thrived. I had more green onion than I could handle. I did not notice a significant change in flavor from the initial onion to the subsequent cuttings although the later cuttings were less tender. You could do this on your windowsill with a small container and some garden soil. 

There are other plants you can regrow that you can find at the grocery store. However, some don't seem practical to me, but you can have at it (click here). The only other ones I've tried are lemon grass and ginger. The lemon grass grew well after I planted it outside, however it took a long time to reroot. My ginger is still alive, however it does not thrive in Minnesotan climate and I think keeping it indoors has stunted its growth. As I mentioned above, I do grow garlic, however I do not recommend planting garlic unless it's been tested to be disease free. You may be unwillingly spreading the bloat nematode, which devastates garlic and is close to impossible to remove once it is introduced to your soil. 

In any case, regrowing green onions won't save you a lot of money, but it may help bring some green in to your living space and you'll have the satisfaction of having green onion that you grew. For the beginner or an apartment-locked urbanite, this is an excellent way to get started.

Grow On!

Jack

Air - The Food You Breathe

One of the things I love about Minnesota are the blue skies (minus the 6 months of gray winter skies). There isn't as much air pollution as other large cities. Smog doesn't obscure our downtown skyline. Whenever I traveled to cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles, I never wanted to stay long because of the terrible chest pain I'd get. The reason: poor outdoor air quality. When I was in China, I was told that breathing the air in Shanghai was the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a year. That was in 2006, I can only assume it's worse now (click here).

China's Airpocalypse (Feb 2013)

While it's easy to see the effects of pollution on outdoor air quality, it's much harder to conceive that the air you breath indoors might be just as, or even more, detrimental to your health. So, what's wrong with the air you breathe? And how can you fix it?

Energy Crisis
The United State's energy crisis during the 1970s spurred the construction industry to make changes in how it made buildings. One solution to making buildings more energy efficient was to make them air tight in order to regulate temperature. However, the combination of low air circulation and the use of modern synthetic building materials resulted in the average person being "hot boxed" with high levels of benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE), and formaldehyde (among other air pollutants) which are all carcinogens and irritants. This contributed to what is known as Sick Building Syndrome where toxins found in synthetic materials become concentrated inside sealed buildings making people sick. Imagine being stuck in a car breathing in strong new-car-smell for 8 hours a day and then getting sick from it.

Offgassing

The way in which chemicals such as benzene, TCE, and formaldehyde become airborne is through a process called "outgassing" or "offgassing". Offgassing is the release of gas that was dissolved, trapped, frozen, or absorbed in materials. An example of offgassing environmentalists like to talk about is carbon dioxide trapped inside of glaciers being released into the atmosphere as the glaciers melt.

The Solution - Indoor House Plants

Indoor house plants have been found to effectively remove a variety of indoor air pollutants, some better than others. In 1989, B.C. Wolverton, a military scientist published "Interior Landscape Plants For Indoor Air Pollution Abatement" with the support of NASA. It was a study on how effective indoor plants were at removing air pollutants. Their findings showed that plants were indeed effective at removing a number of volatile organic compounds from the air. While the original study only looked at 15 plants, Wolverton went on to write a book called "How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home or Office." Other studies have since been published on the effectiveness of indoor house plants on removing air pollutants.

The following are 15 house plants that improve air quality. You can read more about them (here). It is recommended to have 1 house plant for ever 100 sq/ft.

Chemical	Pollutant Source	Indoor House Plants
Benzene	Inks, oils, paints, plastics, rubber, dyes, detergents, gasoline, pharmaceutical, tobacco smoke, synthetic fibers	English Ivy, Dracaena marginata, Janet Craig, Warneckei, Chrysanthemum, Gerbera Daisy, Peace lily
Formaldehyde	Foam insulation, plywood, pressed-wood products, grocery bags, waxed paper, fire retardants, adhesive binders in floor coverings, cigarette smoke, natural gas	Azalea, Philodendron, Spider plant, Golden Pothos, Bamboo palm, Corn plant, Chrysanthemum, Mother-in-law's tongue
Trichloroethylene	Primarily used in the metal degreasing and dry cleaning industries; also in printing inks, paints, lacquers, varnishes, adhesives	Gerbera Daisy, Chrysanthemum, Peace lily, Warneckei, Dracaena marginata

Spider plant
(Chlorophytum comosum)

Bamboo palm
(Chamaedorea sefritzii)

Aloe (Aloe vera)

Gerber daisy
(Gerbera jamesonii)

Chrysanthemum
(Chrysantheium morifolium)

Red-edged dracaena
(Dracaena marginata)

Warneck dracaena
(Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckii')

Mother-in-law's tongue
(Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii')

English ivy (Hedera helix)

Peace lily (Spathiphyllum)

Weeping fig
(Ficus benjamina)

Azalea
(Rhododendron simsii)

Golden pothos (Scindapsus aures)

Heart leaf philodendron
(Philodendron oxycardium)

Chinese evergreen
(Aglaonema crispum 'Deborah')

Several words of caution: Do your research before deciding to purchase plants to have in your home. Some plants are harmful to pets and humans if consumed. Some plants such as English Ivy are invasive species that should not be planted outdoors. Not all of these plants are suited to where you might live. Check with a local nursery that specializes in native species.

To Cleaner Air!
Jack

Endive - Hors D'oeuvres

The weekend was as full of mishap as adventure. The adventure mainly consisted of deciding what to bring to my friend's housewarming party. Somehow I had endive on my mind. This was probably due to reading Eliot Coleman's "Four-Season Harvest." 

Endive (pronounced on-deeve), is a part of the daisy (Asteraceae) family and Chicory (Cichorium) genus. It is commonly used to refer to the leafy part of a variety of chicory plants.

The kind of endive I had in mind was the Belgian endive which is illustrated above as the white Californian endive and illustrated bigger below. It looks like an albino fist-sized head of lettuce or napa cabbage. It's said to be in season this time of year, so I thought I'd give it a shot. At $7.99/lb who am I kidding, nothing is in season in Minnesota this time of year!

Endive - History

The reason it's called Belgian endive is because it comes from a Belgian accident. In 1843, a Belgian gardener inadvertently left some chicory roots, which he was growing for use in coffee, in his moist, dark cellar. When he returned weeks later, he discovered leaves had spouted from the chicory roots in complete darkness. We know those leaves as Belgian endive.

Today, Belgian endive is no longer a basement accident. Belgian endive comes from chicory's second growth. Once chicory has matured and grown its tap root (a single main root like carrots and dandelions), the green growth above the root is cut off. The root is then covered up with soil and the second growth is allowed to grow in a sunless environment in the soil. It can also be grown without soil in complete darkness.

Since growing Belgian endive is extremely labor intensive, it is mainly grown on the west coast where there is a market for it and the weather is suitable for growing it all year long. The majority of Belgian endive in the United States is imported from France and Belgium.

Endive - Culinary

So, what can you do with Belgian endive? You can use it in salads, soups, etc. You can cook, braise, bake, boil, or steam it. Basically, it's a vegetable with a slightly bitter taste and crisp texture.

When I think of endives, I think fancy hors d'oeuvres. If you break apart the leaves, you can turn them over and use them as mini cups to hold any assortment of fillings. It's like the $8/lb pound version of what you see on the back of the Ritz Cracker box. Since I couldn't decide what kinds of fillings to make, my friend Eric and I made up four different kinds. The red one is a strawberry reduction with orange zest and balsamic vinegar over a bed of blue cheese crumbles; the white one is a mixture of a variety of cheeses and herbs; the green one is avocado, green onions, and shrimp seasoned with lime; the the last one is Eric's personal creation: steak dinner in a cup (steak on a bed of sauteed green peppers, onions, and mushrooms). 

It seemed like people enjoyed them at the housewarming. Next time you need to bring something and want to impress, give it a go!

Jack