Sunday, September 30, 2012

More on recent GMO study

First-Ever Lifetime Feeding Study Finds Genetically Engineered Corn Causes Massive Tumors, Organ Damage, and Early Death

By Dr. Mercola
The first-ever lifetime feeding study1 evaluating the health risks of genetically engineered foods was published online on September 19, and the results are troubling, to say the least. This new study joins a list of over 30 other animal studies showing toxic or allergenic problems with genetically engineered foods.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, found that rats fed a type of genetically engineered corn that is prevalent in the US food supply for two years developed massive mammary tumors, kidney and liver damage, and other serious health problems.
The research was considered so "hot" that the work was done under strict secrecy. According to a French article in Le Nouvel Observateur,2 the researchers used encrypted emails, phone conversations were banned, and they even launched a decoy study to prevent sabotage!
According to the authors:
"The health effects of a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize (from 11% in the diet), cultivated with or without Roundup, and Roundup alone (from 0.1ppb in water), were studied 2 years in rats. [Editors note: this level of Roundup is permitted in drinking water and GE crops in the US]
In females, all treated groups died 2-3 times more than controls, and more rapidly. This difference was visible in 3 male groups fed GMOs.
All results were hormone and sex dependent, and the pathological profiles were comparable. Females developed large mammary tumors almost always more often than and before controls, the pituitary was the second most disabled organ; the sex hormonal balance was modified by GMO and Roundup treatments.
In treated males, liver congestions and necrosis were 2.5-5.5 times higher... Marked and severe kidney nephropathies were also generally 1.3-2.3 greater. Males presented 4 times more large palpable tumors than controls, which occurred up to 600 days earlier.
Biochemistry data confirmed very significant kidney chronic deficiencies; for all treatments and both sexes, 76% of the altered parameters were kidney related. These results can be explained by the non linear endocrine-disrupting effects of Roundup, but also by the overexpression of the transgene in the GMO and its metabolic consequences."
Folks, if this doesn't get your attention, nothing will.
Does 10 percent or more of your diet consist of genetically engineered (GE) ingredients? At present, you can't know for sure, since GE foods are not labeled in the US. But chances are, if you eat processed foods, your diet is chock full of genetically engineered ingredients you didn't even know about.
The study in question includes photos and graphs. I highly recommend taking the time to actually read through this remarkable study,3 and look at the documented evidence. They really are not exaggerating when they say it caused massive tumors... They are huge! Some of the tumors weighed in at 25 percent of the rat's total body weight. This is the most current and best evidence to date of the toxic effects of GE foods.

Why Aren't Americans Dropping Like Flies?

Rats only live a few years. Humans live around 80 years, so we will notice these effects in animals long before we see them in humans. The gigantic human lab experiment is only about 10 years old, so we are likely decades away from tabulating the human casualties. This is some of the strongest evidence to date that we need to exercise the precautionary principle ASAP and avoid these foods. Naturally, the study is already under heavy fire. According to Monsanto spokesman Thomas Helscher:4
"Numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies performed on biotech crops to date, including more than a hundred feeding studies, have continuously confirmed their safety, as reflected in the respective safety assessments by regulatory authorities around the world."
However, it's critical to understand that the longest feeding study was a mere 90 days long – a far cry from two years! In the featured study, the true onslaught of diseases really set in during the 13th month of the experiment, although tumors and severe liver and kidney damage did emerge as early as four months in males, and seven months for females.
Is it any wonder then that feeding studies lasting just a few weeks or even three months have failed to corroborate these horrific findings? Reuters quotes Mark Tester, a research professor at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics at the University of Adelaide as saying:5
"If the effects are as big as purported, and if the work really is relevant to humans, why aren't the North Americans dropping like flies? GM has been in the food chain for over a decade over there – and longevity continues to increase inexorably."
Although there are clearly many variables that contribute to cancer, GE foods are a new candidate as they have been in our food supply for over a decade. Interestingly, cancer was just declared as having overtaken heart disease as the number one killer among American Hispanics,6 and according to 2009 CDC statistics it's now also the leading killer in 18 states.
I believe it is crucial that we implement the precautionary principle as rapidly as possible as this study confirms it is difficult to predict precisely what GE foods might do to the youths of today, as many are eating a fair amount of GE ingredients practically from day one. (Yes, some infant formulas actually contain GE ingredients!) What will their health be 10 or 20 years from now? Most adults simply haven't been eating GE foods long enough to tell what the real ramifications are.
Do we really wait 50 years to see what GE foods will do to the human health and lifespan?

GE Foods' Connection to Breast Cancer

This newest study provides clear and convincing evidence that GE agriculture is contributing to cancer in exposed populations. The timing of this new study – two weeks before Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) – is therefore all the more fitting, as GreenMedInfo.com recently commented on this study:7
"...in female animals, 93 percent of the tumors found were in the mammary glands. They also '...observed a strikingly marked induction of mammary tumors by R[oundup] alone ...even at the very lowest dose administered.'"
Generational gene transfer is yet another issue. A frequent claim has been that new genes introduced in GE foods are harmless, as they would theoretically be broken up in the intestines. But researchers have now discovered that genes can be transferred through the intestinal wall into your blood. GE crop genes have been found in sufficiently large amounts in human blood, muscle tissue and liver to be identified.8 And the biological impact – especially the generational impact – of this gene transfer is completely unknown, and cannot be known for at least a human generation or two. Unless we take notice of the results from animal feeding studies, that is...

10-Year Feeding Study ALSO Found GE Foods Cause Severe Health Problems

This news comes on the heels of another experimental animal feeding study carried out over a 10-year period in Norway. It was published earlier this summer, and in this study, genetically engineered (GE) corn and corn-based products were found to cause obesity, and alter the function of the digestive system and major organs, including the liver, kidneys, pancreas, and genitals.9 Animals fed genetically engineered Bt corn ate more, got fatter, and were less able to digest proteins due to alterations in the micro-structure of their intestines. They also suffered immune system alterations.
The impaired ability to digest proteins may be of particular concern as this can have far-reaching implications for human health. If your body cannot digest proteins, your body will be less able to produce amino acids, which are necessary building blocks for proper cell growth and function.

Monsanto's GE Corn is Already Losing its Effectiveness, Giving Rise to Superbugs and Superweeds

Related news also sheds light on the massive devastation brought on the environment by GE crops, and how soil destruction ends up affecting your health by decimating the nutrient content in the foods you eat.
In response to a scientific study that determined Western corn rootworms on two Illinois farms had developed resistance to Monsanto's YieldGard corn, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made an admission about genetically engineered crops: Yes, there is "mounting evidence" that Monsanto's insecticide-fighting corn is losing its effectiveness in the Midwest. Last year, resistant rootworms infested corn fields in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska.
According to Bloomberg:10
"The agency's latest statement on rootworm resistance comes a year after the problem was first documented and just as U.S. corn yields are forecast to be the lowest in 17 years amid drought in the Corn Belt. Corn is St. Louis-based Monsanto's biggest business line, accounting for $4.81 billion of sales, or 41 percent of total revenue, in its 2011 fiscal year.
...The EPA's focus is Monsanto's YieldGard corn, which is engineered to produce the Cry3Bb1 protein from Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a natural insecticide.
The EPA expects to get data on the performance of YieldGard from Monsanto within two months and complete its analysis by year-end the agency said in its statement, which was e-mailed by Stacy Kika, an EPA spokeswoman. The evaluation will include a review of scientific studies, it said.
...The agency may implement 'strategies' to reduce the threat of resistance to Cry3Bb1, it said. Kika said she couldn't comment on what those strategies may include."
Considering the fact that YieldGard was introduced less than a decade ago, in 2003, this could be very bad news for farmers growing genetically engineered Bt crops everywhere. It really is just a matter of time before resistance sets in, and it doesn't take very long. Naturally, Monsanto disagrees – more data is needed to prove their insecticide-fighting corn is failing, the biotech giant claims.

Roundup-Ready Crops Pose Even Greater Resistance Problem

But YieldGard is just one of Monsanto's problems. Roundup-Ready crops are creating super-resistant weeds that no longer respond to the herbicide. In fact, the problem is so bad that 20 million acres of cotton, soybean and corn have already been invaded by Roundup-resistant weeds.11
To combat the problem, the EPA requires farmers to plant non-modified corn next to their Bt corn, in the hopes that unexposed bugs will mate with the resistant rootworms and create a new generation of hybrids that are again susceptible to the Bt toxin.
However, one has to wonder whether or not it might also work the other way around. The hybrids may just as well incorporate the resistance... Still, that's the prevailing logic the EPA is running with at the moment.
Unfortunately, resistant weeds are not the only, or the worst, side effect of Roundup-Ready crops, genetically engineered to withstand otherwise lethal doses of glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup.
Mounting evidence tells us glyphosate itself may be far more dangerous than anyone ever suspected... Earlier this month, Purdue scientist Dr. Don Huber again spoke out about "the woes of GMO's" and the inherent dangers of glyphosate in an article published by GM Watch.12
"Corn used to be the healthiest plant you could grow. Now, multiple diseases, pests, and weak plants are the common denominator of 'modern' hybrids," he writes.
"Over three decades ago we started the shift to a monochemical glyphosate herbicide program that was soon accompanied by glyphosate- and insect-resistant genetically engineered crops.
These two changes in agricultural practices – the excessive application of a strong essential mineral chelating, endocrine-disrupting chemical for weed control and the genetically engineered production of new toxins in our food crops – was accompanied by abandonment of years of scientific research based on the scientific precautionary principle. We substituted a philosophical 'substantially equivalent,' a new term coined to avoid accountability for the lack of understanding of consequences of our new activities, for science."

The Environmental and Human Health Hazards of Glyphosate

I previously interviewed Dr. Huber about the dangers of glyphosate, and if you missed it, I highly recommend taking the time to listen to it now. It is indeed sobering, as this broad-spectrum herbicide adds its own health risks to an already stacked deck of health hazards related to genetically engineered foods, whether it be Bt- or Roundup-Ready.
 Total Video Length: 00:58:12
The problem stems from the way glyphosate persists in and alters the soil, which has wide-ranging ramifications. As a potent organic phosphate chelator, glyphosate immobilizes micronutrients that are essential for normal physiological functions not only in soils, but also in growing plants and in those who eat the plants, namely animals and humans.
The nutritional efficiency of genetically engineered (GE) plants is profoundly compromised. Far from helping improve nutrition, micronutrients such as iron, manganese and zinc can be reduced by as much as 80-90 percent in GE plants! Glyphosate also decimates beneficial microorganisms essential for proper plant function and high quality nutrition, while promoting the proliferation of disease-causing pathogens.
"Glyphosate is a very powerful selective antibiotic that kills beneficial, but not pathogenic, microorganisms in the soil and intestine at very low residual levels in food," Dr. Huber writes.13 "Residue levels permitted in food are 40 to 800 times the antibiotic threshold and concentrations shown in clinical studies to damage mammalian tissues.
By genetically engineering plants with the insertion of certain foreign bacterial genes, glyphosate can be applied directly to crop plants without killing them. There is nothing in the genetic engineering technology that does anything to the glyphosate that is applied to the plant – and that accumulates in it. Both the toxic proteins produced by the foreign bacterial genes and the glyphosate chemical are now present in the feed and food produced for animal and human consumption.
Genetic engineering has introduced other genes for insect resistance where additional toxic proteins accumulate in plant tissues consumed by animals and man. These toxins are found in the blood and readily transferred across the placenta to developing babies in the womb.

Genetic engineering is more like a virus infection than a normal breeding process and results in a multitude of mutations and epigenetic effects as genetic integrity in the plant is disrupted.
These 'foreign' bacterial genes are highly promiscuous and easily transferred by wind or insects to other plants; to soil microorganisms during plant residue decomposition, or to intestinal microflora during food digestion where they continue to direct the production of toxins and allergenic proteins. Epigenetic effects are manifest in GMO plants as a yield drag, poor nutrient efficiency, increased disease, and reduced stress tolerance."
As Dr. Huber warns, scientific studies demonstrate that the assumptions about genetically engineered crops relied upon by the biotech industry and ignorant regulators are invalid. The truth of the matter can be clearly seen in the following effects:

Development of resistant "super-weeds"
Development of resistant "super-pathogens" and brand new GE-related organisms
Loss of natural biological controls of pathogens (plant, animal, and human)
Degradation of soil quality
Reduced crop yields
Reduced nutrient content
Increased disease and more virulent pathogens
Exponential rise in infertility and birth defects
Why We Don't Need Genetically Engineered Foods

As stated by Dr. Huber:
"Future historians may well look back upon our time and write, not about how many pounds of pesticide we did or didn't apply, but by how willing we are to sacrifice our children and future generations for this massive genetic engineering experiment that is based on flawed science and failed promises just to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise."
The saddest part about the GE debacle is that there's no real need to take the wild risks we're currently taking with our food supply and our future. For years, genetically modified crops have been sold as the solution for feeding the world. But mounting evidence shows the way to feed seven billion plus inhabitants on this planet is by increasing biodiversity and sustainable agriculture.
In fact, the most authoritative evaluation of agriculture, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development,14 determined that the genetically engineered foods have nothing to offer the goals of reducing hunger and poverty, improving nutrition, health and rural livelihoods, and facilitating social and environmental sustainability.
The report was a three-year collaborative effort with 900 participants and 110 countries, and was co-sponsored by all the majors, e.g. the World Bank, FAO, UNESCO, WHO. In reality, genetic engineering reduce yields,15 increase farmers' dependence on multinationals, reduce biodiversity, increase herbicide use, and take money away from more successful and appropriate farming methods.
Hans Johr, a high-ranking executive at the Nestle Company recently went on the record saying GE food is not only unnecessary, but that the food industry would be better off employing other techniques.
According to GM Watch:16
"Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota and co-author of a study... on water management and yield production, agrees with Johr that GMOs are not the answer to food security. 'I don't think GMOs have contributed, or will likely contribute much, to food security. Most of the GMO traits are focused on pest and herbicide resistance, which is arguably a good thing, but are not improving yield characteristics all that much (at least compared to conventional breeding, or better yet, marker-assisted breeding).
Furthermore, there are other approaches to managing pests and weeds that would be equally (or more) effective, like not planting such large monocultures in the first place...' Johr also went one step further, and addressed the issue of labeling. 'We [Nestle] have a very simple way of looking at GM: listen to what the consumer wants. If they don't want it in products, you don't put it in them...'"

Passing Prop 37 is Key to Expanding Sustainable Agriculture in North America

Despite Johr's stated view, Nestle has donated nearly $1.17 million to the "No on 37 Coalition," which is working to prevent the labelling of GE foods in California. So much for listening to consumers...
Although many organic consumers and natural health activists already understand the importance of Proposition 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Foods Act, it cannot be overemphasized that winning the battle over Prop 37 is perhaps the most important food fight Americans – not just Californians – have faced so far. Once food manufacturers can no longer label or market GE-tainted foods as "natural" or "all-natural," and once all GE ingredients are clearly marked, millions of consumers will demand non-GE alternatives, and organic and non-GE food sales will dramatically increase.
But in order to win this fight for the right to know what's in our food, we need your help, as the biotech industry will surely outspend us by 100 to 1, if not more, for their propaganda.
Please remember, the failure or success of this ballot initiative is wholly dependent on your support and funding! There are no major industry pocketsfunding this endeavor, which was created by a California grandmother. In order to have a chance against the deep pockets of Big Biotech and transnational food corporations, it needs donations from average citizens. So please, if you have the ability, I strongly encourage you to make a donation to this cause.
It's important to realize that getting this law passed in California would have the same overall effect as a national law, as large companies are not likely going to label their products as genetically engineered when sold in California (the 8th largest economy in the world), but not when sold in other states. Doing so would be a costly PR disaster. So please, I urge you to get involved and help in any way you can, regardless of what state you live in.
  • Whether you live in California or not, please donate money to this historic effort through the Organic Consumers Fund.
  • If you live in California and want to get involved, please contact CARightToKnow.org. They will go through all volunteer requests to put you into a position that is suitable for you, based on your stated interests and location.
  • No matter where you live, please help spread the word in your personal networks, on Facebook, and Twitter. For help with the messaging, please see CARightToKnow.org.
  • Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support the California Ballot. It may be the only chance we have to label genetically engineered foods.
  • For timely updates, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

GMO foods

What exactly are GMOs and why should they be labeled?

GMOs (genetically modified organisms) were brought into the world by a chemical company, not an agriculture or food group. Monsanto created DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, marketed aspartame, and created bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to infect milking cows that put pus into commercial milk.

GMOs are created within the seeds of chosen parent crops in laboratories by "splicing" genes from completely unrelated species into those seeds. Normal plant hybrids are cultivated in soil over time by cross pollinating closely related plants.

So far, GMOs have invaded soy, corn, beets (for beet sugar), cotton, and alfalfa agriculture. Many GMO edibles are contained surreptitiously in a wide variety of processed foods, while GMO corn and soy are used by unnatural factory farm feed lots.

If you've been following NaturalNews for some time, you may recall several articles describing GMOs' inherent human and animal health hazards as well as crop and environmental dangers. If not, you'll find most of them here. (http://www.naturalnews.com/GMO.html)



GMOs damage crops, the environment, and the food chain

GMOs are often genetically created artificially to tolerate herbicides, made by Monsanto and others, that kill weeds. The herbicides contain glyphosates. Monsanto's Roundup weed killer is meant for Roundup Ready GMO crop seeds. It's an extremely toxic glyphosate agent.

Glyphosates greatly harm grazing animals and pollute the wells and groundwater of farm areas where they're used. (http://naturalsociety.com)

They create sterility and birth defects among animals and humans. Most of the honey bee die-off, or colony collapse, is attributed to glyphosates. If enough pollinating bees disappear, our food chain is endangered further.

Glophosate's chelating capabilities remove minerals from the soil where they're sprayed. So crops get increasingly worse while increasingly abundant Roundup resistant weeds, or super weeds, force farmers to add more toxic materials to Roundup.

It's a vicious cycle for farmers who, conned by greater production promises, unwittingly signed on to Monsanto Roundup Ready GMO binding seed contracts. Monsanto uses patent laws to litigate against farmers whose non-GMO fields are contaminated by GMO fields, forcing smaller farms out of business.

Most farmers fold because they cannot afford the litigation. American farmers are attempting to organize against mostly Monsanto's GMOs. European farmers have managed to resist thus far.


Why you should be concerned

Maybe the reasons summarized above are too abstract. So let's get personal. Contrary to mainstream media's (MSM) outlook, the jury is not out on GMOs. GMOs do destroy human and animal health while endangering non-GMO crops with contamination. That's been discovered by several scientists acting independently.

They jeopardize their careers and even their lives by communicating what they find while the MSM ignores them. Anti-GMO activist and author Jeffrey Smith lists the casualties and summarizes Monsanto's harassment here: (http://www.sott.net)

Agro-ecologist Don Lotter, Ph.D. released an inside scoop when he stated:

The promoter gene used ... [the] cauliflower mosaic virus, ... [was assumed to be] denatured in our digestive system, but it's not. It has been shown to promote the transfer of transgenes from GM foods to the bacteria within our digestive system, which are responsible for 80 percent of our immune system function.

Read Lotter's interview here: (http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19468.cfm)

This from Wessex Natural Law research papers: The cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV 35S) used for plant genetic engineering is cited as a source of viral recombination as well as a gene silencer and DNA disruptor.

Forget petitioning the government. It's so corrupted that one of Monsanto's most ruthless executives, Michael Taylor, now serves in the Obama administration as FDA chief adviser, or "Food Czar."

That's why our only chance is to help California succeed with Proposition 37. GMO labeling may spill over from California making it easier to boycott GMOs. (http://www.kcet.org)


~~~~~~

New Study on GMO Corn and Roundup Shows They Cause Cancer
In an alarming new study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, researchers from The Committee for Research & Independent Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) reported on the results of a 2 year feeding study in rats given either NK603 Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize, cultivated with or without Roundup, and Roundup alone, at levels permitted in drinking water and GM crops in the United States.

The authors of the study pointed out that currently, no regulatory authority requires mandatory chronic animal feeding studies to be performed for edible GMOs and formulated pesticides, and the only 90 day feeding trials were conducted by the biotech industry.

This study, therefore, was performed in light of this need, and the results were an unprecedented confirmation of the cancer-causing effects of GM food and agrichemicals, reported as follows:
In females, all treated groups died 2–3 times more than controls, and more rapidly. This difference was visible in 3 male groups fed GMOs. All results were hormone and sex dependent, and the pathological profiles were comparable. Females developed large mammary tumors almost always more often than and before controls, the pituitary was the second most disabled organ; the sex hormonal balance was modified by GMO and Roundup treatments. In treated males, liver congestions and necrosis were 2.5–5.5 times higher. This pathology was confirmed by optic and transmission electron microscopy. Marked and severe kidney nephropathies were also generally 1.3–2.3 greater. Males presented 4 times more large palpable tumors than controls which occurred up to 600 days earlier. Biochemistry data confirmed very significant kidney chronic deficiencies; for all treatments and both sexes, 76% of the altered parameters were kidney related. These results can be explained by the non linear endocrine-disrupting effects of Roundup, but also by the overexpression of the transgene in the GMO and its metabolic consequences. [emphasis added]
Below is an image of tumors induced through the experiment. More can be found at the journal website.
Mice affected with tumors
The results of this new study are doubly concerning. Not only has the consumption of a genetically modified food crop now been shown to cause tumor growth and accelerated mortality, but so has the primary herbicide these plants have been engineered to withstand exposure to: Roundup. GMO plants actually incorporate glyphosate directly into themselves, with the herbicide residues and their metabolites persisting there, making dual exposure to transgenes and herbicide inevitable, and the synergistic amplification of their toxicities likely.

It is a shameful fact of history that Roundup herbicide was once marketed by its creator and original patent holder, Monsanto, as being "safe as table salt."  Now, an accumulating body of research shows that glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, is genotoxic and endocrine disrupting -- both hallmark characteristic of many carcinogens -- at concentrations several orders of magnitude concentration lower than agricultural application. In fact, Monsanto has gone to great lengths to deny the emerging Roundup-Cancer link by pouring money into contract research companies like Exponent, who deny its well established harms.

This newest study provides clear and convincing evidence that GMO agriculture is contributing to cancer in exposed populations. The timing of this new study -- two weeks before Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) -- is all the more fitting, considering that "In female animals, the largest tumors were in total 5 times more frequent in males after 2 years, with 93% being mammary tumors." They also "...observed a strikingly marked induction of mammary tumors by R[oundup] alone...even at the very lowest dose administered." The annual pinkwashing campaign focuses on equating "prevention" with "early detection" by exposing women's bodies to breast cancer-causing x-rays, rather than to identify and remove the preventable causes, e.g. chemical exposure, carcinogenic foods, of breast cancer. Perhaps discussion of the harms of GM food should form an integral part of BCAM's advocacy.

The precautionary principle requires that if there is indication in a non-human study that a chemical is toxic to those who are forced to ingest it, inhale it, or otherwise be exposed to it, the burden of proving it safe must be on those manufacturing, marketing it and/or releasing it into the environment.

For too long has America -- albeit, unbeknownst to most of the population -- been engaged in a mass chemical and feeding experiment, without the protection of informed consent, or even the right to know what it is eating through truthful labeling of GMOs. Please help to spread this information far and wide, and to further garnish support for California's Proposition 37 (Just Label It), which could turn the tide against GM agriculture's systemic destruction of the biosphere, and by implication, our health.

~~~~~~~

Friday, September 28, 2012

Garden Harvest 9/20 - 9/24

9/20/2012 - harvest - red and yellow carrots, tomatoes, tomatillo and the last watermelon (7th one) The plate of bell peppers were from a friendly gardener:)
 9/20/2012 - 4 tomatillos
9/20/2012 - the Amarillo carrots
9/20/2012 -  a brilliant yellow after pealed...not the sweetest though...I used them in soup
9/20/2012 -  cosmic purple carrots
9/20/2012 -  the cosmic purple carrots are as orange as the common carrot in the middle
9/20/2012 - a brilliant orange, and sweet tasting carrot:) 
 9/2/2012 -a big tomato
 9/22/2012 -harvest - tomatoes
 9/22/2012 - all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors

  9/24/2012 - Harvest - After 2 days of frost all the tomato plants were destroyed:( These are some I tried to salvage
9/24/2012 - I picked all these growing in one hole
9/24/2012 - Some of these fell off, others I picked...the only colored ones on the plants...all the rest are green...but all the plants are dead...so not sure if any will ripen





Thursday, September 27, 2012

Garden Harvest 9/16 - 9/19

 9/16/2012 - a pretty sunset to start out this blog:)
 9/16/2012 -  harvest - first amarillo carrot...was kinda woody so will pick the others pretty soon before they get too big
 9/16/2012 -  first carrot harvested...they take ages
 9/19/2012 - Harvest - 5 tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, 6th watermelon, Red Russian kale, dino kale and curled Scotch kale 
 9/19/2012 - this was the 6th moon and star watermelon to ripen for the picking
 9/19/2012 - it weighed 19.4lbs
 9/19/2012 - it was absolutely delicious:)  Sweet, crisp and juicy...not overripe! The first 2 I harvested were overripe and a little on the spongy side instead of crisp
 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Garden update & Harvest 9/12 - 9/15

 9/12/2012 - harvest - cherry tomatoes, sweet red pepper, 8 tomatoes, tomatillo, sage, sweet basil and watermelon
  9/12/2012 -a 1lb heart shaped tomato...as sweet as can be ^_^
 9/12/2012 -  this tomato was also 1lb! Very juicy and sweet...either a Cherokeep Purple or Ananas Noire...I have yet to be able to tell the difference!
 9/12/2012 -  a brilliant sweet red pepper
 9/12/2012 -  some spices...sage and sweet basil, and one tomatillo
 9/12/2012 -  this was the 4th ripe watermelon to be harvested
 9/12/2012 -It was perfect inside, not overripe, it was sweet, crisp and juicy!
 9/15/2012 - the second wave of lettuce growing ok now that I started them inside and transplanted them, and kept them covered from the strong sun
  9/15/2012 - the king about to leave the garden
  9/15/2012 - got my work out carrying it to my car and home!
9/15/2012 -this moon and star watermelon weighed almost 50lbs!
  9/15/2012 - harvest - lots of tomatoes:)
  9/15/2012 - some weird ones :p
  9/15/2012 - weird smiley winkin' faced under