Gardeners spend hours growing a few tomatoes simply because it’s the only way to get a truly great tasting tomato. What can you do in the garden to make your food taste even better?
How to Grow Great Tasting Food
Food
GMO Myths – Understand the Truth About GMO Plants
GMOs are very controversial for two reasons. Firstly, there is a lot of misinformation out there and secondly GMOs are not well understood by the general public. Rather than discuss the topic in detail I have decided to focus on some of the common myths. I will present a number of GMO myths and if the reader is interested in more detail they can look at the references.
If you have formed an opinion on GMOs based what you have read on popular web sites and in newspapers, you have probably reached the wrong conclusion. The anti-GMO movement is strong and based almost entirely on emotion and fear. Science does not back up most of their claims.
Best Way to Wash Fruits and Vegetables
We all wash fruits and vegetables and so it is surprising that many food blogs are giving out the wrong information about how you should wash fruits and vegetables. Why should you wash your produce? Is it a good way to reduce pesticides in your diet? Find out why and how you should be washing food.
How to Grow Nutrient Dense Food
There are many reasons why people grow their own food including freshness, taste and nutrition. It is commonly believed that home grown food is more nutritious than store-bought food. That organically grown food is more nutritious than conventionally grown and that heirloom varieties are more nutritious than modern day varieties.
Is any of this true? What can you do to improve the nutrition of your home grown food?
18 Food Safety Myths For The Home Gardener
The CDC has reported that 46% of all foodborne illnesses are due to fresh produce. One out of every six Americans that will get a foodborne illness this year. “From a historical perspective, fresh produce was linked to less than 1% of all foodborne illnesses in the 1970s, and less than 12% in the 1990s. Why is foodborne illness from produce on the rise?”
Part of the increase is due to better detection, but it is also due to increased use of fast food and a more complex food production/delivery system. Food that we buy in local stores has passed through many hands from farm to table and each step is a possible source of contamination. Another problem is that more people are growing their own food and they incorrectly believe that home grown food is safe.
In this post I will have a look at a number of myths about foodborne illnesses and how you can prevent them.
7 Best Ways for Washing Fruits and Vegetables
I recently asked our Facebook Group, Garden Fundamentals, what they used for washing fruits and vegetables and I got quite a range of answers. Some did not wash most items. Quite a few used just water and many used a type of soap. Vinegar and baking soda were also popular for washing fruits and vegetables.
What does the science say about different washing solutions for fruits and vegetables?
The Myth of Growing High Nutrient Density Food
The quality of food is so important to everyone these days and many are growing their own to have better control over nutrient density. Lots of different gardening styles like organic, permaculture and regenerative promote their system as the best way to keep nutrient density high.
How much of this information is true? What can a backyard gardener do to grow more nutritious food?
In this post I will help you understand what nutrient density really is, and I’ll help you weed through a lot of the gardening myths that claim to grow high density food.
Seedless Tomatoes – Everything You Need to Know
I understand the reason we want seedless watermelons – because of the big seeds, but seedless tomatoes? Do we really need them? Why would you grow them? If they don’t make seed, how can they be grown from seed? Are these some kind of new GMO franken-toms?
The story of seedless tomatoes is quite interesting and can teach us a lot about plants. In this post I’ll squash out the current knowledge about them and provide you with the background you need to make the proper choice when buying plants for your garden.
Are Honey Bees Dying – Are We Losing Our Food Supply?
I have seen hundreds of reports about the honeybees dying. If we don’t do something soon we will loose 75% of our food supply. Chemicals are killing them by the millions. But are they really dying? Do we have a catastrophe on our hands or do we have a bunch of fear mongering authors who do not understand science?
From a myth busting point of view this is an interesting story. The truth depends very much on how you ask the question.
Organic Honey – Does It Exist?
I was driving home the other day and saw a sign; Organic Honey for Sale. I started thinking about this – what is organic honey? Are the bees only allowed to visit organic flowers? How do the beekeepers keep them from visiting non-organic gardens? Or maybe the bees are trained to spot the difference between organic and non-organic?
Organic honey may not be as pure as it is made out to be.
