So I popped into a locally owned fine food store, Wills & Co. this afternoon to pick up a few things and when I walked through the door an interesting sign caught my eye. It made reference to local organic corn being in, and that it was not Monsanto. What on earth is Monsanto I thought?! And why isn't it good? So after buying some of this organic, local, non Monsanto corn I headed home and googled what exactly Monsanto is.
So thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that Monsanto is an multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation and the leading producer of genetically modified seed. What on earth does that mean? So again, thanks to Wikipedia:
"Genetically modified foods (or GM foods) are foods derived from genetically modified organisms. Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. These techniques are much more precise[1] than mutagenesis (mutation breeding) where an organism is exposed to radiation or chemicals to create a non-specific but stable change. Other techniques by which humans modify food organisms include selective breeding; plant breeding, and animal breeding, and somaclonal variation."
Who knew?! I certainly didn't. So does this mean that all the corn I have been buying in my regular grocery store is all genetically modified? There doesn't really seem to be a clear answer to this. In the process of my Internet search I did come across an interesting pamphlet produced by Greenpeace, "How to Avoid Genetically Engineered Food - A Greenpeace Shoppers Guide", http://gmoguide.greenpeace.ca/shoppers_guide.pdf
Turns out that a lot of the processed foods I purchase for my family on a regular basis contain genetically engineered ingredients. Even baby formula is on the list!
Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying I will never purchase any of the products on the list, but it would be nice to know that these products contained genetically engineered ingredients. Looks like I have a little reading to do to make myself and informed consumer.
So why am I posting this here, in a blog about my family's garden? Well we did plant corn in our garden...I would like to think it is organic, non Monsanto corn...but who knows...guess I should have checked the plants I bought.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
As promised...
Some pics of the garden.
A wee little melon.
Corn! And it looks edible...
Cucumber thief?...pretty good chance I'd say!
Zucchini bread anyone?
A wee little melon.
Corn! And it looks edible...
Cucumber thief?...pretty good chance I'd say!
Zucchini bread anyone?I'm a bad, bad blogger!
So when I started this I had really hoped that I would be writing every few days, and here it is over two months since my last post! Okay - so I am recommitting, and feel free to call me out if I am AWOL again for more than a week.
So how exactly is our garden growing? Great! (will post some pics this weekend). We have already sampled some of our cucumbers - super yummy, although not very asthetically pleasing, but no one seems to care when they are chopped up in a salad. Our tomatoes are looking good, although I have yet to try one...the ripe one's have been going missing...I will need to do a little detective work, it is either one or both of our Labrador Retriever's or a couple of bunny friends who have been frequenting our yard. The herb's are also doing well - we have sampled the parsley, basil, rosemary and chives - and it is so handy to just pop out to the backyard to get these instead of heading off to the grocery store.
I have to say my kids absolutely love "their" garden. When we have guests, my almost 4 year old insists on taking them for a garden tour and one by one names every vegetable, fruit or herb that we are growing. Every night we go out and water our garden and every couple of weeks we pull all the weeds out. My two year old hasn't quite mastered this yet - we have had to replant a few things as he thinks everything in the garden is a weed! He also thinks he should sample everything that is growing...green tomato anyone?! yuck.
I think my kids might just be starting to realize that they aren't going to find any sausages in the garden!
So hopefully I will have a pic of a nice ripe tomato this weekend or a fully grown cucumber or zucchini...fingers crossed that the dogs and bunnies don't beat me to it.
So how exactly is our garden growing? Great! (will post some pics this weekend). We have already sampled some of our cucumbers - super yummy, although not very asthetically pleasing, but no one seems to care when they are chopped up in a salad. Our tomatoes are looking good, although I have yet to try one...the ripe one's have been going missing...I will need to do a little detective work, it is either one or both of our Labrador Retriever's or a couple of bunny friends who have been frequenting our yard. The herb's are also doing well - we have sampled the parsley, basil, rosemary and chives - and it is so handy to just pop out to the backyard to get these instead of heading off to the grocery store.
I have to say my kids absolutely love "their" garden. When we have guests, my almost 4 year old insists on taking them for a garden tour and one by one names every vegetable, fruit or herb that we are growing. Every night we go out and water our garden and every couple of weeks we pull all the weeds out. My two year old hasn't quite mastered this yet - we have had to replant a few things as he thinks everything in the garden is a weed! He also thinks he should sample everything that is growing...green tomato anyone?! yuck.
I think my kids might just be starting to realize that they aren't going to find any sausages in the garden!
So hopefully I will have a pic of a nice ripe tomato this weekend or a fully grown cucumber or zucchini...fingers crossed that the dogs and bunnies don't beat me to it.
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