In his recent misstatements about GMO foods,
Neil deGrasse Tyson has fallen for what he called the misuse of the
authority of science, in
Episode 7 of Cosmos, the Clean Room, which recounted Clair
Patterson’s discovery of lead pollution by leaded gasoline.
That use of lead had been promoted and defended
by Robert E. Kehoe’s “scientific” papers.
The script Tyson read (but did not write) said: Continue reading
With GM crops come herbicides, which breed resistant weeds.
This has happened in about a decade for the worse mutants.
We can reverse the problem by reversing the spraying,
using plowing, cultivation, and crop rotation instead.
Mark Jeschke wrote for Pioneer Dupont, Crop Insights: Weed Management in the Era of Glyphosate Resistance, Continue reading
Okra of two sizes, okra chips, eggplants,
basil, rosemary, collard seeds, mustard seeds, and the
last of the corn meal, all at Valdosta Farm Days today 9AM to 1PM
at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse, 100 East Central Ave., Valdosta GA. Continue reading
Well, this is unexpected.
Recent research shows a compound in okra
“promotes selective antitumor effects in human breast cancer cells and may represent a potential therapeutic to combat human breast cancer.”
Here’s the abstract, Biotechnol Lett. 2014 Mar;36(3):461-9. doi: 10.1007/s10529-013-1382-4. Epub 2013 Oct 16. Lectin of Abelmoschus esculentus (okra) promotes selective antitumor effects in human breast cancer cells.
The anti-tumor effects of a newly-discovered lectin, isolated from okra, Abelmoschus esculentus (AEL), were investigated in human breast cancer (MCF7) and skin fibroblast (CCD-1059 sk) cells. AEL induced significant cell growth inhibition (63 %) in MCF7 cells. The expression of pro-apoptotic caspase-3, caspase-9, and p21 genes was increased in MCF7 cells treated with AEL, compared to those treated with controls. In addition, AEL treatment increased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in MCF7 cells. Flow cytometry also indicated that cell death (72 %) predominantly occurred through apoptosis. Thus, AEL in its native form promotes selective antitumor effects in human breast cancer cells and may represent a potential therapeutic to combat human breast cancer.
Don’t get your hopes up about that 72% figure: that seems to be that when cancer cell death occurred, 72% of it was related, not that 72% of cancer cells were killed. The 63% cancer cell growth inhibition does seem promising, though.
There are even hints in another paper that okra may be related to lower rates of prostate cancer: Continue reading
Even more fun and twice as many people at
my second canning class
at the Lowndes High School Canning Plant.
Thanks to James Perdue and the Valdosta Community Garden Group for organizing.
These pictures are also on
my facebook timeline.
See also shelling peas at the 19 June 2014 class.
-gretchen
One of the easiest “convenience foods” to make at home is mayonnaise. Once you make your own, to your own taste, you’ll never go back to store bought.
Some time back, I stumbled across the book Make Your Own Convenience Foods by Don and Joan German and my kitchen and pantry haven’t been the same since.
Basic Recipe:
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon lecithin (optional)
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard (actually to taste)
1/4 teaspoon salt (again to taste)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (depends upon size of yolks)
Actually making the mayo is really pretty easy.
Step one: get out ingredients
Step two: put yolks into blender with vinegar, mustard and salt
Step three: put top on blender and mix this up well.
Step four: take out little plug from top of blender and slowly add oil in pencil thin stream. (about 20-25 seconds)
Step five: scoop mayo out of blender into a jar and label
And now you have delicious home made mayo, no preservatives, no chemicals, and just the herbs and spices you like.
–gretchen
Gretchen will show you how, and then you get to do it,
at Lowndes High School Saturday July 12th 2014, 10AM-12:30pm.
Contact: James Perdue
Valdosta Community Garden Group
229-251-6362
See facebook event.
And here are pictures from the previous event.
-jsq
Posted with permission. I added the links. -jsq
Remembering Elsie Quarterman
by Paul Somers, Ph.D.
Retired State Botanist, Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program
and former botanist, Tennessee Natural Heritage Program
Not wanting to miss a chance to pay tribute to my friend, the 103+ year old Dr. Elsie Quarterman, I’m sitting down to reflect on my remembrances of this wonderful woman who befriended me and many other botanical and conservation colleagues. It was the summer of 1976 when I moved to Nashville to join the young staff of the Tennessee Heritage Program as its first botanist. The program, now well established with the State Department of Environment and Conservation, benefited greatly from the prior work of Dr. Quarterman (Elsie) and many of her graduate students at Vanderbilt University who had done vegetation and rare plant studies in the Central Basin of Tennessee.
For help with understanding and conserving the best examples of cedar glades and their many endemic, nearly endemic, or otherwise rare Tennessee plant species, I and other colleagues frequently turned to Elsie and her Continue reading
Today Lowndes County Partnership for Health picked up some OPF red potatoes to sell at their Mobile Market. Next week probably OPF okra. And every week other good vegetables and fruits from other farmers.
Here’s a South Health District facebook post of 10 June 2014:
It’s Tuesday – know what that means? The Mobile Market, full of fresh fruits and vegetables, will be at Barnes Drug Store Downtown Valdosta from 2:30-4:30! They’re there every Tuesday! Come by and see them…they accept all forms of payment.
-jsq
Received 13 June 2014 and permission to publish granted today. -jsq
From: J Richard Carter
To: Patrick QuartermanI am very sorry to hear about Dr. Quarterman. She was a remarkable person. I started graduate school at Vanderbilt in 1978, a few years after Dr. Quarterman retired, so I didn’t have the privilege of taking her courses. However, she was still very much a presence in the department, attending seminars and interacting with faculty and students informally in the departmental conference room.
I also remember that she very kindly gave me a set of reprints of her classic Continue reading