Category Archives: Okra Paradise Farms

Half way between Atlanta and Orlando and all the way to paradise!

Smut no more: tasty corn fungus!

Corn smut a delicacy? Well, if truffles can be, why not?

Jill Neimark, the salt, 24 August 2015, Scourge No More: Chefs Invite Corn Fungus To The Plate,

One evening last July, Nat Bradford walked along rows of White Bolita Mexican corn at his Sumter, S.C., farm, and nearly wept. All 1,400 of the corn plants had been overtaken almost overnight by corn smut, recalls Bradford, who’s also a landscape architect. The smut, from a fungus called Ustilago maydis, literally transforms each corn kernel into a bulbous, bulging bluish-grey gall. It is naturally present in the soil and can be lofted easily into the air and onto plants.

Smut is considered a scourge by most U.S. farmers, and it goes by the nickname “devil’s corn.” Just one discolored kernel typically renders an ear completely unsellable….

Yep, that’s the way we’ve usually considered it. But keep reading: Continue reading →

Elsie Quarterman, Hall of Fame, Tennessee Botanists

2011 inductee, Tennessee Botanists Hall of Fame, Elsie Quarterman,

Elsie Quarterman was born in 1910 in Georgia. She completed her undergraduate work at Georgia State Woman’s College in 1932. Post-graduate studies were done at Duke Univ. where she obtained her Ph.D. in 1949 under Henry J. Osting. She accepted a faculty position at Vanderbilt Univ. and later became the University’s first female department chair, heading the Biology Department in 1964.

Dr. Quarterman is best known for her work on the ecology and plant communities of the cedar glades of the Central Basin. She is widely recognized for the re-discovery of the Tennessee Coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis) in 1969, a plant once thought to be extinct and subsequently the first plant endemic to Tennessee to be protected by the Endangered Species Act. She has received many honors including our very own TNPS Conservation Award. The Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade State Natural Area was named in her honor in 1998.

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Okra, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, and popcorn at Valdosta Farm Days 2015-07-18

Also rosemary, collard seeds…. A bit muggy, you can tell by the foggy picture Gretchen just took at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse in downtown Valdosta, Georgia.

526x701 Market time, in OPF at Valdosta Farm Days, by Gretchen Quarterman, 18 July 2015

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GMOs: worse risk of ruin than nuclear power –Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Because Genetically modified crops risk widespread ruin, they should not be permitted without far greater scientific knowledge, for which the burden of proof falls on those proposing GMOs, not those opposing, say experts in risk and ruin.

Risk management or mitigation may work for localized harm, but GMOs risk widespread systemic damage, which is ruin, and to prevent that the precautionary principal is needed:

if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing severe harm to the public domain (such as general health or the environment), and in the absence of scientific near-certainty about the safety of the action, the burden of proof about absence of harm falls on those proposing the action.

A paper by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and co-authors lays out Continue reading →

Peter Clark Quarterman Jr. (1923-2015)

Cousin Clark; he will be missed. Obituary at Carson McLane of Valdosta:

Peter Clark Quarterman Jr., 91, of Valdosta passed away January 25, 2015 at Brooks County Hospital. He was born April 4, 1923 in Valdosta, GA to the late Dr. Peter Clark, Sr. and Kathryne Staten Quarterman. Mr. Quarterman was a veteran of WWII where he was a B-25 top turret gunner for the United States Army Air Corps. After the 300x203 Muriel DeCarr Hancock Quarterman, Peter Clark Quarterman Jr., Rev. Mrs. Helen Quarterman Fisher, in Peter Clark Quarterman Jr. (1923-2015), by Stephen Patrick Quarterman, for OkraParadiseFarms.com, 31 December 1993 war, he returned to Valdosta to become a farmer. He played string bass and was known for his fish-fry musical suppers held at Lake Octahatchee. A lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church, Mr. Quarterman sang bass in the choir and was an elder in the church.

Mr. Quarterman is survived by his wife, Muriel DeCarr Hancock Quarterman of Quitman, GA and several cousins and dear friends in South Georgia and at the Presbyterian Home in Quitman, GA. In addition to his parents, Mr. Quarterman was preceded in death by his sister, the Rev. Mrs. Helen Quarterman Fisher.

A graveside service will be held Continue reading →

UGA Vegetable Growers Workshop 2015-01-30

300x225 2015 Cornucopia, in Vegetable Growers Workshop, by UGA Horticulture, for OkraParadiseFarms.com, 30 January 2015 How to grow your own vegetables for food and/or profit, according to UGA Griffin, at the end of this month. You can register by printing and mailing the PDF form, or through the event website. -jsq

University of Georgia Horticulture Presents:
Vegetable Growers Workshop

This program will cover many aspects of how to grow your own Continue reading →