Category Archives: Plants

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

Elsie was more than a biology professor and ecologist –Jonathan Ertelt, Community

Saying what many students think: “Students of all ages are thankful that her appreciation of the plant kingdom and the world around her touched them and made their lives.”

Jonathan Ertelt, Vanderbilt Magazine, Summer 2014 issue, Quarterman Was More Than a Biology Professor and Ecologist, Continue reading

The whole ecosystem –Elsie Quarterman on Wild Side TV

300x184 People as well as plants and animals. Not just dogs youve got on a leash, but animals that live out there, are part of the whole ecosystem., in A Crusader for Conservation, by Wild Side TV, for OkraParadiseFarms.org, 19 September 2014 Here’s a video about Elsie, A Crusader for Conservation, 19 September 2014, by Tennessee’s Wild Side, “The Emmy Award winning show produced through the generosity of the Jackson Foundation, Tennessee State Parks, and the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.” Lots of good pictures, some video snippets of Elsie, and some narration by her nephew Patrick and by Biologist Tom Hemmerly, who reminds us of Elsie’s work at Radner Lake, in addition to her cedar glades work. Ranger Buddy Ingram explains her biggest contribution may have been in getting numerous different segments of society to cooperate in saving whole ecologies. Botanist Kim Sadler and others explain how inspiring all that is to generations of students.

As Elsie said in 2006:

300x168 The general public needs to know whats around them., in A Crusader for Conservation, by Wild Side TV, for OkraParadiseFarms.org, 19 September 2014 The general public needs to know what’s around them. They need to be learning that there’s a world that is not paved. There are lots of things that have life and function in the whole scheme, people as well as plants and animals. Not just dogs you’ve got on a leash, but animals that live out there, are part of the whole ecosystem.
Continue reading

SEB: Professor Elsie Quarterman: In Memorium, 1910-2014

Her students Carol and Jerry Baskin wrote for the July 2014 Southeastern Biology newsletter of The Association of Southeastern Biologists, OBITUARY: Professor Elsie Quarterman: In Memorium, 1910-2014

Dr. Elsie Quarterman known fondly to her students as EQ passed away on 9 June 2014 at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 103 years. She was born on 28 November 1910 in Valdosta, Georgia. Dr. Quarterman obtained her B. A. degree from Georgia State Women’s College (now Valdosta State University) in 1932, Continue reading

Diversity, extinction, and climate change

In what category does Georgia rank highest

  1. for species diversity: plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, or fishes?
  2. and in which of these four categories: diversity, risk, endemism (distinctiveness of species), and extincions?

Guess first, then look (no peeking)…. Continue reading

Cancer-fighting okra?

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

Canning corn and peaches at Lowndes High School 2014-07-12

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.

300x225 Coring peaches, in Canning corn and peaches at Lowndes High School, by Gretchen Quarterman, for OkraParadiseFarms.com, 12 July 2014 These pictures are also on my facebook timeline.

See also shelling peas at the 19 June 2014 class.

-gretchen

Home Canning Class and Canning Plant Demonstration

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

Remembering Elsie Quarterman –Paul Somers, Ph.D.

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

Mobile Market at Barnes Drug Store every Tuesday

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