Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

Fixing a tractor tire

Apparently electric fence wire isn’t good to sling into a tractor tire. The puncture was barely visible, but leaked completely down after a while. Fortunately, Charles from Adel Tire came and fixed it. After he set it on fire.

He explains why in the video. 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

Okra available today

We’ve got about 7 pounds of okra left over today after somebody couldn’t take it. So if you want it, let us know, information@okraparadisefarms.com, or comment on the blog or web page. We also have okra chips.

Okra can be hard to find. Here’s an okra plant that I had just picked: Continue reading

Short-term profit misusing technical know-how beyond understanding of nature –Cosmos

Another Cosmos script Neil deGrasse Tyson read maybe he should have paid more attention to regarding the situation with short-sighted corporate monopolies misusing cherry-picked science to promote their profits at the expense of all of us and the only planet we’ve got.

Talking about the fall of the ancient Mesopotamia civilization, the script Dr. Tyson read for Cosmos Episode 11, The Immortals, says: Continue reading

N.deG. Tyson falls for the misuse of the authority of science that he decried in Cosmos

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

Roundup bred mutant pigweed

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 chips and collard seeds @ Valdosta Farm Days 2014-07-19

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

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