To relax after her second virus shot, Gretchen hoisted 50-pound bags of fertilizer while we were planting red corn.
![[A few hours after second virus shot]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2021-03-22--gretchen-fertilizer-shot/20210322_162634.jpg)
A few hours after second virus shot
Seems like a fair distribution of labor. After all, I drive the tractor.
Today she got five more bags, and loaded them in the truck herself.
-jsq
Dr. Mario Bartoletti appears unchanged since I first met him five years ago.
An exploration of the aging process and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle as perceived by an octogenarian.
Here’s
a bio in the VDT from 2011,
and
a VDT review from 2013 of Dr. Bartoletti’s autobiographical book,
Becoming a Man.
Here he is
in 2011 at almost 79, marching again as he did for civil rights many decades before.
And
in 2014 reminding the Lowndes County Commmission there are things they can do.
Apparently one of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle is remaining engaged in the community.
You can register now Continue reading
We are doing this for our health, and yours, too. And Traci Gosier’s talk is about health:
What is the program? Georgia Working on Health Initiative. The initiative aims to reduce the burden of chronic disease by partnering with Georgia businesses to create and enhance healthy worksite environments and improve employee health.
How do they get involved? Take the online pledge at dph.ga.gov/working-on-health then you will receive the following:
- Commitment letter with sample policies
- An electronic version of the Work Healthy Georgia toolkit
- Window decals to post (tobacco free-environment, Continue reading
Now a word from our founder.
Science is finding that a healthy gut biome is vital to a powerful immune system, a highly functional brain, and overall good health. Jump-start your road to recovery or maintain your vigor by incorporating cultured foods in your diet. Fermenting is wicked simple and lots of fun. In this workshop Janisse will make sauerkraut, kefir, and kombucha. She’ll also talk about many other homemade cultured foods you can incorporate into your homestead or home kitchen for the benefit of you and your family, including cream fraiche, vinegar, and much more.
Janisse Ray and Leeanne Culbreath started the South Georgia Growing Local series of conferences in November 2010 in Tifton. For more about Janisse Ray see her web page. She already held Southeast Georgia Growing Local in Tattnall County in November 2014. Come see Janisse at the other fifth conference in this series, South Georgia Growing Local 2015, January 24, 2015, at Pine Grove Middle School in Lowndes County north of Valdosta.
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Research, including studies presented at the conference in Istanbul, is showing that organic agriculture can deliver reliably high yields ”and that organic fields thrive in the face of disaster and duress, where chemical-reliant crops falter. Organic fields, for example, fare significantly better than chemically managed ones in the face of extreme weather, such as droughts or floods.
Anna Lappe, for takepart, 4 November 2014, Yes, Organic Farming Can Feed the World, 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
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
Sharon Wagner, ex-Director, South Georgia House of Hope,
will talk about “His Tomato Girls” from Seed to Salsa, at
South Georgia Growing Local 2014:
Why we started an organic garden.
How we grew heirloom tomatoes.
What we have learned about ourselves in the process.
Her conference bio:
Sharon Wagner — Executive Director
Sharon’s background includes a 15-year addiction to cocaine which
she overcame in 1987 with the love of God and the discipline of Teen Challenge. While at the Walter Hoving home in New York, Sharon received a vision to provide a home for women — a place of safety and healing. In 2005, out of a passion to bring healing and freedom to women struggling with alcohol, drugs, and abuse, Sharon and her husband rick founded the South Georgia House of Hope here in Valdosta, Georgia. This began a journey of faith that will last a lifetime.
Sharon has personally experienced the healing power of organic foods as part of the recovery process. It is her desire to teach the ladies the importance of not only growing but also enjoying fresh and healthy food. This is an essential part of detoxification — replenishing nutrients that have been lost through years of drug and alcohol use. The organic garden at the House of Hope teaches the ladies how to work together as a team, while also building healthy minds and bodies.
Come to SOGALO2014 and hear Sharon Wagner talk about tomatoes and recovery!
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Elizabeth (B) Fraleigh O’Toole, President of O’Toole’s Herb Farm will speak at South Georgia Growing Local 2014:
This presentation will touch on growing herbs for pleasure, growing herbs for the fresh cut market and growing herbs in greenhouse production for wholesale and retail sales. I will cover the joy and positive healing energy these plants give, the passion of growing and using them and how I got to this place.
Her farm was featured in the April-May, 2012, edition of Home & Design:
“A village is happening out here,” B said during a tour of her 114-acre farm’s greenhouses, gardens, retail shops and resident flock of sheep. “If you think Walmart, we’re absolutely the opposite. Small, local, knowledgeable, none of our plants genetically modified with man-made chemicals.”
Also on
facebook.
Her conference bio: Continue reading
What has about 300 heads and eats really well?
A local agriculture conference coming to Lowndes County 24 January 2014.
South Georgia Growing Local 2014 is a local food conference for growers, consumers, homesteaders in South Georgia. Farm Tours 1/24 — Conference 1/25
You can like the
facebook page
and join events there
for the conference itself on January 25th
and for
the farm tours on January 24th.
Agritourism has come to Lowndes County!
This is one reason a wide variety of organizations, including two Chambers of Commerce, are supporting this conference:
it will fill hotel rooms.
Even more, it’s about longterm local economy through growing and buying food right here in south Georgia and north Florida.
All that and it tastes good, too!
