Time to get serious about my diet. Growing food is changing me in more ways than I ever dreamed.

I have high cholesterol, mildly elevated blood pressure and a heart defect. My cardiologist wants both my BP and cholesterol reduced. I gather I will eventually need a valve replacement. Or will I? Doctors are not always right.
My concern about GMO's, our pesticide and herbicide laced food, our treatment of animals and peak oil, have launched me on a frenzy of reading everything I can about all of the above.
I will occasionally share my information with you. I have been interested in natural food for most of my life. I have not been consistently good at practicing what I know. I want to remedy that. I have spent years researching, so if you can use anything I have learned and share...well, that would be wonderful.
What I plan to share with you are the specifics. Not all the how's and why's, rather the substitutes I find for products that we use all the time. I am a foodie. I love food. I love dairy, cream, butter, cheese. You get the picture. I have my grandmother to thank for my 'food love'. God that woman could cook. Suffice it to say, my substitutes need to taste good.
I have begun the project today. I have been shopping, finding the alternate healthy products. I will put them to the test and report back.

Fall cleanup and small harvest

It was absolutely beautiful today. I grabbed a coffee and went out to play. What a lovely full day. I started out just strolling around and checking things out. One thing lead to another and before you know it, four hours have passed. I pulled out plants that looked 'done'. Including all the tomatoes in the greenhouse. Taken down and soil smoothed and watered. Sprinkled with lettuce seeds. I figure our weather is similar to February - March when my lettuce was in its glory. So I am hopeful that we can get lots. I really miss my fresh lettuce. I took down the shade cloth in the greenhouse. Brought the Lemon Verbena and Bay Laurel into the greenhouse for the winter. I picked my dried beans and set the beans out to dry a bit more. I raked up the holly leaves over at Barb the neighbors side of the house...she has beautiful dogs that I don't want stepping on the nasty dry sharp leaves.
I still have a lot to do tomorrow...which would actually be today as its 2:15am right now. Maybe I should get rested for what will hopefully be another lovely day on the west coast.

It WAS another gorgeous day. We moved the Meyer Lemon into the greenhouse. I unwrapped the rigid plastic coiled thing that protected the trunk. Under it was the name label and a tight plastic tie. I'm glad I undid it. The tie was so tight that any growth would have dented the trunk. I potted a French Lavender for Amanda and planted my huge specimen in the lasagna garden where it will bring bees to that side of the yard. I pulled out a squash and took out the Berries Galore. Neighbor Judy brought me my Rainier Strawberries that she started for me. I planted them. I gave her the mystery strawb that my sister gave me the parent of. I gave her five of the six I've started. They are awesome. I think I will call them Jessica Strawberries. I washed pots and little plant labels and put them away. I washed out the water bell fountain and put it in the shed. I did so much work I think even my okole is going to be hurting tomorrow.

Amanda and Noel's cat Hugo found two of these caterpillar guys. Creepy. I killed one the other day thinking it was a tomato hornworm. That really isn't my style, but I panicked. Today I just moved them to the front. Now I read they are quite lovely butterfly's or moths. I'm sorry dude.

Starting fall cleanup already?!

Lettuce seeded

Yesterday I was admiring my beans when I heard a clanking sound. I came around the bean pyramid and knew without a doubt...fall is in the air. Neighbor Lance was dismantling his gazebo to store it for the winter. I'm sure my shoulders sagged about three inches. I went to the shed, brought out the bag and started taking out my solar lights to store for winter. Cut off the sunflowers to dry the seed for the birds, tore out a couple of tomato plants that don't have a hope of growing a decent tomato by first frost and put away the fairy doors. That's a start anyway. I have read that raspberries go in in the fall. I have also read that raspberries go in in the spring. This gardening thing can be really confusing. I made the decision to plant them. It is so awesome to have them in the ground. Raspberries are my favorite food and I was mortified that the originals died.

Fall Gold Raspberries...beyond delicious

Speaking of which, I was talking to my brother Steven tonight. Steven has been gardening for a long time. Unfortunately he lost most of his garden this year to a wicked 45 minute Alberta hail storm that dumped about four inches a large stones on everything. Apparently there was some cursing going on. I digress. Steven was telling me about losing some raspberry plants. It sounded like exactly the same thing that killed mine. He said simply "spider mites, use a soap solution". So I may just do that in the next few days as a preemptive strike. I am wondering if all those little bugs on my dill, that I thought were small aphids, could be spider mites? I'll try to get a close up picture.

Finally found a 'GMO Free' database for product search.

I found a site with a data base for GMO products!!!!! Finally. You can query by brand or product type to locate GMO free foods. I was on the Silk Soy website and found this link. I also found out that contrary to what I had been told, Silk does not use any GMOs in their soy products. Good on ya Silk!! Here is a link my friends. (does everyone get this excited about food?)

I have just downloaded their free iPhone app so I will have the information with me when I shop. 

Non GMO Project

One word...mildew

There really is nothing to add to this.
The dominant feature in the garden right now. 

Mildew!
Enjoy the photos.