Wednesday, October 31, 2012

beans

it was vile weather and so I felt obligated to go out in it ( someone has to enjoy this stuff ) and wile i was errands like dropping off dinner for family on the afternoon shift ( veggie club from jimmie john’s ) i drove out to the bean field i was looking at a few weeks ago to see if it had been gleaned…nope…looks like farmer brown has put in some winter wheat or rye to act as a cover crop and store any nitrogen left over from the beans…but among the grasses were a lot of still uncollected beans…and a surprising number ( for me anyway ) had germinated and begun to throw out some chlorophyll..i grabbed some stray beans and a bean pod and on arriving home discovered a germinated bean among them…so i took a container that one of the apple trees i planted here at the shelter was in and put in some potting soil and compost and set it in the huge pot the acacia tree is in to await events ( right next to the container of asparagus seeds i am trying to germinate ) i had planned on growing some in the spring form beans i collected to assess second generation seed viability…but i am wondering if this late season germination in the field isn’t a cleverly engineered way to insure a second generation from licensed seed…or am i giving monsanto and bayer entirely too much credit? willing to bet your answer gives away a portion of your political philosophy…michael pollan wondered in the n y times Sunday magazine form a week ago Sunday if this was the year the food movement entered politics…doubt it …but you don’t have to read marion nestle to know food is political ( but if you do read her stuff…including her fine blog…you will get an education ) and there are definite boundaries and food views out there…i know which side i’m on ( as if the header on the blog didn’t telegraph that )…more as this gm bean does whatever it is programmed to do.

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