September Book Review

I just finished reading another great book called "The Heirloom Life Gardener" by Jere & Emilee Gettle. It's a book about a man's passion for saving  heirloom, open pollinated seeds which turned into a mission to preserve as many varieties of heirloom seeds as possible. The author, Jerre Gettle, is co-founder of The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company where they sell over 1400 varieties of heirloom seeds. He also owns two other retail operations, The Petaluma Seed Bank in Petaluma California and Comstock, Ferre & Co. in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
In the book, Jere talks about how his passion for farming started at an early age, planting his first seeds at age 3. When he was 17 he started his first mail order seed company from his bedroom in Missouri, which quickly turned into a very successful business. He talks about his travels to Mexico, Thailand and other countries in search of new heirloom seeds to bring back to grow on his farm.

Jerre decided to start preserving heirloom seeds when he discovered that most of the seeds available today from big seed companies are either GMO (Genetically Modified) or Hybrid (which won't breed true and will revert back to one of it's parent types when saved). He began to realize that a lot of the old favorites were no longer available and set out to preserve as many as possible and to educate people about the importance of preserving seeds.

There is a food movement underway and more people than ever are starting to take back control over the quality of the food they put into their bodies by planting backyard gardens or buying locally from their organic farmers markets. Another step in that process is to grow heirloom varieties and save the seeds for next years garden. Heirloom varieties are open pollinated, non-GMO, non-hybrid and will grow true every time.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is passionate about gardening, is interested in growing heirloom varieties and wants to learn more about saving seeds. This is definitely one that I will be adding to my library!

Book Review - Turn Here Sweet Corn

Lately I find myself reading many books about organic farming. I seem to have this drive to learn as much as I can about organic growing and no matter how much I read I just can't seem to quench this thirst.

I just finished reading "Turn Here Sweet Corn" by Atina Diffley. Atina outlines her life from earliest memories, growing up on her families farm, leaving home at age 16 to find her own path in life, getting married, and then divorced. Through all these events she has a drive, a passion, for organic growing and to provide nutritious food for others. Wherever her life takes her she always has her hand in growing, whether it be an apartment garden, working at a co-op or working as a hired hand on a farm. She ends up meeting Martin Diffley, fifth generation farmer, who cares for his family's land, 120 acres of organic farmland which has never touched by chemicals. His family has always farmed this way because they believed doing things naturally was the best for the soil and plants. They believed they should leave the land in better condition than when they started there. They were growing organic before "organic" became certified by the USDA. Atina talks about her connection with the land, soil and seed, the importance of wholesome food, and how they love the land they are farming. Their farm becomes threatened and their land is lost, all but one acre, to development. They find another property to farm and again their land is threatened by an oil company that wants to put a pipeline straight through their farm. Throughout the story they are threatened by development, damaging storms, the threat of chemical over spray for neighboring farmers and an oil company wanting to take their land, but they continued to fight for what they believed in. Their deep connection to the soil and nature gave them the drive to overcome these battles and even write policy to protect organic farms land. The events in Atina's life all led her to where she is today, an organic vegetable farmer who also educates others about organic farming through their consulting business Organic Farming Works LLC.

This book was so captivating it was hard to put down and I didn't want it to end. It gave me the power and drive to keep working towards my goal of becoming an organic farmer and the realization that the event s in my life all seem to be leading me along this path. While I don't have a desire to run a 100 acre farm I do want to run a small 5+ acre micro organic farm. I feel the same connection with the land and also have the same philosophy that if you care for the soil naturally and organically you will feed it instead of depleting it. I agree with Atina, we should leave this land in better condition that when we came here.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who want to become an organic farmer or believes in the health benefits and importance of organic food!