My attempt to document the planting, growth, harvesting, and preserving of our family’s 8000 square feet of garden.
Northeast Iowa Gardening in growing zone 4
Last frost date May15, First frost date September 15
It is June! The month that I begin to anticipate each year after the exhaustion of harvest season and the excitement of the Holidays is over! When visit other states and am tempted to be envious of their warmer winters, beautiful terrain, or lovely plants I often remind myself that June in Iowa is worth everything else we endure!
Spinach has gone to seed Before I got any blanched and into the freezer. I don’t use frozen spinach but had planned to freeze some for our daughter’s freezer since she uses it.
I like to be all caught up on weeding before we leave the Homestead, (To the TN Homestead Festival this time) Because one thing that I hate more than coming home to a dirty house is coming home to a weedy garden. But not simply because of how it makes me feel. But also, because I and the plants can quickly become overwhelmed and stressed when there is too much weed pressure. Just like the weeds rob the crops of nutrients and light, too many weeds in my garden also rob me of the joy of gardening. There is always a subtle shift in my gardening that happens in late summer, a shift from pleasure to duty. Keeping up with the weeds is my way of preserving the pleasure stage as long as possible.
Why Heirloom over Hybrids? This has always been my question!
When I planted my first heirloom variety of squash, tromboncino, I noticed a difference in that first growing season! The first thing I noticed was that the squash bugs, that were eating my zucchini plants were not attracted to the Tromboncino squash.
That’s cool, very cool. BUT WHY?
I have been a believer in heirloom varieties since that season but have also questioned the science behind my experience, and that of many others, since that first season.
Until recently I asked the right person and my questions were answered!
I had the opportunity to visit with David Steltzer who founded and owns Azure Standard. Since they sell seeds, including many heirloom varieties of seeds, I asked him to explain to me why heirloom varieties, not only are more disease resistant (I can understand disease resilience) but why are they more pest resistant?
He was gracious to answer my questions that day, and not only did I learn the answer to my questions, but I also came away with a deeper relationship forming between myself and God as I developed a new understanding of the heart behind His creation!
When varieties are hybrid, they are bred for commercialization, in a way that will make the most profit for everyone involved. The plant breeders focus primarily on:
Since mainstream commercial farmers use fungicides (for disease prevention) and pesticides (to kill insects) as a preventative measure to ensure their crop and therefore their profit, these hybridized plants, even though plant breeders say they breed them to be more disease resistant, seem to be highly dependent upon toxic treatments to yield a crop.
Because the focus when hybridizing plants is never ‘higher nutrition’ but the above-mentioned things, nutrition complexity of the resulting hybrid plants are compromised and instead of complex sugars like their heirloom ancestors these hybridized plants have very simple sugars.
Simple sugars in hybridized plants directly mimic a stressed plant. Insects are created by God to be attracted to simple sugars because this is the way the eco system is designed to prevent weaker plants from producing more weak plants. Plants that are stressed break down their stored starch into smaller sugar units to shield themselves from cell damage and to more effectively deal with a stressful environment. These complex sugars give off a pheromone that attracts the insects. Much like little boys are more attracted to the simple sugars, (corn syrup) in gummy worms and chocolate than they are to the complex sugars of plums and pears, sap sucking insects like aphids and squash bugs are more attracted to the sap of hybridized varieties of plants or stressed plants because of the simple sugars they contain.
Are Hybridized plants no good then?
For me and my garden it is a case-by-case scenario. Because as with all things balance is key! Tromboncino squash has replaces all our other squash varieties most summers (yes even summer squash) because it is trouble free, produces vigorously, stores well, and we love the taste. I don’t blame commercial growers for not growing it though because it sure isn’t uniform and won’t fit neatly onto grocery store shelves!
Sweet corn? The hybridized varieties sure taste much better than the heirloom varieties. It also tastes much better when frozen or canned than heirloom varieties and it is all because of those simple sugars rather than the complex sugars of the heirloom varieties. I plant the hybrid variety, Serendipity.
Life is all about balance and nothing brings balance to my life quite like my relationship with Jesus.
When I am tempted to fear the lack of complex nutrition found in hybrid fruits and veggies, He reminds me that nothing here on this earth is ever going to be perfect! If this world were perfect, we sure wouldn’t long for heaven.
The world and is desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17
My time and energy are better spent building eternal relationships (yes this can happen while we are weeding the garden) than to worry and fret about the nutrition or lack of nutrition in the plants I am growing. Also, a large consolation to me is the fact that healthy soil plays a large role in the nutritional complexities of the crops we are growing!
Balance to me looks like raising heirloom varieties of crops that we love and focusing on the health of our soil to increase the nutritional value of the crops that we choose the hybrid varieties of.
