Tag: Squash

Pollinating Tips – Squash, Watermelon – All-America Selections Veggie Trials Tour – Part 2

Source: Garden&HomeDIY
August 17, 2016

Pollinating squash and seedless watermelon can be tricky for home gardeners. With a few easy pollinating tips from the experts on the All-America Selections Veggie Trials Tour, you’ll have a bumper crop in no time!

Squash & Zucchini (Pests/Pollination) Grow It, Cook It, Eat It – A Garden & Cooking Series E- 3

Source: TheRustedGarden
Gary Pilarchik
August 17, 2016

Coley and I are excited to present our 3rd episode of Grow It, Cook It, Eat It. You can find the recipe and other garden links below.

This episode is all about Squash and Zucchini. Coley presents 5 tips on cooking and storing the vegetables which includes Zoodles. I focus on pollination and why fruit browns. I also talk at length about identifying and controlling squash bugs, beetles and vine borers. I grow my S & Z up cages and supports for easy spraying. And most importantly, don’t forget to eat what you grow and cook, with your family and friends!

Best Source For Desert Adapted Vegetables Seeds

Source: GrowingYourGreens.com
July 19, 2016

John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com/ goes on a field trip to Tucson, Arizona to share with you the Native Seed/SEARCH Store.

The Native Seed/SEARCH organization is a non-profit dedicated to protecting and preserving arid climate crops to nourish the changing world.

John will give you a personal tour of the store in Tucson, Arizona.

You will learn about some of the proven desert adapted vegetable seeds they offer as well as some of their special seeds from their Seed bank that contains over hundreds of varieties of Heirloom Adapted Crops of Southwest North America. John will share some of his favorite varieties of corn, tomato, leafy greens, cucumbers, peppers, squash and even more vegetables.

Next, John will share with you a part of the store that offers gardening supplies such as some books he likes and Olla Bottles and Olla Bottles that allow you to conserve water in your vegetable garden.

You will discover the importance of diversity in the garden and in life and how it is one of the fundamental keys to success in desert vegetable gardening.

You will discover the in-store SEED BANK where you can check out local Tucson Adapted seeds at no-cost so you can get your garden growing. Of course at the end of the season, you can return the newly grown seeds that you produced.

Next, you will discover about some of the local foods of the Southwest and foods that you should be including in your diet. Many of which are more traditional foods before modern foods came into existence. John will also share some valuable tips with you on how you can save lots of money on certain varieties of desert adapted seeds that you can grow in your garden. You will learn about mesquite flour, heirloom corn, heirloom beans, cactus fruit, hot peppers and much, much more.

Finally, John will share with you the one seed rack that EVERY seed store should have and why. You will also learn which desert adapted vegetable seeds John will be purchasing and growing himself in his desert garden.

After watching this episode, you will have a better understanding of some of the crops that can be grown in the desert, the best place to get the seeds for these crops as well as new foods you can try that have been grown in the desert to expand your nutritional diversity and taste sensations in your diet.

Cucumbers, Squash, Zucchini: Time For A Mid-Season Water Soluble Feeding – My 2016 Routine

Source: TheRustedGarden
Gary Pilarchik
July 11, 2016

It is important to give your squash, cucumbers and zucchini a mid-season water soluble feeding. After they have been growing and producing, they often take up a lot of nutrients. I like to give them a water soluble NPK organic fertilizer or similar with Epsom Salt and calcium nitrate. In 1 gallon of water I put in the recommended does of the NPK fertilizer, 1 tablespoon of Epsom Salt and 1 tablespoon of calcium nitrate. These feeding helps them to continue to stay green and produce.

Archaeologists Dig Up An 800-Year-Old Native American Pot. What They Found Inside Is Changing History

This pot was unearthed on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, where it had laid buried for the past 800 years.
Source: CFWERadio.com
Dustin McGladrey

In 2008, on a dig in the First Nation’s Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, archaeologists made a small but stunning discovery: a tiny clay pot.

Though it might not have seemed very impressive at first glimpse, this little piece of pottery was determined to be about 800 years old.

And inside that pot? Something that changes how we’re looking at extinction, preservation, and food storage, as well as how humans have influenced the planet in their time on it.

It’s amazing to think that a little clay pot buried in the ground 800 years ago would still be relevant today, but it’s true! It’s actually brought an extinct species of squash that was presumed to be lost forever. Thank our Indigenous Ancestors! Even they knew what preservation meant. They knew the importance of the future, Is it not amazing that they are affecting our walks of life even to this day?

Continue Reading At: CFWERadio.com

Magnesium — A Key Nutrient for Health and Disease Prevention

S0urce:Mercola.com
Dr. Mercola
December 28, 2015

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body. More than 3,750 magnesium-binding sites have been detected on human proteins,1 and it’s required for more than 300 different enzymes in your body.

In short, magnesium plays an important role in a wide variety of biochemical processes, including the following:

Creation of ATP2,3 (adenosine triphospate), the energy molecules of your body Action of your heart muscle Proper formation of bones and teeth
Relaxation of blood vessels Regulation of blood sugar levels Activating muscles and nerves
Helping digest proteins, carbohydrates, and fats Serving as a cofactor for RNA and DNA It’s also a catalyst for neurotransmitters like serotonin

As is the case with vitamin D, if you don’t have enough magnesium, your body simply cannot function optimally, and insufficient cellular magnesium levels set the stage for deterioration of metabolic function that can snowball into more serious health problems.

For starters, magnesium is critical for the optimization of your mitochondria, which have enormous potential to influence your health, especially the prevention of cancer.

In fact, optimizing mitochondrial metabolism may be at the core of effective cancer treatment. But your mitochondrial function is also crucial for overall good health, energy, and athletic performance.

Optimizing Mitochondrial Function with Magnesium

Mitochondria are tiny organelles, originally thought to be derived from bacteria. Most cells have anywhere from 1 to 2,000 of them. Your organs need energy to function properly, and that energy is produced by the mitochondria in each cell.

Since mitochondrial function is at the very heart of everything that occurs in your body, optimizing mitochondrial function (and preventing mitochondrial dysfunction) by making sure you get all the right nutrients and precursors your mitochondria need is extremely important for health and disease prevention.

As explained by Rhonda Patrick, Ph.D., in the video above, magnesium plays an important role. Patrick has done extensive research on the link between mitochondrial metabolism, apoptosis and cancer, and on the effects of hyperthermic conditioning on muscle growth.

High-intensity interval training helps optimize athletic performance by increasing your oxidative capacity, meaning the ability of your muscle cells to consume oxygen. Your oxidative capacity relies on your mitochondria’s ability to produce ATP by consuming that oxygen inside the cell.

As noted by Patrick, “You want your ATP production to exceed your ATP consumption, in order to enhance or maximize your performance and avoid muscle fatigue.”

You can increase your oxidative capacity in two ways:

  • Increasing the total number of mitochondria in your cells by engaging in high intensity interval exercises. However, in order for new mitochondria to be created, you must have sufficient amounts of magnesium.
  • Increasing the efficiency of your mitochondria to repair damage and produce ATP. This process also requires magnesium as a co-factor.

Common Causes for Magnesium Deficiency

A century ago, we were getting an estimated 500 milligrams (mg) of magnesium from the food we ate, courtesy of the nutrient-rich soil in which it was grown. Today, estimates suggest we’re only getting 150 to 300 mg a day from our food supply.

As noted by Patrick, eating a diet rich in calories and poor in micronutrients (read processed foods) is a primary risk factor for magnesium deficiency, for the simple reason that magnesium resides at the center of the chlorophyll molecule.

Chlorophyll, as you may know, is what gives plants their green color. Most Americans eat far too few fruits and vegetables, which may explain why more than half of the American public is deficient in magnesium.

In addition to not getting sufficient amounts from your diet, magnesium is also lost through stress, lack of sleep, alcohol consumption, and prescription drug use (especially diuretics, statins, fluoride and fluoride-containing drugs such as fluoroquinolone antibiotics).

Magnesium levels can also decline in the presence of certain hormones, such as estrogen. If you have elevated insulin levels — which an estimated 80 percent of Americans do — you’re quite likely to have low magnesium levels.4

Increasing your magnesium intake may actually go a long way toward improving your condition, or warding off insulin resistance and diabetes in the first place. In one study,5 prediabetics with the highest magnesium intake reduced their risk for blood sugar and metabolic problems by 71 percent.

A second study6 also found that higher magnesium intake reduces the risk of impaired glucose and insulin metabolism and slows progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes.

According to the authors, “Magnesium intake may be particularly beneficial in offsetting your risk of developing diabetes, if you are high risk.” The mechanism by which magnesium controls glucose and insulin homeostasis appears to involve two genes responsible for magnesium homeostasis.7

Magnesium is also required to activate tyrosine kinase, an enzyme that functions as an “on” or “off” switch in many cellular functions and is required for the proper function of your insulin receptors. Last but not least, digestive problems such as Crohn’s disease and leaky gut impair your body’s ability to absorb magnesium, which is yet another cause of inadequate magnesium levels.

As noted by Dr. Dean, it’s quite possible that magnesium insufficiency is part of why health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure are so prevalent these days. It may also play a role in fibromyalgia,8 magnesium deficiency is a well-recognized factor in migraines.9

Continue Reading At: Mercola.com