Within the past few days I've noticed an uptick in the number of articles about local foods. Yesterday it was how a local hospital was sponsoring a community-wide farmers market every week right at the hospital. Their focus on good nutrition is spreading out to include providing healthy foods along with instrutions on how to prepare tasty dishes. Then today the newspapers main editorial was on the importance of local foods. What with record gardening this year, even a garden at the White House, there is a sudden resurgence of interest in food quality over cheapness.

There's something quite amazing with my lawn this year, it looks incredible. What did I do different? I applied alfalfa pellets from the farm supply store, instead of chemical fertilizer. I remember my dad the farmer telling me of the benefits of green manure, the alfalfa and clover that he would grow on land scheduled for corn which got plowed under before the corn seed was planted. I don't understand all of the stories about microbial action and trace nutrients, but I do know what I see and that is a definite improvement in the lawn. Come fall, I'm planning on using corn gluten meal -- the fellow at the farm feed store is a bit aghast that I would use animal feed on my lawn but I really prefer the non-polluting nature of corn over all of the chemicals that normally get used.

Stevia propogation

The stevia herb has fascinated me this year and I found a wonderful plant at the farmers market. My pops was diabetic and I've always studied alternatives to sugar. It appears this simple herb stevia could be the answer to a lot of the worlds obesity and health issues related to sugar consumption. I would be so happy to eliminate the high fructose corn syrup that is in most everything I buy, from ketchup to salad dressing. From my young stevia plant, I clipped a few three-inch long shoots. Using a razor blade, I cut a slit in the stem near the lowest leaf node pair about an inch long. Then I pulled out my PotterFactory newspaper pot making tool, it came in really handy. In a minute, I had whipped up three newspaper pots filled with seed starter mix. In the center of the soil in the newspaper pot, using a pencil - I poked a hole down thru the soil and just dropped the cutting down into the hole with the top leaves above the soil. Push the soil around the cutting and set the sweet little things in a plastic tray from which you can bottom water. I poured a little water in the tray everyday keeping the pots moist - the newspaper pots bottom-water so nicely. In about a week I noticed some small little roots poking through the bottom of the pots, so today I transplanted then into a large pot with some rich compost. My one stevia bush has now become three bushes and I'm looking forward to drying some of the leaves for use over the winter. I'm starting to use stevia frequently, I really like to crush a couple of leaves into a glass of iced tea, it removes the slight tea bitterness. Although the Food and Drug Administration refuses to label stevia as a sweetener, and as long as corporate sugar growers finance politicians, we will continue to see only sugar and HFCS used as sweeteners but we can avoid using them and now grow our own. If you do not have stevia, go out today and get a plant and get one growing, don't put it off. As the wise old horticulturalist once said, "... there are two good times to plant something you like, one is twenty years ago, and the other is today."