My last several winters in Denver I had outside my south and west living room window ( seen here) a solar array made from scavenged doors hinged together, each covered with shiny mylar plastic I scavenged giant rolls of at a coffee roasting plant. Each array was held up by scavenged metal racks, and it took just a few minutes to 3X daily change their positions to reflect in the most sunlight during those seemingly endless winters. They not only did a LOT to heat my home during those VERY lean times as a landscaper each winter, they let me grow roses and tomatoes indoors, which did wonders for my spirits. HGTV shot a segment there one year, come to think of it!

Lakeland Farmer's Market

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DldXOPdJ4

I'm using this weekend to play catch up on garden chores I could not do those 4 days of rain, yesterday I slipped two big, slightly punctured white plastic waste bucket plastic bags over two LARGE flower plumes of "Giant Green Callalloo" in hopes of gathering the seeds as they form. One was already quite horizontal, the other was VERY tall so I had to stand on the ladder.....once it was in the bag I crimped the main stalk over....it did not break and my instincts tell me that this won't impair the seed plume from ripening. I'll leave the bags on about 3 weeks then check. Vicki Conrad was not kidding...when the flower plumes are ripe they shed the tiny edible black seeds by the MANY THOUSANDS! Thankfully, the seedlings pull up easily and the chickens DEVOUR them. I figure that black garbage bags would cook them, but to play it safe I gave each white bag 4 knife slices to prevent build up of moisture and heat. This is truly a remarkable summer leafy veggie, mild, tender and PRODUCTIVE!

A combination of giving it about 10 gallons of POTENT horse poop tea in August, followed by weeks of rain, has made my seedling of a seedling of a 'Caribbean Red' papaya from the store go for a whole new second wind. It is SO tall that I need to reach WAY up with a long piece of bamboo to knock the green fruits down. (when ripe the fruits of this seedling have little flavor or sweetness, so I use them green plus share with my Thai neighbor Suri). I had to use Zoom to get this pic. So far I've used it to make two batches of kimchi that I feel certain will be awesome come January......I may eat one or two jars before then, but I like my kimchi really rank.

I'm going to try this using whole greenbacks that I catch in Tampa Bay with my bait cast net!

http://butterbeliever.com/25-days-of-nourishing-traditions-fermented-fish-sauce/

I am so sorry to learn that Roosevelt 2.0 has closed......everyone there tried SO very hard to create a community space that oozed positivism and possibility. I just hope that their personal finances were not ravaged by their remarkable passion and commitment to that wonderful venture. Their Twilight Market for local farmers, bee keepers and more was wonderful. The place and the good folks there will be missed.

Thoughtful article about GMOs....."Golden Rice" DOES sound like it could do wonders to reduce blindness around the world....hmmmm.

http://www.exposingthetruth.co/truth-about-gmos/#axzz2fl8VSxfv