Dear Killer, It’s Not Your Fault

Within hours of the Boston Marathon bombings, comedian-actor Patton Oswalt wrote a Facebook post that went viral, and then was picked up by the national media. He wrote (in part):

"This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.”

This is dangerously wrong. And Oswalt is hardly alone in this stupid thinking.

Every time there is another mass murder in this country, there is a flood of posts on Facebook and Twitter saying that the killer “must be mentally ill” or “would have to be mentally ill” to do such a thing.

Wrong.

Mental illness and murder are not the same thing. To say that the person or people who murdered two adults, and a child, and blew the limbs off of dozens of people yesterday had “snarled wiring” is wrong. Someone made a choice to kill. Calculated choice is not mental illness. It is evil. Evil is rampant in the world, and peace has been removed from the world. Yet lots of smart people that I know personally seem content to stare evil in the face and give it no blame. Down Syndrome, for example, is not a choice. Planting a bomb to slick the streets with innocent blood is a choice. A choice motivated by evil, not illness.

As long as we keep saying to ourselves, our children, and the evil culprits that they are mentally ill, we are encouraging evil. We are saying “The only people in the world who would commit such a heinous act are mentally sick.”

But people who are mentally sick are not accountable for their actions. People who are mentally sick don’t have a choice in their actions. People who are mentally sick don’t have the capacity for evil, for premeditation, for planning.

So why are we giving evil a pass?

Because we are afraid of being seen as religious.

Here are the facts. All accountable men and women must choose between good and evil every day. EVIL is inspired by a real and living Lucifer. He inspires and loves darkness. All GOOD things in the world -- all -- come from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The only light. All of the light. When a person walks in darkness, that is a choice. When a person performs dark acts, that is a choice. When a person walks in light, that is a choice. Premeditated murder and terrorism, mass shootings, and violence that robs nations, communities, and families of peace should not be labeled “snarled wiring”. The wiring was good. The choices were bad.

The goal of Lucifer is to take away the agency of men and women. We give our will -- our liberty to make choices -- away  one day, one choice at at time, choosing a little darkness, then a little more, choosing to leave the light behind, choosing to love the dark. Jesus Christ is all about agency. He teaches us how to secure our personal will and agency through obedience to the laws that will protect our liberty. If you choose to follow Christ, your agency grows and is protected. If you choose to follow Lucifer -- who will teach you to love creating suffering for others -- your agency is diminished by your own choosing until you are enclosed in a prison of natural consequences from which  there is no easy escape. The love of drugs, violence, lying, and pornography are examples.

We have an obligation and duty to teach these truths to our children. We must talk to our children about choice and consequence. And we should also, as adults, talk to one another about choice and consequence. We must start naming evil when we see it, and not making excuses for people who have clearly and obviously been on a journey of evil.

-Caleb

Tour of Caleb's Geothermal Greenhouse in March

This is a winter green called Corn Salad Dutch in flower -- the second flowers of the year, after the peas :) Flowers are always nice -- they remind us that spring is coming.

Peas! Real peas! This picture was taken on March 21.

These are rare yellow strawberries, coming up from seed.

Some very rare lettuces, with Chinese cabbage in the upper left, and cold-tolerant tomato sprouts in the front middle (if you can see them).

Potatoes and cucumbers. Both are very rare varieties. The cucumber sprouts are on the right front.

These are peas, orach, onions, leeks, Chinese cabbage, rutabaga and if you look carefully you can see a zucchini plant :)

More lettuces. I've been doing a big trial of winter lettuces all winter.

More peas -- so tasty in March! These are winter variety peas. 

I'm sprouting a lot of things right now, some of which I will sell later and some is for my own garden.. In the right front you can see Danish Ballhead cabbage sprouts.

Thyme has sprouted!

These are echinacea (Purple coneflower)

Beets, and several kinds of beans.

Some very rare Asian greens -- extremely winter hardy! I hope one day soon to have a limited supply of these and other rare seeds for sale at SeedRenaissance.com -- which is where I sell all of my rare and guaranteed pure, never hybrid, never GMO seeds. You can also click on that link to get a deal on my books! -Caleb

I Signed Contracts for Six New Books Today

I am thrilled to announce that, after five months of negotiations, this morning I signed contracts to write six more books, to be published between 2014 and 2017. They are:

- More Forgotten Skills 

- Gourmet Chocolate Cookbook with Julie Peterson

- Forgotten Skills of Backyard Herbal Healing & Family Health with Kirsten Skirvin 

- Self-Sufficient Cookbook 

- Seed-Saving

- Gardening Basics 

Thank you, my readers, for making this possible. My only goal has been, and is, to be useful to you.

Caleb's Backyard Garden in March

This photo shows multiplier onions on the left that have been inside a cold frame all winter, versus the same variety of onion on the right that has been outside without any protection all winter. I'm testing to see which method produces the best onions. So far, the cold frame is the clear winner!

This is a single raised bed that has been divided in 30 individual plots, where I am trialing 30 different heirloom vegetables for cold soil tolerance. The 30 planted here -- peas, greens, lettuce, beans, edimame, and more -- were the winners of the overwinter trails in the unheated geothermal greenhouse.

This is a winter bean that I transplanted outside about a week ago. It's had absolutely no protection, including for the snow last night, and it's doing well. Success!

This is the same winter bean, planted in the ground in March as seed, now sprouting despite the temperature. 

This is winter wheat that has been outside all winter without protection -- growing quietly under the snow.

This is Winter Green Jewel Romaine lettuce that has been outside all winter with no protection, no cloche, no cold frame, nothing -- we've been eating it, it's kept growing back, even under the snow! I'm proud to say this lettuce was developed over many years on my property.

Baby Swiss chard that has been outside all winter without protection. We've been eating it as fast as it grows.

Collard Greens! They are so happy that the weather has warmed up. They had been in a cold frame, but I removed the frame in the first week of March. They are growing apace!

This is lettuce that has come up from seed in cold frames this month.

These are sugar beets that have been outside without protection all winter, getting ready to go to seed this spring.

This is an extremely rare turnip. I'm the only one growing it in the U.S.!

Thanks for touring my backyard garden in March. Our goal is to be as self-sufficient and healthy as possible 365 days a year. If you are interested in seeds for winter and early spring gardening, visit SeedRenaissance.com. :)

1 in 50 children now diagnosed with autism

A brand-new report shows that 1 in 50 children in the U.S. have now been diagnosed with autism, up from 1 in 86 kids in 2008.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has issued a new report, with data gathered by interviewing a random national sample of about 96,000 parents over landlines and cell phones. This survey happens every four years. Here is what they found:

• Boys are diagnosed with autism four times more than girls.
• The majority of diagnoses since 2008 have been for less severe forms of autism.
• 2 percent of children ages 6-17 years have autism, according to their parents. This is a huge jump from 2007, when the rate was 1.2 percent.
• The greatest jump in autism rates was for boys and adolescents 14 to 17 years.
• Children who were first diagnosed in or after 2008 were more likely to have milder Autism Spectrum Disorder than those diagnosed in or before 2007.
• Much of the increase was the result of diagnoses of children with previously unrecognized ASD.

Parents who participated were asked “if they had ever been told by a doctor or other health care provider that their child had ‘autism, Asperger’s disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, or other autism spectrum disorder.’

You can read the detailed report here:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr065.pdf

Backyard Herbal Healing & Family Health Class

Hello all! I think this class is going to sell out quite fast! See you there! -Caleb

Backyard Herbal Healing & Family Health Class

Saturday, April 13 2013 in Alpine, Utah

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch will be served by Kirsten.

$89 per person in advance, $139 after noon on April 12

Taught by Kirsten Skirvin, Certified Master Herbalist with 20+ years experience! She is the real deal!

Click here to register:

This is a hands-on class! Students will make and leave with herbal preparations including tinctures and salves. We will also take an herb walk. Students will learn how to make tinctures, glycerin preparations, oil preparations, salves, and poultices; how herbs work, how to macerate and foment herbs, how to react in an emergency, wildcrafting herbs, and discussions on how to deal with infections, fungus, pain, stings, allergic reactions, burns, flesh and bone wounds, flu, coughs, colds, ear infections, bloody nose, heart attack, cramps, pregnancy, mastitis, power foods, herb preservation, herbs as preventative medicine, chronic cases, herbs for beauty, & much, much more! Kirsten and her family are moving out of state in May, so this class is a rare opportunity. Space is absolutely limited to 12 students. Sorry, because space is so limited there is no discounts for spouses Reserve your space early!

In addition, students will learn how to use:

Alfalfa

Apricot seeds

Black cherry

Black walnut

Burdock

Cabbage

Cayenne

Cloves

Comfrey

Dandelion

Echinacea

Feverfew

Garlic

Ginger

Hemp

Honey

Horehound

Licorice plant

Lobelia

Marshmallow plant

Mullen

Nettle

Oak bark

Onion

Peppermint

Plantain Plant (Local plant, not S. Amer. banana)

Raspberry

Rosewater

Skullcap

Slippery elm

Valerian

Willow

Wormwood

Yarrow

New Law: Fake Sugar (Aspartame) in Yogurt & Milk

This is a grievous day.

The U.S. National Milk Producers Association and the International Dairy Foods Association have a petition in the final stages at the FDA which, if approved, would make it legal to sell milk, yogurt, cream, sour cream, and many more dairy items with "non-nutritive sweetener" in them without labeling those products to show that these fake, laboratory-created sugars have been added.

Right now, U.S. laws says that fake sugars can be added to all these dairy items without adding the fake sugar to the ingredients list ONLY if the products are labels as "reduced calorie" -- so at least there is some indication that the product has been messed with. The petition now before the FDA is specifically to remove the labeling requirement, so U.S. dairy consumers would never again know whether aspartame or other fake, chemical, laboratory-created sugar substitutes have been added to the product.

Put simply, it would be completely legal to add fake chemical sweeteners and never have to label that information again on nearly 20 kinds of dairy products.

This is disgusting. You can protest at the link below. I have to admit that I'm not sure that protesting is going to do much good -- this will just be added to the long list of other legally secret ingredients in our food. Nevertheless, I think we should all protest this so at least we tried to stop it. Here is the link where you can submit your protest comment straight to the federal government: (Public comment ends May 21).

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/20/2013-03835/flavored-milk-petition-to-amend-the-standard-of-identity-for-milk-and-17-additional-dairy-products

Fresh Winter Gardening Class with Caleb Mar. 9

A half-dozen of you have emailed me asking me to teach this again. So here you are:

Fresh Winter Gardening Class with Caleb Warnock
Saturday, Mar. 9, 2013 10-2
$89 in advance, $139 after noon friday
Class will be in Alpine, Utah
Click here to register

You will take home at least $60 WORTH OF SEEDS! I will also serve a fresh winter garden salad sampler for lunch. 

10 a.m.: Jump-Start: Vegetables to Plant Now -- Exactly what you can plant now, including directions for carrots, beans, lettuce, herbs, onions, peas, beets, greens, cantaloupe, and much more! How to plant, where to plant. You will take seed and live plants home.

11:30 a.m. Winter Garden Solutions -- A few of the tricks for successful winter gardening that I have learned the hard way.

Noon: Fresh Garden Taste Test -- Lunch salad served fresh from Caleb’s Winter garden!

12:30 Perennial Vegetable Gardening -- Vegetables and herbs for Utah that live year after year, including some of the rarest in the world.

1 p.m. Questions and Answers

1:30 Backyard Winter Garden & Geothermal Greenhouse Tour

How to Throw Away Our Sons

Two days ago I was at a city council meeting in a nearby town when a young mother stood up to speak during the public comment period. She had young children in this town’s tutorial program at the library. She cried, saying she had six kids and the oldest, 11, had been diagnosed as ADHD, the next as ADD, and the third was “being diagnosed now by the school district.”

I hear alarm bells as soon as anyone uses the term ADHD or ADD to describe their elementary-age son.

This mother went on to say that, understandably, she is overwhelmed with six kids under age 11 and she is not able to find time to do homework with her kids. They were all struggling to read. Someone at the school finally pointed her to the free tutoring program at the library, which had made a huge difference, thankfully.

It was clear from the mother’s words that not only the school but she herself viewed her children through the lens of the diagnosis of ADHD and ADD. I am not judging her, but I think it is fair to say that she seemed to have found some relief in having a “diagnosis” for her kids.  If you are struggling with wild kids, I can see how a diagnosis could be a relief.

The whole conversation made my skin crawl. Maybe there is such a thing as ADD or ADHD. But I can tell you with absolute certainty that if I went into her house this morning, I would find sugar cereal and other sugary food being served for breakfast. I would find soda pop. I would find few fresh vegetables. I would find a lot of packaged food.

And I would find a father and sons who play video games.

Children who eat sugar for breakfast behave like children who eat sugar for breakfast.

This is an irrefutable law of natural consequences.  Children who are fed nonsense fake food all day behave badly. If a parent has a child who has time to play video games but is struggling to learn to read, who is at fault?

Perhaps there is such a thing as ADHD -- but if your child is fed refined sugar, you’ll never know. The only way to know if your child needs a “diagnosis” is to first remove the artificial, profit-driven stimulation from your home and THEN SEE HOW THEY BEHAVE.

I promise you this mother has not done this. I promise you there is sugary food for breakfast, and soda in the house. Why is there soda in the house? Because mom or dad or both drink it. Why is there possibly more time spent watching movies and playing online games than doing homework? Because homeworks is not fun.

I wonder if we are throwing away our boys. I have noticed that ADHD and ADD diagnoses are more often given to boys. Boys should by nature be kinetic.  I wonder if we are finding false relief in “diagnoses” before we are doing our best to provide the best home, nurturing, nutrition, and education for our kids. Once you tell a child they have a “diagnosis”, that child begins to make decisions differently. Our kids will pay for this the rest of their lives.

Garden-Fresh Salad on Feb. 19 2013

It’s noon. The temperature outside in my garden is about 40 degrees. Last night’s low was about 15 degrees. Yet I just picked this fresh salad for lunch. I woke up craving salad and natural yeast bread sticks, so I made no-knead bread sticks with yeast I set out to grow last night -- no other ingredients, just 12-hour yeast. For the last five minutes in the oven, I topped them with cheese, and then had my salad with them, and a baked potato left over from a couple nights ago (and rewarmed while the bread sticks cooked. My wife had a T-bone steak from our own cow with her salad. We are feeling very self-sufficient today :)

Here is what was in the salad:

- Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Caleb’s Deep Winter lettuce, and Winter Green Jewel Romaine, all grown in the garden all winter with no protection except a deep covering of snow. No cold frame or hot bed.
- Parsley, baby carrots, and America Spinach from cold frames in the backyard garden. The parsley is perennial (with protection). The carrots and spinach were both planted in the fall.
- Arctic King lettuce, Chinese cabbage, mizuna, red orach and pea shoots from the unheated geothermal greenhouse.

If you’d like to get started now growing your own fresh cold-season garden, you can get seeds from me by clicking here. Happy self-sufficient, super-healthy, and delicious eating!