Today was Harvest Day at Our House (Nov. 12 2014)

Parsnips

A boxful of carrots, parsnips, beets and a random potato :)

 Ada helping me pack the carrots

First we filled a couple boxes with loose, cheap sawdust.

Then we "planted" the carrots in it, and watered until damp.

We did this now, on Nov. 12, because the ground is going to start freezing this week, so it was time to either dig the carrots or cover them. Because I am doing a major garden renovation this fall, I needed to move the carrots out of the garden instead of covering them. Theses boxes have now been moved to shelves in the garage, where we can pop down and "shop" as needed all winter :) 

Also in our garage "store" is a wheel barrel full of pumpkins and squash.

And a huge bag full of onions from the garden. So we should have good eating all winter, until it is time to start harvesting the greenhouse carrots, beets, and onions in springtime, as well as the springtime outdoor perennial onions. You can see all our vegetable varieties at SeedRenaissance.com. Happy winter!

A New GMO Potato

A new genetically modified potato has been approved for use in the U.S. by the USDA. 

Since the first GMO potato failed at market, this time they cleverly use fearmongering, saying it is GMO for public safety reasons, because potatoes are so dangerous. Very clever way to get another GMO approved so that another vegetable can be removed from the public domain. And this:

"Potatoes are the latest genetically engineered crop to get approval in the United States. Others include corn, soybeans, alfalfa, canola, sugar beets, certain types of yellow squash and zucchini."

And this: "The nonbruising characteristic of the Innate potato is similar to that of genetically engineered nonbrowning apples, which have not yet been approved for commercial growing by the Department of Agriculture."

Here is the full NYTimes article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/business/genetically-modified-potato-from-simplot-approved-by-usda.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0