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It's time to turn away from pesticides

It's supposed to be a work day for me but instead I am on my couch crying.
 
I'm crying for my father, who had Parkinson's, a degenerative disease that took his memories, his mobility, his vitality and his joy, until he was just a shadow and ready to pass on.
 
I'm crying for my friend whose partner has Parkinson's, and their young daughter who will never experience the full greatness of her father.
 
I'm crying for a family member with cancer, a friend whose mother has Alzheimers, and another whose child had cancer.
 
I'm crying for everyone who suffers from auto-immune diseases, allergies, autism, and ADHD.
 
I'm crying because we are creating all of these chronic diseases by isolating ourselves from nature.
 
We have created toxic lives in toxin-filled homes eating toxic food.
 
It is time for us to turn away from pesticides.
 
This is an 80-year experiment that has failed miserably.
 
In trying to kill weeds and insects we are actually killing ourselves and our planet.
 
We have lost over half of the life on the planet, including up to 90% of the insects in some areas.
 
Gyphosate, the number one pesticide on the planet, is present in 80% of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and every morsel of non-organic bread we eat.
Childhood degenerative diseases are skyrocketing and the largest economic driver in the USA is chronic disease management.
 
This is not ok with me.
 
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8 Early Greens You Will Never Have to Plant Again

After a long, cold winter of eating from the cold storage and the freezer, nothing tastes better than a fresh salad.  Greens are my tonic, giving me energy and vitality.  I eat salads lunch and dinner and throw greens into quesadillas, soups, eggs, and more.

I always plant an early crop of hearty greens. The beauty is that these greens can withstand freezing so you do not need to wait until the danger of frost has passed.  This year due to the early thaw I planted some greens on the south side of the house in February. The ground was still frozen underneath, but the hearty greens and the lettuce still came up. 

But the older I get, the more I appreciate food that I don’t have to sow.  I have several varieties of perennial greens as well as some self-seeding annuals. These are brilliant because they come up whenever they are ready. You don’t have to stress about planting them at the right time, or at all. They just take care of themselves. You probably already have some of these in your garden, and right now is the perfect time to plant the ones you don’t have.

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  • Orach. Red, purple or green, orach is a relative of spinach and self-seeds readily in the garden. It has a very mild flavor and can be eaten fresh or cooked. The purple variety looks awesome in salads, and the green variety can be used as a straight-up substitute for spinach. 
  • Lamb’s-quarter. Another relative of spinach, you...
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Is Gardening a Privilege?

I hear it all the time... "but not everyone can garden!"

As if gardening is a leisure activity that only the wealthy people can afford. 

The reality is that millions of people all over the world garden out of necessity. 

Gardens and small family farms still feed over half of the population of the world. 

Not so long ago, this was the only way to feed all but the very elite. 

I, myself, rely on gardening to feed my kids healthy food. Just a few years ago when I was in the throes of a divorce and rebuilding my business, I took comfort in knowing that at least we wouldn't starve. 

In fact, in many ways it was the gardening that got me through. When I was filled with anxiety about the future, or grief for my loss, the only thing that would bring me back was some weeding. A trip to the raspberry patch gave me strength to keep on. 

Which is why I believe that gardening should be a right. We should all have access to a piece of land to grow something on. 

Everywhere I have traveled outside of the US, I have seen people growing food in gardens.

In Cuba I saw vegetable gardens everywhere. Over 90% of fruits and vegetables consumed come from food gardens on just 3.4% of urban land. Havana alone has over 25,000 allotments, which produce food year-round using no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. 

During my studies in Russia I passed miles and miles of dachas riding the trains out of St. Petersburg. Russians grow over 50% of...

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