Sea Veggies

Having successfully avoided "Chemistry" in high school and college, I didn't know much about the earth's 90+ elements (aka "the periodic table") until a few years ago. I got to know the founder of a company called Ocean Grown in Fort Myers, Florida. Don Jansen assumed the mantle of the founder of the modern-day movement to harvest ocean water to apply to plants as a source of minerals—the late Dr. Maynard Murray. The ocean contains a natural balance of the 90+ minerals found in nature, always in perfect proportion. (I wrote about this in more detail, with a chart of the elements, here.) I continue to use concentrated ocean water (1:100 with plain water) to water the wheatgrass I grow.

Another way to absorb the complete spectrum (theoretically) of major and trace minerals found in ocean water is to eat plants grown in the ocean: kelp, kombu, dulse, arame, laver, wakame, and others, along with dried algae. "Sea salt" theoretically accomplishes the same purpose, but these are "hard rock" minerals, not having gone through the transforming process of being absorbed by a plant and therefore made more absorbable by the body. Asian cultures have eaten sea vegetables "forever," but not so much in our American (European-derived) culture.

I'm starting by using dulse flakes:

This package contains finely-chopped dulse flakes which I put into an empty Frontier spice bottle (one with extra large shaker holes) to be able to shake onto salads and pasta. I also added a couple tablespoons to hummus I made last night, and it can also be added liberally to soups and stews. The flakes quickly absorb ambient moisture and become soft and "disappear" into whatever they're added to. Because sea water is naturally "salty," sea veggie flakes can serve as a mineral-rich salt substitute.

Of course, anything coming out of the ocean these days is suspect in terms of cleanliness, but better companies supposedly harvest their veggies from relatively clean parts of the ocean. The dulse flakes above are certified organic, which means that the product has passed a measure of analysis in terms of where it was harvested.

Squash Bug Life Cycle

Having just taken some pictures of squash bug nymphs (babies), here's the whole life cycle:

The adult female lays eggs on a squash family plant leaf surface:

The eggs are bronze colored and are usually found on the underside of leaves in clutches like these:

When the eggs hatch, the nymph stage of the squash bug looks like this:

The nymphs grow into the adult squash bug which does damage by sucking juices (i.e., sap, or the lifeblood of the plant) from plant leaves and stems:

The best defense against squash bugs in a small, home garden is removing egg clutches from leaves before they hatch and hand-picking the adults. There are organic-approved contact sprays for serious infestations in commercial settings. Most market organic growers try to use resistant varieties, early planting, inter-cropping, and vigorous nutrition to withstand the effects of the bugs.

In Praise of Classical Education

A great piece by The New York Times columnist Stanley Fish in praise of a return to classical education. A look at the curriculum of his own high school—Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island—gives a clue as to what a classical education is:

When I attended, offerings and requirements included four years of Latin, three years of French, two years of German, physics, chemistry, biology, algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, English, history, civics, in addition to extra-curricular activities, and clubs — French Club, Latin Club, German Club, Science Club, among many others.