Gardening News You Need To Know To Survive 2013

I didn’t make this up! Plucked from world news headlines. ‘Really’

Scientists believe asparagus could be ward off the effects of a hangover. Scientists have found chemicals in the vegetable also protect liver cells against toxins.
Experiments on human cells found the minerals and amino acids in asparagus can replacing those lost through drinking which can often lead to a headache. They also relieve stress on the liver.
Scientists at the Jeju National University in South Korea recommend serving the leaves as well as the tender shoots.
Researcher B Y Kim, said: “These results provide evidence of how the biological functions of asparagus can help alleviate alcohol hangover and protect liver cells.”
The study was published in the Journal of Food Science.

Elephant dung coffee: In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is excreting some of the world’s most expensive coffee. Trumpeted as earthy in flavor and smooth on the palate, the exotic new brew is made from beans eaten by Thai elephants and plucked a day later from their dung. A gut reaction inside the elephant creates what its founder calls the coffee’s unique taste.

Brussels sprouts should come with a health warning‘, say doctors after man admitted to hospital. Leafy green vegetables contain vitamin K, a chemical the body uses to promote blood clotting, and it counteracts the effects of anticoagulants (blood thinning medication).
Consultant cardiologist Dr Roy Gardner said: ”Patients who are taking anticoagulants are generally advised not to eat too many green leafy vegetables, as they are full of vitamin K, which antagonise the action of this vital medication.”

Stainless steel and plastics are out. Copper and Brass are in. Researchers have discovered that copper and alloys made from the metal, including brass, can prevent antibiotic resistance in bacteria from spreading. Plastic and stainless steel surfaces, which are now widely used in hospitals and public settings, allow bacteria to survive and spread when people touch them.

Even if the bacteria die, DNA that gives them resistance to antibiotics can survive and be passed on to other bacteria on these surfaces.
Copper and brass, however, can kill the bacteria and also destroy this DNA.
On stainless steel surfaces these bacteria can survive for weeks, but on copper surfaces they die within minutes. Part of the process DNA from bacteria is also destroyed just as rapidly on the copper, so you cannot get gene transfer on the surface.

Red wine is for the birds. Chicken, Pheasant, Turkey meals call for a young fruity red wine. Think French syrah (aka shiraz), grenache or mourvèdre. Australian shiraz-cabernet blends or you may prefer Chilean merlots. If you want the wine to be a talking point go for the more unusual Californian red zinfandel. A proper red ‘zinfandel’ has a delectably ripe but succulent raspberry and cassis note with a sprinkle of black pepper.

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Growing Your Own Food 101 – Asparagus, Bacon Lettuce And Tomato Sandwich, BBQ And Hamburgers

Asparagus – Bacon – BBQ – Hamburgers They all have one thing in common, Dung and a lot of it! Some consume dung while others produce dung. Composting on the cheap, a crash course

A new or existing asparagus garden requires lots of well composted dung added to the soil to produce a bumper crop of everyone’s favorite vegetable, Asparagus. Asparagus Plant Once For Years Of Fine Dining Without amending your asparagus garden soil with a lot of well composted dung, your asparagus garden will never produce a really healthy, bumper crop of those tender sweet tasting little ‘asparagus’ spears. From planting to first harvest will take three (3) years of (TLC) Tender Loving Care and feeding your asparagus garden a lot of dung in the process.

Timing is everything. From birth to market day. A longhorn calf will take three (3) years or more of TLC, all the while converting a lot of pasture grass, hay, corn, calf creep feed and range cubes for added protein to dung before it get’s to that magic weight of 1,200 or so pounds. Grin .. It takes a lot of time, feed and effort to grow a BBQ steak or hamburger, pork sausage (hotdog) or chicken for your BBQ grill. A pig takes 6 to 8 months from birth to achieve 280 to 300 pounds which is the common market weight for a pig. Even those cute little hot wings or eggs for your breakfast table will take 6 or 7 months from hatching to market or egg production. Growing poultry, pork or beef to fill your freezer is not ‘Fast Food’.

When calculating the weight of your feeder cow or pig, a good rule of thumb is a calf or pig will, if provide a proper daily ration of quality feed, will gain on average 1 1/4 to if your lucky, 1 1/2 pounds of weight gain daily. Hence a 6 month old calf or pig can be expected to weigh 225 – 250 pounds plus it’s weight at birth.
Pigs are commonly processed for table meat at 280 to 300 pounds of weight and beef feeder cows normally weigh about 1,200 pounds when they are processed for your freezer and table meat.
Chickens will start laying eggs at 24 to 26 weeks of age and in general will lay 1 egg every 27 or so hours for about 2 years. After that egg production will quickly taper off. That’s when you should start processing poor or non layers for your table and freezer.

Don’t go postal and scream at the butcher that is processing your feeder cow/pig for your freezer when he tells you your big fat 1,200 pound cow has a hanging weight of less than 800 pounds. Or that your 300 pound feeder pigs hanging weight is 180 pounds.

Where Did That 400 Pounds Of Cow Go? You can expect to loose very close to 40 percent of the live weight in fat and the bits and pieces normally not returned to the owner. Things like head, tail, hide, feet, tongue and other internal organs that most Americans don’t want to eat.

Prepare a list of all the parts you want back and give this list to your butcher. Parts like tongue and cow tail, commonly called ox tail is good used in soups, stews and chili. Kidneys and cow tongue are great to use in making meat and vegetable pies (beef or pork pot pies). Do a search for meat pie recipes, there are many ways to use these cow and pig parts. At the very least you can cut them into large bite size bits, boil them until tender and feed them and the water you cooked the cow/pig parts in to your dog, cat, pig or chickens. If you don’t eat liver, feed that to your pets, pig and chickens as well.

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