The Color of Food

Years ago two east coast chicken companies waged a battle over whether raw chicken, you buy in the store, should be white or yellow in color.  Dr. Baldwin at the Virginia State University Research Station in Painter, VA conducted research on growing marigolds for the purpose of feeding the flowers to chickens and the chickens would be yellow in color.  It works.  A medical mystery book from years ago had a story about a person who went to the doctor because he was turning orange.  He drove a lot and ate carrots while driving.  The solution was to quit eating so many carrots.  The orange color in carrots and marigolds is mostly carotene.  Green vegetables may contain many of the following colors but chlorophyll usually masks all the other colors. 

Nutritionists always say to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.  The chemicals that give fruits and vegetables their bright colors are some of the most potent antioxidants people can obtain as well as many being studied for anti cancer treatment and important for other vital parts of the body such as the eyes.  Search some of the colorants below and be prepared to be amazed at why they are being studied.

 

Red Fruits & Vegetables

Lycopene is a bright red carotene commonly found in tomatoes.  Anthocyanins are red purple or blue.  They are flavinoids in purple corn, berries, and eggplants.

Orange & Yellow Fruits & Vegetables

Beta-carotene is red or orange, and commonly found in carrots.  Also called terpenoids.  Flavinoids, also called bioflavinoids are the yellow color in citrus, tea, wine & chocolate.  Quecertin and hesperidin are flavinoids.

           

Green Fruits & Vegetables – Green covers up most other colors even when they are present.  

Cholorphyll is green and changes light into glucose in plants.  It is not known to be that active in human health.  Lutein is yellow but found in green plants where chlorophyll covers the yellow.  Zeaxanthin is red to orange and is one of the xanthophylls and important for eyes.  Beta-carotene – See above

Blue & Purple Fruits & Vegetables

Lutein – See above

Zeaxanthin – See Above

Resveratrol is bright red or brown and found in grapes and other fruits.  May extend life and prevent cancer.

Flavonoids - See above

Anthocyanins – See above

White Fruits and Vegetables

EGCG or Epigallocatechin gallate is clear to yellow and is a potent antioxidant

Red Beets – Betalains are a different class causing the red in beets but can also be yellow.  In some plants they replace the anthocyanins.  Betacyanins are red to yellow and Betaxanthins are yellow to orange.  Betanin is a potent red color.  All are antioxidants.   

The red color from beets is often used to color other foods.  They are considered healthful and have/are being studied for cancer control and other healthy benefits.  There is a subtle side effect from betacyanin in beetroot which may cause red urine and poop in some people who are unable to metabolize betanin. This is called beeturia.  If you ever come home from a party and pass red urine the red punch may have been colored with beet juice.  (I apologize for a little coarseness but these are facts.)

The Garden Doc

Gardening myths

The intent of this blog is to pass on important information not quote others but I came across the following thoughts searching for information on a work topic.  The information is too good not to pass on to readers.   Here it is word for word. 

The Garden Doc

By Robert Cox, Horticulture Agent, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension
Many consumers assume that products on the store shelf must have been tested to prove their claims.  Certainly, fertilizers have to meet nutrient content requirements, and pesticides are rigorously tested for safety before EPA registration.
For some other garden products, however, no such testing is required before sale to the public.
A good example is vitamin B1 (thiamine), often sold to "prevent transplant shock" and "stimulate new root growth" when planting trees, shrubs, roses and other plants.  A study in the 1930's provided the basis for such claims.   Pea roots cut off from the plant were placed in a culture medium in the laboratory.
The researchers knew that thiamine was normally found in roots, so they put thiamine in the culture medium and found that root growth did occur.  Vitamin B1 is manufactured in Plant leaves and sent to the roots, but if roots are cut off and placed in a petri plate, vitamin B1 stimulates growth of the roots when it saturates the culture medium.
Planting trees in a soil environment, however, is vastly different from a laboratory culture.  Most important, gardeners aren't in the habit of cutting off the root system when planting. Several studies using intact mums, apple trees, orange trees, pine, tomato, beans, pepper, corn, pear, watermelon and squash have failed to demonstrate that vitamin B1 treatments provide any type of growth response.
Some "root stimulator" products contain a rooting hormone and fertilizer along with vitamin B1.  These materials may increase rooting and growth, not the vitamin B1.
The bottom line: While root stimulator products are not necessary for transplant success, if you do use one, make sure it contains a rooting hormone and fertilizer rather than just vitamin B1. The vitamin B1 is for marketing purposes rather than actual effect.

Sulfur

Sulfur is claimed to "reduce alkalinity."  When applied to our soils, sulfur must be oxidized by soil bacteria to the sulfate form; then sulfate reacting with water forms sulfuric acid.
In our soils, the bacteria responsible for sulfur oxidation are sparse, so the reaction may take many months or years.  If sulfate is formed, it just reacts with the lime (calcium) usually prevalent in our soil to form gypsum (calcium sulfate).   The bottom line:  Don't spend a lot of money on it unless a soil test shows that your soil has low lime levels.

Gypsum

Gypsum is claimed to "break up and loosen clay soils."  Again, in the Front Range area of high calcium (calcareous) soil, this is a local myth.  Gypsum (calcium sulfate) added to clay soils having high sodium replaces the sodium with calcium, a much more desirable soil condition.  The sodium is than leached out of the soil with water.
Locally, however, clay soils already are high in calcium.  High sodium soils are rare along the Front Range.  Adding calcium to a soil that does not need it is a waste of money.  Additional calcium in the form of gypsum, a salt, will only make soils more saline.

Wound Dressings

Wound dressing for pruning cuts have been shown not only to be unnecessary, but many actually inhibit callus growth over the cut.  Tars, emulsions, asphalts and waxes can dry and crack, especially in Colorado's climate.  When water gets behind the crack, disease may be promoted rather than prevented.
The best treatment of a pruning cut is not treatment at all. Many people expect to treat tree wounds just like they would treat cuts in the human body--with a dressing.   the public expects to see tree wound treated in some way, usually with a black "sealer."  As a result, one city tree crew, knowing that dressings are not helpful but also aware of public expectation, applies a thin coat of black spray paint to pruning cuts.

The Myth of Day Watering

Still showing up in some popular garden literature is the notion that "day-watering can burn plants."  The notion says that sunlight is "magnified by the water drop on the leaf to cause a leaf burn.
Anyone who ever burned ants using a magnifying glass and the sun knows that the magnifying glass did not burn the ant if it were placed directly on the ant.  Rather, it had to be held a distance (focal distance) from the ant to concentrate the sun's rays enough to burn the ant.
If this notion were true, all gardeners would cover all their plants prior to every rainstorm.
Farmers would not be able to prevent widespread "leafburn" after rain clouds gave way to sunshine.  The root of this notion may have come from the effects of applying poor-quality water high in dissolved salts.  As water drops evaporated from leaves,the salts left behind could cause a leaf burn.
These are but a few of many claims and examples of conventional wisdom offered to the gardening public.
Ever since gardens were planted, observations and anecdotal claims have been offered to improve garden success.  Some of these may be myths in Colorado but good advice in other areas of the country.  Be cautious of label and advertising claims for garden products and skeptical of what you hear--and read!

The Trees in Your Yard



Did you ever wonder why the trees you have in your yard are there?  When our family moved into our first house we bought, there was a stump about 10 feet from the road and 10 feet from the driveway.  The previous owner had cut it down because it had branches that somewhat limited his view of the road.  I replaced that with a 3 to 4 inch caliper maple I selected from a nearby woods and bare root transplanted in the same location.  Twenty five years later it is a 15 to 20 inch beautiful tree with high branches that set of the corner of the property. 

Ash tree lining a city street

Much of the country from Minnesota to Missouri, and Tennessee to New York are undergoing a tree transformation not of our choosing.  The rest of the country is going to be affected where ever ash trees grow.  The emerald ash borer is chewing its way through America’s ash trees.  Twenty to forty years ago many streets were lined with beautiful elm trees.  Dutch elm disease has caused most of those to be replaced, 

Dead Ash from Emerald Ash Borer

including the beautiful trees lining my mother-in-law’s street in Aberdeen, S Dakota.  Previous to any of our memory the major forest tree in much of the Eastern US was the chestnut tree.  Chestnut trees succumbed to chestnut blight. 

An Emerald Ash Borer and tunnels under the bark

The lesson to learn when putting trees in your yard is to choose a variety of species so when the next tree malady occurs you will not loose all of your trees.  Cities are replacing ash trees with a variety of trees.  No more monoculture of trees lining the streets of the USA.  You should make sure your yard is not a monoculture.  The reasons ash trees replaced elm trees were, they were hardy, grew fast and had gorgeous foliage with beautiful fall color.  Until emerald ash borer, they were considered the perfect tree.

If or when you lose your ash tree consider this advice from Beth Corrigan of the Morten Arboretum near Chicago.  Make an assessment of the sun, soil condition, and space.  “It’s tried and true: put the right plant in the right spot.  Does the space get full sun? Only west sun?  Is it near a downspout?  High and dry on a berm?  This data will help you find a tree that’s happy in your yard.  There will always be another pest or disease coming down the block.  A healthy tree will resist attacks better than one that’s stressed.”  Other thoughts to consider are:  Do you want to shade your house or patio?  Screen an ugly view?  Or do you want a tree to just look pretty?  Will the mature tree fit the space?

For the ash tree you have now, if you don’t want it or it is unhealthy remove it and replace it with a better tree for that location.  If you want to keep your ash tree, get it treated.  You can pay a professional to treat the tree for about $200.  You can treat it your self for $10 to $40 based on size.  The product to choose from are either Merit based products with several Brand names, many from Bayer Advanced or Safari based products from Green Light.  Safari based products are Emerald Ash Borer Killer or Tree & Shrub with Safari.  Most Safari products are granules and Merit based products are liquids.  Both are easy to apply.  You will have to make an application every year.  If your tree is already infested you may salvage the tree if it has lost less than 40% of the foliage.  If it is in bad shape remove it.  Dead ash trees don’t stand for very long.  They have large branches fall and whole trunk will eventually fall possibly causing damage to cars, houses, and possibly people. 

Home yard with multiple tree species

The Garden Doc

Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder, CCD

January 11, 2012

An article came out showing what may be causing millions of bees in hives to quickly disappear from their hive.  A picture of a small fly on a bee may show the cause.  The fly lays its eggs in the bee, the eggs hatch, the larvae grow, the bee gets disoriented, flies out of the hive towards light and dies.  The larvae mature and the cycle continues until the hive is empty.  How could this go undetected for this many years?  Science is a never ending learning process.

This may solve the question causing CCD or cause more confusion as to the cause.  Previous to finding this fly scientists from many major Universities thought it may be a combination of a virus with honey bee mites aggravated by some carry over disease or pesticide damage.  Science has not been able to link any direct cause to CCD.  Bees like all other animals have ectoparasites (insects that live on other insects or animals) and diseases caused by bacteria and viruses. Most of the ectoparasites and diseases are well understood and beekeepers treat hives to control these maladies.  Pesticide science is good at providing instructions to nearly eliminate bees being killed or damaged from insecticides.  The best way to maintain good hive health is to have a good queen and a good strong hive.  The survival of the fittest rule, rules.  There are treatments for most of the diseases and parasites. 

How does this affect you and your garden?  Some of the garden vegetables do not need bees to pollinate.  Most produce originating from a flower needs pollinated.  Some are self pollinated, some are pollinated from other insect species other than the honey bee, but some do produce much better yields if honeybees are in the area.  These crops are apples, blueberries, strawberries, cane berries, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and the melons.  Many crops like onions will produce a good supply of vegetables, the onion bulb, but need pollination to produce seeds which are not eaten.  

I keep a few colonies of bees and through the years have had great success overwintering bees, even in the state of Wisconsin.  Three years ago I may have lost all my hives to CCD.  Beekeeping is a fascinating hobby with extremely sweet rewards.  This past summer my 5 hives produced over 60 lbs each.  The excess honey I can’t use is sufficient to supply The Downtown Grocery which is a store that offers many unique foods including a good supply of organic produce for those that desire that life style.

The Garden Doc

More Fall Work

November 1, 2011

The local weekend paper was similar to my last blog listing several items that should be done in the garden this fall.  I commented on vegetables, and now need to write about ornamentals. The Gannett Media writer Bill Cary wrote that now is the time to control weeds.  He is very correct.  Fall is the best time to kill broadleaf weeds in lawns, gardens anywhere you want them controlled.  The herbicide will be taken down into the roots where it will kill the roots.  Most perennials store sugars in the roots to stay alive during their dormant period over winter.  When they have the herbicide in the roots they are more easily killed as well as winter being a help for weed control.    

 

Fall cleanup is a time to make life easier in the spring.  The plants don’t care whether the dead tops are removed in the spring or fall.  The garden may look neater clean than leaving old dead vegetation through out the winter.  Bill Cary suggests that many of perennial plants should be left because they have seeds that will feed the birds through the winter.  I haven’t specialized in feeding birds, but Bill is correct that leaving vegetation will attract wildlife.  The neighborhood deer make regular stops though the winter at all the spots where vegetation is showing.   

Fall is the best time to plant perennial plants.  November in the northern states may be a little late but in the southern states is a perfect time.  The roots have time to get well established before the hot summer months.  Perennial bulbs should be planted in the fall.  Those are daffodils, tulips, crocuses, and hyacinths.  A year ago in the fall I thinned out some miniature irises that were very crowded.  The harvested irises roots planted in new locations were no longer quite as miniature when they were not crowded. 

 

Tender bulb perennials should be removed before fall freeze-up to replant in spring.  Those would be cannas, dahlias, gladiolas, and begonias.  For 20 years in Ohio I had gladiolas that were able to survive year to year along a retaining wall that faced south.  The sun on the retaining wall protected the soil from freezing.  Year after year they required no more care than to occasionally thin the bulbs that multiplied profusely.   The small new bulbs generally didn’t have enough strength to produce a good gladiola flower stalk. 

One flower, from a bulb, I have never tried, but should is amaryllis.  It appears this should be planted in the spring in northern climates.  Any information you have would be appreciated. This is from the website:  http://www.amaryllis.com/pac.htm

Amaryllis-One of a Kind

Of all flowering bulbs, amaryllis are the easiest to bring to bloom.  This can be accomplished indoors or out, and over an extended period of time.  The amaryllis originated in South America's tropical regions and has the botanical name Hippeastrum.  The large flowers and ease with which they can be brought to bloom make amaryllis popular and in demand worldwide.  The amaryllis comes in many beautiful varieties including various shades of red, white, pink, salmon and orange.  There are also many striped and multicolored varieties, usually combining shades of pink or red with white.

The Garden Doc

Fall Gardening

October 27, 2011

My neighbor for several years grew a garden.  About early September he would harvest everything, and clear the garden spot in preparation for planting the following year.  He lost a lot of good fall vegetables.  Sarah and Brian, my daughter and son-in-law are still getting zucchini squash from the few plants they planted early spring.  This may be a record for zucchini productivity, but it still chugs along, awaiting the final killing frost.  Several plants will continue to grow and produce until a hard frost kills them. 

Every week since mid September my raspberries have produced 1 to 2 cups of nice disease free berries.  Berry harvest measurement is inaccurate due to the handful I eat every day or two when I walk by.  The last handful was yesterday with a few more berries this morning.   This fall has been quite mild with only some light frosts.  There are more berries to ripen but our chances for many more are slim.  Last year we had a hard frost late September that ended all berry production. 

The most productive zucchinis in the world with a Granddaughter

With planning and mid summer planting several crops do very well into the fall.  Simply look at the days to harvest on the seed package, calculate back from the average frost day and plant.  This is usually sometime in late July or August.  Some crops that grow well planted for fall harvests are Swiss chard, mustard greens, peas and lettuce.  Beets do well planted mid to late summer for a new crop through the fall until deep freezes end the season.  My fall harvested beets grew better than spring planted beets.  Short season carrots will grow very well into the fall.  My spring planted carrots continue to grow in the cool fall months.  After a short drought during August, two inches of rain fell in September.  The carrots doubled in size and some split after they rapidly expanded with the excess moisture.  Some carrots reached 4 inches in diameter.  A later planting would have provided normal size carrots in fall.

Cole crops grow well in the fall months and can withstand heavy frosts.  Early planted brussel sprouts keep producing until temperatures get below 20 F.  Cabbage and broccoli planted mid summer can withstand temperatures to 20 F or sometimes down as low as 15 F.  As a new graduate student and citizen of the great city of Columbus, OH, I visited a friends place who had a broccoli plant that had survived the cold weather clear into December.  There was a nice 4 inch head on the plant.

Radishes planted late can be very tasty as well as being a soil structure enhancement.  A few years ago tillage radishes started to be grown after a crop was harvested in agriculture fields.  The radishes are the long icicle types or Japanese types that grow a deep root that will penetrate deep to increase water penetration after the radish is harvested, eaten by cattle, or just dies due to freezing.  If the weather is mild through the winter and they don’t freeze, they can simply be tilled up in the spring.  There is a chemical in radishes that may be very helpful and provide a natural control of nematodes, a microscopic worm that feeds on plant roots.  Crops grown after a planting of tillage radishes usually have a good yield bump. 

The Garden Doc

Apple harvest

October 17,

Go to the farm market or your local orchard and taste all the varieties of fresh apples you can find.  Here are some of my favorites and assessment of varieties.

My sister has raved on about Honey Crisp.  Yes, they are excellent.  They are firm, sweet, tangy, crispy, delicious with a taste that hangs around, and more.  I have two trees, the first got eaten off by deer twice, even when they left other varieties and I planted the second Honey Crisp in a fence.  The deer know what is good.  The other produced apples last year.  The first is now growing inside the fence.  One online cooking guide states they loose their flavor when cooked.  If they lose flavor, it must make the air smell great.  There is finally enough Honey Crisp around that they were running a $1.69/lb sale locally.  Honey Crisp was developed by Univ. of Minnesota and can only be propagated under license.

SweeTango is the newest variety from University of Minnesota crossing Honey Crisp and Zestar.  I tasted my first SweeTango last year.  They are far and away the best apple I have ever eaten.  I purchased a whole bag and savored them one a day until gone.  There were a few available in my local Pic-n-Save this year. Any grower who has SweeTangos for sale is doing well at $2.99 a pound.  Do you cook with them?  Why bother, just eat them fresh.  Check out www.sweetango.com.

The apple I purchase most often is Gala.  Firm, crisp, good flavor and it is an all around good apple.  It was first grown in New Zealand, then later patented in the US.  (How did that happen?)  Now there are several ‘sports’ of Gala apples with slight variations.  This is an apple that is rated number 2 behind the old standard Red Delicious, which I never buy at a grocer.  A good Red Delicious is a very good apple, but when stored and sold in bags they leave something to be desired.  I have never gone wrong buying Gala apples alone or in the 3 lb bags.  I use them in cooking.

Any of the standard apples in a store with a good produce section should be good.  The ones I occasionally choose after Gala are Fuji, Braeburn, Cameo, and Jonathon. Once I found one called Ambrosia.  It was very good, but I only saw it once. If you can find a good Winesap, it is considered the best by many, but it is very late.  One of the tartest apples is Granny Smith.  I try to avoid green skinned apples for fresh eating, but it is great for cooking as demonstrated Sunday by my son Ben in one of my favorite deserts, apple crisp.  I never tire of apple crisp, warm with fresh vanilla ice cream melting over it.

As a youth, we had Transparent apples trees around.  They are very early and quickly ripened from green to yellow and fell off of the tree.  I longed for a good apple as summer came.  Transparent apples may be the earliest apple variety of the season.  That was before apples could be stored well and well before they were shipped around the world.  They make delicious apple sauce.

My Liberty apple had two apples this year.  They were good.  I never sprayed them and they had no disease and no insects.  For just a good easy apple tree to grow and enjoy, try Liberty or.  It is known for very low disease and no apple scab.

Earlier I bragged, and rightfully so, about SweeTango, but there is one apple that may rival it for over all eating quality, Red Astrachan.  My grandfather had a tree in his yard.  They are tart, maybe the tartest of eating apples, sweet, and become overripe in the shortest time of any variety, then fall from the tree.  They make delicious pies and my mother made apple sauce from them.  Seriously, they went from ripe to overripe in a day or two.  What a wonderful apple, brought to the US from Russia in the 1830’s!  If I had space, this variety would be in my yard.  It doesn’t store at all and will never be shipped.

One of the best all around cooking and eating apples is Golden Delicious.  They keep their integrity when sliced and cooked.  They maintain good flavor and store well.  If I were making apple sauce or apple juice, this would be my first choice.  I often mix apple varieties for pies, apple crisps, sauce and for juice.  Having a good portion of the apples as Golden Delicious really rounds out the taste to be full and flavorful.  Good ripe Golden Delicious apples are quite sweet with firm but not hard flesh.  Rome apples are also bragged as great cooking apples.  They look great and cook well but are far from my favorite for eating fresh.

One of my favorite ways to eat and serve apples is fried.  The recipe below is great for a morning side dish with toast and eggs.

Fried Apple Recipe.

5 apples peeled and sliced

About 1/3 stick of butter {Enough to fry the apples}

1/3 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

Fry the apples in melted butter until they become translucent.  Stir in the sugar and flour until it becomes the consistency of gravy.  Serve hot.  Serves about 4 people.