Introducing the Seed Lady Network Open Source Seed Sharing Project!

Welcome to the Seed Lady Network!

Seedladynetwork.com

The Seed Lady Network is dedicated to open source seed sharing, free from transgenic contamination and patent piracy. To this end, every effort is being made to provide an environment to share private seed stock and keep sources for traditional non-GMO seeds available to the people for generations to come. Our intention is to provide safe alternatives for individuals and families who wish to avoid consumption of genetically altered foods.

If you have been saving seeds from that special veggie and would like to share some with others, list your seeds on the Network. Whether you are offering them for free to replenish another’s lost stock, or would like to trade for something else to add to your collection, just list your terms in the ad along with your contact information, and swap away!

Seed Lady is designed to be a horizontally integrated platform for individual seed sharers to reach out across the globe with their precious seed resources, in order to combat growing corporate control over our food supply, starting with the seed.

The Seed Lady Team encourages everyone, both individual seed swappers and established seed companies, to take the following non-biotech seed source pledge:

GET STARTED NOW!

The Seed Lady Team

 

Guerrilla Warfare Gardening 2: Toil’s no Trouble

Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

Farm Wars Outdoor Garden 2011

With the last cabbage processed, this season’s outdoor gardening and food processing project is officially over. That is, all except for soil prep for next season, when we let the geese and goat in the garden to eat the leftovers, then spread the horse manure. Then, it’s all about enjoying the fruits of our labors, and telling the corporate veggie distributors to take their pesticide-laden produce and… well, you know the rest.

This is our fourth year gardening in the high desert, and I’ve got to admit, we messed around and got it right this time. We have enough in the freezer for the year, and the garden fed us and the critters with fresh produce all during the harvest.

Brian planted and hand watered the garden morning and evening. We both weeded and harvested, and I processed. Processing consisted of cleaning, trimming, blanching, chopping and freezing, as well as some drying. We both collect seeds.

Here are pics of some of the bounty (cabbage, onions, beets, radishes, spinach and zucchini). We had carrots also, but I forgot to take pics of them. The garden area was 60 X 80: 

 

Off-grid Refrigeration Innovation: The Cool Box

 

DIY Solar Dehydrator Video and Instructions

DIY Solar Dehydrator Instructions

 

 

How to Harvest Milk Thistle

Source: Garden Guides

Most people consider milk thistle a pesky weed because it can grow tall and thorny, making it hard to even get near. However, it is loaded with medicinal benefits. The U.S. National Cancer Institute reports that milk thistle contains the active ingredient silymarin, which is used to treat liver and gallbladder problems and is an antioxidant that protects the cells against damage. The silymarin from milk thistle is in the seeds, which are used to make extracts or tinctures for medicinal use. If you have milk thistle growing near you, you can harvest your own seeds. You can also cook and eat the leaves and flower heads.

Step 1

Put on heavy gloves and protective clothing.

Step 2

Take your scissors and cut the flower heads when they are young if you wish to eat them. Simply boil or steam them until they are tender.

Step 3

Cut the young leaves from the stalk and steam them as you would spinach. If you simply want to harvest the milk thistle seeds, go on to Step 4.

Step 4

Wait for the seed heads to turn brown.

Step 5

Cut the seed heads off the milk thistle plant and place them in a paper bag. Store it in a cool, dry spot for 48 hours.

Step 6

Lay a window screen on a counter. Take one seed head at a time and carefully brush the seeds out of the head and onto the screen. Remove any debris from the seeds. Place the cleaned seeds in a glass jar or sealed plastic container.

 

The State Has Its Way, and the State Has No Mercy

By Barbara H. Peterson

If you don’t think that the state can do anything it wants with you when matters of “urgent health concerns” are at stake, think again. This couple, described as elderly, but not much older than me, and I suspect, a good many of you, had their lives literally ripped from them by the state.

 

CODEX and the Depopulation Agenda on the Common Sense Show

Dave Hodges, Annie Deriso and I talk about HR 2749, Monsanto, and CODEX’s parts in the depopulation agenda and what we can do.

Listen HERE.

Barb

 

Washington quietly mulls new quarantine regulations – do you have enough food stored?

Josh Gerstein
Politico.com

The Obama administration is quietly dusting off an effort to impose new federal quarantine regulations, which were vigorously resisted by civil liberties organizations and the airline industry when the rules were first proposed by the Bush administration nearly four years ago.

White House officials aren’t saying what their rules might ultimately require. But the previous administration proposed giving the federal government the authority to order a “provisional quarantine” of three business days — or up to six calendar days — for those suspected of having swine flu or other illnesses listed in a presidential executive order.

Read more…

Barb’s note:

Have I stressed strongly enough that we need to STORE FOOD?

Go HERE to learn the basics about food storage. Also, peruse the site to gain all sorts of tips regarding growing your own food and making the transition to self-sufficiency. If you have any questions, contact me from the site and I will do my best to locate the information if I do not have it already.

 

A Beginner’s Guide to Food Storage

By Barbara H. Peterson

Courtesy of Total Health Breakthroughs

 

Have you ever been hungry? Not just “skipped a meal” hungry, but really hungry. I am talking about the kind of hunger that won’t go away because the cupboard is bare. If you have, you will understand the need to store food. If you haven’t, this is your chance to learn from the experience of others before it happens to you, because if you run into hard times, or the store shelves run dry, you will need to have a backup supply of tasty, nutritious food. 

 

Making Organic, Healthy Berry Jam

My raspberry plants are coming up this season, and I can’t wait to try this recipe. It has no processed sugar or chemicals, as it uses Rapadura, a dried, unrefined, naturally evaporated sugar cane juice that contains all the original natural vitamins and minerals that are processed out of refined sugar.