"This is the time to make the most of our garden and our relationship with our kids." —Dan Sandweiss in A Dad's Guide to Gardening

Dear Organic Gardeners,

Once again we head into the longest days of the year, when our gardens can most efficiently capture the sun's energy and turn it into nutritious food, glorious flowers, and potent medicine. The first flush of flowering herbs attracts the attention of the beneficial insects, the Dame's Rocket splashes a luscious purple, and the garden ecology is in full swing. The start of summer is also, as Dan Sandweiss points out in his first article for the Cutting Edge, "A Dad's Guide to Gardening," a great time for fathers to bond with their children in the garden. As someone about to become a father for the first time, I too have pondered just what my garden will mean to my child and our relationship as the years pass.

I know it has already benefited my unborn child as my wife has feasted on fresh organic salad and braising greens for a couple of months now, and the stored bounty of the fall harvest before that. If I planted the whole garden with spinach, I'm not sure I could keep up with her (their) appetite as that seems to be the craving of this final month. As she feeds the child after it is born, the garden will continue to nourish them both with nutrition-packed food with no chemicals and no mystery.

	Dad's Guide to Gardening Dan Sandweiss shares a few ways to spend quality time with the kids in the garden for Father's Day and beyond... Read More >
	The Case for Broccoli Erica Renaud gives us the second installment of her Food Farmacy pieces, this one investigating broccoli... Read More >
	Tepary Beans Jay Bost is back and so is this underappreciated bean—recipe included... Read More >

I choose the word "mystery" because I ventured into our local supermarket the other day on assignment to make some pictures for Dan Imhoff's forthcoming book Foodfight: A Citizen's Guide to the Farm Bill. I was amazed at how much of what passed for food was made of things that had no resemblance to the plant or animal from which they came and had mysterious names like maltodextrin and xanthan gum. As it turns out, much of the food there was "manufactured" from corn, which is in a sense manufactured from petroleum in the form of fuel, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Many of the shoppers (and their children) perusing the isles of processed food, loaded with high fructose corn syrup and other corn-based ingredients, were indicative of our burgeoning obesity epidemic. I got the idea that this was the only food they knew and their primary reason for buying it was because it is cheap and sweet. I can only hope that through my garden, and maybe an occasional "field trip" to the supermarket, my child will learn what real food looks and tastes like and where it comes from—and that he or she will be skeptical of mysterious food, and rather enthralled by the mysteries of life in the garden. At any rate, I know that my child will be nourished by the finest food I can grow.

Fine, nutritious food is also on the minds of two of our writers this month. Research Farm Associate Jay Bost has written a fine piece celebrating the flavor and nutrition of the underappreciated tepary bean—a food that is light on the earth and a gourmet meal in the right hands. Erica Renaud, Research and Farm Manager, has been studying up on the declining nutrition of our vegetable cultivars, especially broccoli, and has come to some interesting conclusions. It turns out that it's not just how we grow our food that determines its nutritive value, although it helps, but the seeds we start with. And, as I mentioned, our marketing analyst, Dan Sandweiss, has contributed his thoughts on dads and gardening. As always, Erica updates us on the activities at the Research Farm, and we report on some news and events that we think you might find of interest.

Don't forget Father's Day on the 18th!
Scott Vlaun, Editor


Photo caption: Dad relaxes while the kids push the garden cart.

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