Monday, August 5, 2013

Lazy, changeable Monday. Peaches. Peppers. Another derailment!

We aren't going to be very busy today.  Mom wants to get the peaches, cucumbers, and turnips processed.  The last two were presents from Brother and Sister-in-Law (from their garden).  I won't harvest any herbs for drying today because I plan to dry the peach peels.  We have sunshine now but the weather people say that won't last long and more rain is due in by about noon.  Brother said everything in his garden is slow this year so I am not the only one feeling that.  But I noticed some nice bullnose peppers about ready to pick.  The lipstick peppers are producing actual peppers--just a month late.

This story was also on our morning TV news and our first comment is "Isn't this happening all too often lately?"

Fascinating story about recent multidisciplinary studies piecing together the history of dairy in human agriculture.

Thought I would take you on one of my journeys through the net.  Often I read something on a site I usually follow and then follow the links to find out more or confirm the information.  This morning I started out on Natural News where I saw this article.  Natural News has definite biases which color their reporting and they often hype the "dangers" of what ever they report so I always check out what they say by looking for other less biased reports.  The first link went to the original U.K. Mail concerning fluoride in tea bags.  Since we do drink tea daily I want to see what other information is out there especially on this side of Atlantic.  Doing a quick search on Google leads to other articles including this one from Tea Guardian that shows how complex the issue really is.  And thinking back to the Natural News and Mail stories leads me to ask the question of whether the problem is the tea bag or if the tea itself had the fluoride to begin with.  And the information here confirms the notion that the tea itself may contain varying levels of fluoride depending on how mature the leaves are, how much of the older leaves, stems or twigs are in the mix, and the level of fluoride in the soil.  Rule of thumb--use high quality white or green teas (made from younger leaves without twigs or stems).  I usually make tea with less regular tea and a good bit of herbal teas, much of which I grow here.

Update: peaches done.  Two pie fillings in the freezer and a small cobbler fixed.  Tasted great.

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