Rooting for Sweet Potatoes

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz
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Sweet potatoes are an ancient food crop; a staple that has sustained and nourished mankind for thousands of years.   Highly nutritious, sweet potatoes are the seventh most important food crop in the world.  Throughout the ages these sweet, orange, red and sometimes golden roots were valued so highly by early man, that they were often used as a form currency and as a token of friendship between cultures.  Today, this weirdly-shaped “potato” is making a comeback with home gardeners – and for good reason. 

Share the Seed: How a Seed Swap Works

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz

Swapping seeds is both fun and addictive. I remember the first time I began swapping seeds with other seed-junkies in 1999, using a then obscure method of communication known as the internet.  Back then, most of the people I knew did not have or even know what email was.  Finding a group of people who loved to trade and talk seed was like finding a long-lost friend.  I was instantly hooked, both with seed swapping and the internet!

Bald Eagles on the Rise

By Jill Henderson

Winter is one of the best times to see bald eagles in Missouri.  These dazzling giants often congregate around large bodies of water where fish are abundant.  A few years ago, on a day much like today,  Dean and I spotted a pair of adult bald eagles circling lazily on the warm, rising thermals of a mid-winter day.  Their white head and tail feathers shone brightly against the sky.  We watched the pair with excitement.  Within minutes, a darker sub-adult eagle joined them.  We were thrilled to get a rare glimpse of this eagle family, especially since we were so far from the large lakes and rivers where the eagles prefer to congregate.

Seed Saving: Beans & Peas

By Jill Henderson – Show Me Oz
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If you are planning on saving some of your own seeds this coming summer, the very best time to start is before a single seed goes in the ground.  In fact, saving seed should begin with that catalog you’ve been perusing all winter.  Seed catalogs are often filled to the brim with valuable information on the crops you want to grow, including germination times, growth characteristics, suggested planting dates and so on.  But the best part is that many catalogs now list each vegetable’s Latin botanical name, as well.  For the seed saver, those two little words written in italics and perched between parenthesis can mean the difference between seed saving success or seed saving failure.