I believe that's probably close to the truth. . probably just about anything farmed on a lg. scale, unless done organically, would scare us to death if we knew everything we were ingesting. . .alot of the stuff farmers use, especially on food crops, are regulated heavily as to when they can be applied in relation to when the food will be harvested, but there's alot of other 'contaminants' that are not pesticide, fungicide, etc. that probably showed up in that list and the verdict is still out on alot of them as to their effect on us. . . Personally I don't think there's anything like the taste of grapes grown right in your own yard, dried, washed and stemmed. . it's just a heck of alot of work (and hard on the fingers). . but worth it if you want to be totally in control of what you're eating. . .(I think that's what everybody used to do before we had giant food packing corporations..LOL) If you don't have that option. .it's like a lot of things. . do the benefits outweigh the risks?? Choices. But glad we have them.. ;-)
San Joaquin Valley, California Raisin Dry'n Weather
Okay- I was waiting for you to get here Janet because I didn't want to make your family and neighbor's hard work look scary but when you first posted those wonderful pics (that I shared with my daughter so she could see where raisins come from), it reminded me of something that Darius posted.
"In California’s San Joaquin Valley, estimates are that less than 25% of a pesticide sprayed from a crop duster ever hits the crop. The remainder can drift for several miles, coming to rest on fruit and vegetable crops, and farm- workers. One year more than one hundred workers fell ill after a single incident of such drift onto an adjacent vineyard."
That was in this thread: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/442645/
I agree with your sentiments about choice. Its lucky that some of have that option.
Dais'... you actually read that old post of mine? Wow, I'm impressed!
Darius- I read a lot of your posts and actually survive the recipes.
;o) Just kidding- they are great too!
Ü
And, don't you dare criticize my recipes... I'll do pins in honey in a jar for you, LOL.
This message was edited Sep 20, 2004 7:52 PM
Daisy. . I remember that story and lots of others through the years (and still happening). . seems they try to be more careful about that now since we now know what it does to humans. . .But, even so, when we grow stuff in our yards. . we control what we do inside our own fence, but our neighbor might not be so considerate or careful. . lots of residues 'drift' even in an urban setting. . those home - grown crops might not be as clean as we think they are. . . That's an interesting thread you'all had going in July. . a valid concern of alot of people. . .I think the bottom line (literally) is what drives this whole machine. . the farmer knows that if he doesn't use the stuff, the quality of his crop will be inferior or yield will be much less (if he gets any crop worth harvesting at all) and therefore, it's use them or get out of the business. From my personal experience in an area of small farmers, some really love farming. . it was my Dad's dream to have his own place and he moved to this valley when he was 22 years old, bought 80 acres to farm and will die on that place because he loves it. He's not getting rich by any stretch of the imagination, but makes a living and doesn't complain, and feeds a few people along the way. Then you have huge ranches that cover 'sections' of land, which I call 'professional' farmers. . it's a huge operation with big gov't subsidies involved, etc. and they are gradually replacing the 'family farm'. . Progress, if you want to call it that. . .but sad, none-the-less.
Oh yeah. .and did I mention, it's not just cotton. . there's loads of chemicals put on food crops to get that perfect head of lettuce. . peach, artichoke, whatever. . that the shopper expects in the market. .
Anyone wonder, then, why I prefer Organic?
"Not I," said the dursban covered fly.
There's probably organic raisins out there somewhere. . .anybody seen em??
Doesn't the consumer really determine what the grower produces? This arguement about chemicals and agriculture has been going on for years. Consumers will determine the outcome one way or the other. With government influences depending on which way the wind blows.
If there were more informed consumers... yes, we would/do influence what the growers produce. That's changing but oh, so slowly. McDonald's and Walmart outpace consumer education in general.
However if you read sites like http://www.NewFarm.org you will see there is a general trend towards healthier foods.
That general trend has not made a dent in my neck of the woods. Rural North Texas.
There are a number of organic farmers here in the valley . .pretty small scale. . some supplying restaurants and some you can custom order your veggies from. . quite pricey though. . .awhile back there was a feature done in the local paper about a fruit farmer that had gone 'organic' and had plenty of demand for his produce. . so, it is becoming more widespread. . Sure glad I have a garden where I can do my own 'organic' veggies. . just figure the bugs are going to get some share of the crop and there's still plenty left for us to eat. The more it catches on, perhaps the prices will come down where more people can afford it.
Janet- to answer your question, yes there are organic raisins and I have found them at mainstream places such as Ralph's and specialty stores like Whole Foods. : )
Thanks. . Daisy . . guess I just never paid any attention, as my Dad always keeps me in good supply LOL
Hey, jcangemi, it has taken me 7 tries, 6 of them "Timing Out" to open this thread again tonight. Would you please consider starting a Part 2??
darius. . no problem. . . . I didn't know it caused that kind of trouble. . it opens right up w/DSL. . See Pt.2 . . ;-)
I have dial up and do not have problem with long threads. :-)
It was doing something weird for a bit there for me to but now it seems fine- I crashed 3 times on this thread but others were okay.
I have dial up too and have no problem. One other thought. almost ALL the prepackaged food we buy is loaded with chemicals and stuff I can't pronounce. It is amazing what we eat if you read the label. Even the stuff they don't mention like genitically modified food for poultry and livestock. The additional chemicals they add to the water and grain for chickens, etc would knock those fancy cotton socks off ya. I guess we would have to go to a poor, underdeveloped nation to eat healthy food. Now there is food for thought.
By the way, I love raisens and the next time I head up 99, I might stop in the Sunkist plant and see how it works. I didn't know they had open house tours.
There are big billboards with the address and location, nada. : )
We had trouble with the internet last night, too, Daisy, like around 7:30PM. Do you have Roadrunner?
nadabigfarm. . that would be the SunMaid plant. .about 1/2 mile or less north of the Conejo exit into Kingsburg. I think there is a SunKist Packer along the freeway between Bakersfield and Fresno, but don't know about tours. .
Kelli- it was about 7pm and it was only this thread that wouldn't load it was the oddest thing. But it has resolved itself now and no I am on Earthlink. Maybe there was a problem bigger than our isp's?
Dais'... I'm on Earthlink too and today this thread opens... Go figure.
Hmmm- maybe that was it- they must have been having some system outage that doesn't like the San Joaquin Valley Raisins? Okay, maybe not.
Janet- at the request of my daughter, any chance of almond harvesting pictures? I grew up on a pecan farm in New Mexico and so I have seen those things that sha-a-ake the trees- but she hasn't. ; )
Its called "almond knocking." From when they used to smack the branches with long handled rubber mallets. They probably still do it that way for individual trees or gleening. Janet can probably get pictures of both methods. Janet?
Good morning to you'll. . wish I could oblige, but around here, it's pretty much done. . there are 4 or 5 late varieties that are still being harvested around the valley. . There's a very small picture of the machine they use to 'Knock' the tree as IW2D mentioned at the link below. It grabs the tree trunk and 'shakes the heck out of the tree to release the almonds which are then picked up to be transported to processor. I'll try to get on that a little earlier next year and get some pics from a friend's ranch when they do their harvest. It's really dusty work and clouds of dust dot the countryside when this harvest is in full swing and the air quality is worse than usual.
http://www.mercedsun-star.com/business/ag/story/9002537p-9897240c.html
It's something-drying season here now. It's Santa Ana time. It's breezy, with 18% humidy (30F dewpoint) right now. They're calling for gusts up to 45mph, which is no biggie when it comes to Santa Anas. It will be like this off and on until Christmas.
Janet, thats the mechanized way of "knocking" almonds. Before that they used a tool similar to an ax except that the ax head was replaced by a large rubber thing-a-ma-bob. Very hard work! Limited the number of acres a farmer could manage compared to today.
I can just imagine . . .When I was a kid, my Dad had 3 almond trees in our home orchard. . .I used to go out and pick up the almonds that fell and tried to shake the trees manually. . I could have used one of those tools. . .I was the only one of 4 kids that noticed they were there. . I'd sit there and shell them right under the tree and probably ate half of them in the process. . .If you had to do that to make a living, no wonder your orchard wasn't too big. Pretty intensive work. . . . I used to cut grapes too and now look at how their doin alot of them. . .I still think we didn't know how good we had it. . guess it depends on your perspective..
My folks agreed to pay me a dollar a pound for any pecans I collected when I was 11 and I took a king sized bed sheet set of theirs out into the orchard and laid it out under each tree, climbed and shook.
I made so much money that year and my foks never asked me to pick again. lol
I never got paid when my uncle did his. But then, if he did, there probably wouldn't have much left over. We had fun, though!
jcangemi, I am glad you started a continuation of this thread on a new thread... too bad people won't post there to make it easier on some of us with old dial-ups.
new thread:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/458110/