Today I’m taking a minute to explain something that I’ve noticed is commonly misunderstood in the home gardening community. I’m also talking for a moment about how important it is for us to teach, explain, and preserve gardening.
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So this video has been up for a few hours and I see an issue I need to address. I hate to ever put out wrong information, and part of me wants to delete this due to a statement that is wrong but I do think there is overall value so I’m going to leave it up.
All GMOs are not sterile. They can be but certainly not all are which has caused a lot of issues in the farming community, and I by no means want to disregard that. The statement I made about GMOs being sterile should not have been an absolute statement. Also, some hybrids can be sterile, especially if you are saving seeds from grocery store produce. However, hybrids from open pollinated plants are not, and that is what I was trying to convey.
I honestly didn’t mean to make this video to go into the serious corruption that is taking place in our food industry, or into an in depth biology lesson. I am not qualified to discuss either of those topics so this is as close as you’ll ever see me come close to them. I encourage anyone who is hungry to know more about these things to do your own research and I won’t pretend for a second that I’m the end-all source for any such information. However, if you want to geek out over your produce and make your garden an enjoyable space, I’m your girl.
My intention is, as always, to empower people to try to grow food and to encourage them into the incredible task of gardening. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life, and I spent years so afraid of doing it wrong that I did nothing. So I always want to encourage other people not to make that mistake.
Thank you for clarifying, I didn't understand that gmo seeds were only sold commercially. I appreciate all of the science minded people in the world, but I would rather pull out my hair than listen to a complicated explanation of these things. So thank you for simplifying
enjoyed your video thanks for clearing that
Have you read Animal Vegetable Miracle? I think you’d enjoy it.
Great information. Thanks Jess
I love your videos. You are AMAZING! Just starting to learn about growing my own food. Just wondering how you learned all you know. Thank you, Grizel
Thank you so much for your opening "rant". That totally expressed my frustration with so many gardening sites and video comment sections. On the one hand, people want to champion the cause of home growing and eating, but, at the same time, they also want to stamp out a giant list of rules and regulations on HOW one should go about doing it, to the point that it is not only intimidating, but leeches all the joy of gardening from newcomers that might wish to dip their toes in. Farming and gardening is an activity that humans have engaged in for millenia, no rules needed, and it has been largely successful. I am all for new information to help me garden, but I don't need a lot of nonsense and people's takes on how THEY believe it should be done. In my opinion, all you need to garden is a seed, some dirt, lots of sun, water, and faith. All the rest is just gravy.
PS: Thank you so much for introducing me to Baker Creek. I've only recently started watching your videos, and in the past 3 days, I've spent over $60 on seeds from them, and I know I have probably another $100 worth of seeds on my wishlist. One day, the hubby will give me the go ahead, and I will put a serious dent on that list.
Thank you for being honest. I find you videos so very educational. I like taking your information and mix it with what my grandfather, and my father have taught me.
Fantastic video… sooo what is the big black tower thing in the background?
They are picked green and sprayed with nitrogen i bought some on the side of the road that were sitting in sun all day maybe for several days but they had sprayed with nitrogen and cut them it looked like they had worms in them but after cutting several i looked closer the seed had sprouted inside the tomatoes. It was crazy
THANK YOU! Thank you for giving my the courage to just go for it and not get hung up in the details. My parents gifted me with a beautiful new fence to enlarge my garden and I've been paralyzed when it comes to touching that new space. I want everything to go perfectly, but so far I haven't done anything, which is far worse than having something go wrong. I'll be honest, I'm intimidated by all those farmers who are so technical about using the right chemicals/tools/ratios/EVERYTHING and it's too overwhelming for me. I love that you use simple potting soil and recycled materials in your garden. That gives me hope that not everything I do needs to be so high tech and expensive! Great video Jess 🙂
You are doing good Jess…disregard the negative or intense folks.
Good run down on the subject.
Two things I like to add
1) hair looms should have a date or date range attached to it so we can distinguish from a heirloom of 1850 and one from 1970.
2) sadly the consumer drives the market with their demand for easier and cheaper products. Corporations simply supply what’s demanded.
Our modern economic system counts on the consumer be be complacent, and at least for a period of time, not care. And before we know it, the next generation doesn’t even know any better.
Big fan of home gardening but also a big fan of GMOs here.
GMOs are not all bad.
The corruption in the companies that may produce them is, but ultimately, those crops are modified to better suit a specific purpose. That purpose can be either good or bad for various reasons, but the modified crop is usually just like a hybrid. The creation of the GMO/hybrid is a bit of a different process because to create a GMO organism, scientists can isolate and insert specific genes into it, but that transfer of genetic material can happen, does happen, and eventually would happen in nature due to cross pollination to create a hybrid like you said.
I know people hear about GMOs that as an example, are more crop resistant because they have genes added to them from other organisms and that idea is scary! But, that again happens in nature all of the time. It's a phenomenon called horizontal gene transfer. It's a crazy process, but it's really interesting to look into and I would recommend that you do! The GMO organism does not have pesticides added to it, only genetic material that already exists in nature.
And sure, sometimes GMOs can be created for a bad purpose like mass producing and shipping cruddy tomatoes for fake food ketchup, but other times they're bred to be higher in calories (which are rare in some areas of the world) or nutrients (which are again hard to come by in some areas of the world). I hope that this wasn't confusing, I don't have a talent for words, but if you have any questions please ask! I don't mean for this to be offensive at all, I agree that sometimes GMOs aren't the best, but I just wanted to show that the organism isn't evil. In some cases, it's the opposite!
Outstanding video Jess! So many great points and a nice explanation about heirlooms, hybrids, etc. As you said, for a beginning gardener that kind of stuff can be confusing and intimidating. I'm sitting here watching your video as I'm putting a garden starter raffle basket together. I'm putting in seeds and starter pots and starting soil and some other goodies. My hope is that whoever wins the basket will be sparked with the inspiration to give a basic vegetable garden a try. Hopefully that will be one more person that might take an interest in growing their own food. Sometimes it just takes a little encouragement and a place to start. 🙂
Have a great weekend! -All the best. ~ Theresa
Fear is a liar! You have great faith! We can't live by fear! God is the great creator and one day we'll be with Him for eternity! Ahhh what a day that will be!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<3 Very powerful message. It reminds me of the importance of deciding to make changes in your life and just starting where you are. Striving for perfection is crippling. The problem with perfection is that it is not real. In a day of social media, it is so easy to get caught up in being perfect and having all the answers – when in fact, we are all just doing our best and experimenting. In fact, we do not need a handful of people doing this perfectly; we need millions of people doing it imperfectly.
Keep it up Jess, you've been a great source of information and I love following you along in this journey.
GREAT GREAT GREAT VIDEO!!!!
When I lived in Florida years ago, a guy in one of my classes father grew tomatoes commercially. They picked them green and refrigerated them, they last a long time that way. Then they will ripen during shipping. I was shocked. No wonder they don’t taste that good!
Soy and corn state here. It’s super saddening to know one of our large local plants is owned by Monsanto.
The Clintons, Obamas, and Bill Gates all own massive amounts of stock in Monsanto.
Why anyone would bother to save and plant something from the grocery store astounds me but they sure do and it's most always tomatoes and they're nasty. I think they get it into their heads that if it's homegrown it will turn out much better but it will not.
Jess, you have inspired me SO much. I took a smaller kiddie pool I had lying around from a couple seasons ago, filled it with 3 bags of soil, planted some seeds in it and in one of the left over potting soil bags. I had to go To the store the other day and purchase the biggest kiddie pool I could find to transplant my plant babies. It is twice as deep and wipe as the smaller pool. I then went to a local furniture consignment store and grabbed three wood pallets. I had no idea those things were so heavy! I need more but pooped out at three. My plan is to put the pools on top of the pallets. Then I will have a raised, container garden! I was so excited when my plant babies broke through the soil! How very different the rashes broke through the soil than the lettuce seeds. My basil sprouts already smell like basil! I thought it might take a bit longer for them to become fragrant but nope. I'm trying not to do anything fatal to the bunny living in my backyard (he found himself a friend the other day). I scare him off but he is very curious about what I have growing on my porch. I worry most about all of the hail we have been having lately. My ultimate goal was to do straw bale gardening but this kiddie pool 'thing' seems to be working out rather well. Next year, I am going to focus on growing what is not readily available in the grocery stores. I'm fed up with every store selling the same thing. Thank you so much for your informative and encouraging videos, Jess. It all has helped me break out of the fear zone and experiment with gardening for the first time in my life at the age of 51. God bless!
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever had." -Margaret Mead
dude, thank you. thanks for your consistent message of "get out there and learn" I am your exact audience. My husband and I have the dream to own land, homestead, and get to a more self sustaining place; but I am in Grad school in the city for at least another 2 years. I started a container garden and am SO PROUD and having a GREAT TIME. I get to connect to my self, and have a relaxing moment, and connect with my mother who has a garden 1500 miles away and talk about life and food and its GREAT, thank you.
You have to wear a stocking hat in summer? Thats really fashionable Jess lmbo
Thank you for this information! I feel much more equipped now.