"Missy Me" wrote in message
t...
In article A & L Lane thought carefully before sharing...


I have read about your DS' allergies - must be very very difficult. If
you
do grow your own veges (and using your own seed is a great way to go -
seed
savers has heaps of old open-pollinated varieties that taste great) -
think
seriously about using the Dipel against the caterpillars. A lot of the
time, these old varieties are better than the ones we have now - they
just
dont transport and store so well which is not an issue if you are
growing it
for yourself. There is nothing worse than finding grubs in your veges
and
fruit (BTDT) and this stuff is completely natural - developed from a
bacteria found naturally in the soil anyway and it *only* works on
caterpillars. All the scientists have done is to isolate the bacteria
and
powderise it so you can add it to water and spray it around - no tricky
genetic engineering. Very very safe and green.

Can you tell I hate caterpillars !!

me too (
They get into everything !!

I used to buy my greens from a farmer's market, but got sick of the
bugs, dirt, and longevity of the vegetable. Everything was as fresh as
fresh, but it seemed like I would have to scoff it all within 3 days (
not good if you wanted to stock the fridge ! ).

Now I feel guity whenever I buy from Coles ( instead of supporting the
local growers ), but it lasts, and it bugless ( except sometimes the
broccoli** )

** Is there something about broccoli BTW ? Given that I sometimes get
bugs in my Coles broccoli, but the farmers market broccoli was RIDDLED
with bugs !!

yes - any cruciferous plant (broccoli, cauliflower, etc) tends to be loved
by bugs and hate to say, but the stuff from Coles has probably been sprayed
a lot to make it bug-free. Not criticising because that is what I buy, but
when customers demand clean (ie. no bug holes, blemishes, etc), then the
farmers will provide it that way even though it is probably better for all
of us if we put up with a few bugs now and then. Not a criticism as we are
farmers and we do use chemicals when we feel we must so dont want to chuck
rocks when I'm living in a glass house on this particular issue.

cheers
Leah