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#1
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
i like these two species because conventional wisom has it that they
produce the most nutrients per square foot of garden space. Which cultivars are the champs at nutrient contents? The other day, I ate at a "Ruth's Chris" steakhouse. The broccoli sidedish, which by the way wasn't included with the steak, cost $8. BUT, it was the sweetest broccoli I have ever tasted. Is it possible that they _cheated_ somehow in preparing (it was steamed) it, and artificially sweetened it? |
#2
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 12:02:02 -0700, dances_with_barkadas wrote:
i like these two species because conventional wisom has it that they produce the most nutrients per square foot of garden space. Which cultivars are the champs at nutrient contents? The other day, I ate at a "Ruth's Chris" steakhouse. The broccoli sidedish, which by the way wasn't included with the steak, cost $8. BUT, it was the sweetest broccoli I have ever tasted. Is it possible that they _cheated_ somehow in preparing (it was steamed) it, and artificially sweetened it? How much butter was on it? Ruth's Chris soak their steaks with melted butter, so it's not unlikely that their broccoli is covered with butter also. |
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
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#4
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
On Jul 9, 5:02 am, wrote:
i like these two species because conventional wisom has it that they produce the most nutrients per square foot of garden space. Which cultivars are the champs at nutrient contents? Check this out http://www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/23/6/669 They mention that there seem to be trade-offs between productivity and other qualities of commercial cultivars of vegetables including broccoli but don't list the cultivars. It is handy however as it suggests that studies of such do exist. If you want to follow it up I would search the USDA or the Journal of American College of Nutrition who published the paper. The other day, I ate at a "Ruth's Chris" steakhouse. The broccoli sidedish, which by the way wasn't included with the steak, cost $8. BUT, it was the sweetest broccoli I have ever tasted. Is it possible that they _cheated_ somehow in preparing (it was steamed) it, and artificially sweetened it? Yes, quite possible. David |
#5
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
In article .com,
" wrote: http://www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/23/6/669 Seeing as healthy garden soil is about 20% - 30% clay do you want to expand on your view of colloidal clay? -- Billy http://angryarab.blogspot.com/ |
#6
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
On Jul 9, 4:25 pm, Billy Rose wrote:
In article .com, " wrote: http://www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/23/6/669 Seeing as healthy garden soil is about 20% - 30% clay do you want to expand on your view of colloidal clay? -- Billyhttp://angryarab.blogspot.com/ The paper doesn't mention clay colloids nor the effect of soil on the nutritional value of vegetables. I am sorry I don't understand what you are getting at - what do you have in mind Billy? David |
#7
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
In article .com,
" wrote: On Jul 9, 4:25 pm, Billy Rose wrote: In article .com, " wrote: http://www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/23/6/669 Seeing as healthy garden soil is about 20% - 30% clay do you want to expand on your view of colloidal clay? -- Billyhttp://angryarab.blogspot.com/ The paper doesn't mention clay colloids nor the effect of soil on the nutritional value of vegetables. I am sorry I don't understand what you are getting at - what do you have in mind Billy? David From our previous conversation, I got the feeing that there was more you wanted to say about your plots or fields, as if there was a uniqueness that was instructive in them. Maybe not. Any feel for the sand, silt, clay composition of you garden? (If that is the right term. I never did know the magnitude of your farming/gardening efforts.) What do you grow? There was a term, "mineralized", that didn't get explained. Upon further reading, I find it refers to the release of cell nutrient to the soil upon the death of the organism (especially important because of the colonies of bacteria that have a symbiotic relationship with the growing tips of the roots). -- Billy http://angryarab.blogspot.com/ |
#8
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most nutritious cultivar of broccoli/cauliflower?
On Jul 11, 2:05 am, Billy Rose wrote:
Seeing as healthy garden soil is about 20% - 30% clay do you want to expand on your view of colloidal clay? -- Billyhttp://angryarab.blogspot.com/ The paper doesn't mention clay colloids nor the effect of soil on the nutritional value of vegetables. I am sorry I don't understand what you are getting at - what do you have in mind Billy? David From our previous conversation, I got the feeing that there was more you wanted to say about your plots or fields, as if there was a uniqueness that was instructive in them. Maybe not. Well my place is nowhere near unique but moving here and adapting to it was instructive for me and I thought that talking about the role of colloids in soil chemistry might be instructive to others. Any feel for the sand, silt, clay composition of you garden? (If that is the right term. I never did know the magnitude of your farming/gardening efforts.) What do you grow? Until 4 years ago I spent 25 years on a suburban block that was in sandstone country, in a maritime warm temperate climate, very mild. The soil was from zero to 4ft deep where you ran into the bedrock sandstone. The soil there was dirty sand with a few small rocks. It was on a slope near the top of a hill and you could pour water on to it and it would be dry within 2 days. To start with I had to add fertiliser frequently just to support low-medium intensity growing. I spent my time begging and buying organic matter to dig in and improve the water and nutrient holding capacity. In this situation there was almost zero clay, I was relying on organic colloids to bind the nutrient ions. After 25 years it didn't look too bad. But I never had a problem with waterlogging! The last 4 years I have been on 50 acres on the banks of a creek that has pretensions of being a river sometimes, the climate is much harsher. We get hard frost in winter but not ice or snow and it gets very hot in summer, often 95F and up to 107F. The bottom land where I am is a sedimentary basin containing coal and other layers. The bedrock (mudstone) at my place is 4ft to 15ft down. Then there is smectitic clay, yellow-brown, plastic when wet and like rock when dry. Thanks to the river there is about 4-6in of topsoil which is nearly black clay silt. It would be something like equal parts clay, larger particles and organic matter. It doesn't drain particlarly well but does permit infiltration. Without this topsoil I would have nothing of value. Most of the land was cleared over 100 years ago and was good enough for dairy farming. Now I agist a big slice to a neighbour who runs beef cattle and I run horses on the "home" paddock of 12 acres. Here I am planting trees and shrubs by the hundred (the species would only mean something to those who know Australian natives), we have an orchard of 50 trees (oranges, lemons, limes, cumquat, apples, pears, quince, medlar, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, feijoas, hazlenuts, mulberry, persimons) an ornamental garden and a vege garden each about 1000 sq ft. I irrigate the gardens from the river except in severe drought when it stops flowing (there is a dam for backup), or in flood when you watch things going under water. What was instructive to me about this change of location was ..... where do I start there is so much. To keep this down to a sensible length I will just talk about the soil. I had to adjust to create drainage, luckily the place is on a gentle slope so the main trick was to not do things that allowed ponding. All the fruit trees are planted on mounds. If you dig down to plant them in a hole the hole becomes a pond when it rains, the roots rot and the trees die. The vege garden beds are built up. I have 10 horses on 8 acres (they are kept out of the gardens mostly) which is a very high stocking rate but not excessive in this case provided it rains now and then. One of the benefits of the clay sub soil is that it slowly takes up water and then releases it again. So if you have a couple of weeks of showers the sub soil fills up. The result is that the pasture stays greener than many areas including some that have higher rainfall. The gardens benefit in the same way but more over the short term. Starting from pasture that was pH 5.5 and compacted I sprayed the grass and waited for it to die. I then added horse manure, chicken litter, lime, gypsum, dolomite and some potassium sulphate and had it plowed well. I then made raised beds. These are mulched with organic material which gets incorporated after 6-9 months. After a year the soil is great, contrast this with the previous place where after many years it wasn't really very productive. It is extremely fertile, pH 6.5 and has good water holding. Clay soil is notorious for becoming water repellent but mine takes up water slowly and the amended topsoil takes it up quickly. In summer I can put 3cm (over an inch) on the vege garden in 1 1/2 hours and except for some spillage on the paths it will soak it all up. What's in the vege garden, all year round: asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, kale, collards, leeks, globe artichokes, silver beet, horse radish and many cooking herbs. Right now there are cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, several chinese brassicas, mizuna, lettuce, aragula, beets, peas, snow peas, broad beans, parsnips and garlic. In summer I have tomatos, capsicum, chillis, egg plant, beans, zuccini, squash, marrow, pumpkin, cucumber, okra and jerusalem artichokes. I have probably forgtten some but you get the idea. I am only limited in what I can grow by climate. Enough shoping lists. My point is that clay country is not a death sentence, on the contrary I would now prefer to break down clay silt to building up sand. This is due to the colloidal nature which holds both water and nutrients. David |
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