John former Marine’s Recent Comments

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  Yellow/Curly Dock not so great.

  I'm looking forward to picking dandelions and chickweed soon.  I gave dock a try last spring and wasn't thrilled.  I think I probably picked and processed about 15lbs of it into a saag recipe.  It was ok...but there are a lot better greens out in the woods.On When the season's first edible weeds poke through, it's time for gumbo z'herbes posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago 8 Responses

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  Cool beer...

  I prefer my stouts at about room temperature.  Lighter beers are best drunk at the temperature of whatever stream you're storing the bottles in.  "Cold" isn't necessary at all.  And I don't necessarily think it would be a reduction in my standard of living to not have ice-cold beer.  But I do agree with you that it doesn't have to be one or the other.  We can have modern conveniences with a lot less destruction.

  Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

  On Obama says there's no need to choose between sustainability and the economy posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago 9 Responses

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  hop mites and mildew

  http://www.usahops.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hop_farming&a ...

  The mites are controlled by keeping dust down (i.e. spraying the roads with water every couple of days, growing grass between the rows) and the other major threat is downy and powdery mildew.  Both of these are easy to control with simple methods.  I'm fairly certain that hop farmers are using sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate (baking soda or hydrogen peroxide) to control these issues.  Once again, you could contact the hops growers to ask how they deal with these issues but I'm pretty sure you don't need to go "organic" with hops.  This is probably one of those crops that just isn't valuable enough for farmers to be willing to pay huge amounts of money to get that word "organic" on their label.

  I'm not really sure what "organic" means when it comes to barley, either.  Barley has been around for thousands of years and is one of the hardiest crops that you can grow just about anywhere in the temperate regions of the earth.  

  If you're really concerned about putting fewer dangerous chemicals into the environment, the biggest and most important step anyone can take is to reduce their meat/dairy consumption.  After that, find out what the most dangerous chemicals are that are being applied to specific crops and seek organic alternatives for those crops.On In our latest tasting, organic beer comes of age posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago 10 Responses

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  Wolverine, you're wrong....again

  The earth has a creamy nougat center of petroleum that will last for thousands of years.  Also, we have a whole universe to exploit as long as we don't run out of rocket fuel to get us out into space.

  There's no reason to assume that our civilization will eventually collapse, like every single other civilization before us that eventually overextended itself, exhausted its soils, or enslaved/exploited a large number of "barbarians" who eventually fought for their own freedoms.

  Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

  On Obama says there's no need to choose between sustainability and the economy posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago 9 Responses

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  Organic vs. Local Hops

  lisacf118,

       I think you should ask an expert in Washington State about hop production.  I'm pretty sure that, in eastern Washington arid regions where they're grown, they're probably managed with a minimum of pesticides.  As long as they keep the dust down, they keep down the dust mites, which I believe are the biggest threat to hops.  I personally wouldn't rank organic hops anywhere near the top of my list of things you should be buying organic.  Besides, the word organic has been co-opted by marketing agencies to sell stuff for more money.  Many "organic" pesticides are "natural" but they're bad for you and the environment and many other very benign chemicals are called "conventional" just because they're synthetically produced, not because they're toxic or have any risks associated with their application.  I think you, the consumer, have to educate yourself on what organic means with respect to individual crops.  Once again, I don't think hops should be high on the list, especially if you're paying an extra 50 cents per bottle of beer for the word organic on the label.  Now, organic peaches are definitely worth the money...

  JohnOn In our latest tasting, organic beer comes of age posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago 10 Responses