Organic gardening.

[organic]

A wonderful, wonderful place that's for sure!
I still need to find out what variety of rocket they sell when it's in season... all other rocket I've had just seem a bit lame in comparisson - that stuff is incredible!
I had it in a really simple dressing made with lemon juice, oil and (I think) a wee bit of salt. It was out of this world and I really want it on my plot!

[chris]

I have to disagree with your statement that nobody can tell the difference of organically grown produce against grown with pesticides, chemicals etc.

I certainly can.. If I buy - a prime example here is carrots from our local super market. If I eat them raw, they don't taste that great, but with ones that I buy from our local farm when they grow them (which is one thing I like about buying from farms! - the (proper) seasonal veg) I can really taste the difference. Carrots stand out for me, as Ireally like them raw.

It's the same as super market melons, if they go a bit over ripe, to me they taste of glue (don't ask!). If you force something to grow fast, and hard to meet demands, rather than slowly at its own pace something gotta give, right?

Out of interest, have you bought value meat, and organic meat (i..e from butcher/farm) - not just "labelled" organic - which probably has some small print of grass they grazed on was organic or something like that! - I can certainly taste the difference. When I was a student, I hate it but I bought value stuff. I soon got a couple jobs and when I could aford decent food at uni, I bought it - and I was really suprised at the difference... So I guess its down to how its treated as well, I know the thread was on about organic gardening, but for me - organic produce to consume goes hand in hand!

(plus I don't want my baby eating a load of chemicals!)

[StephenH]

Firstly, scientific tests have shown that the take-up of nutrients by plants is better from organic fertilisers than from non-organic.
Secondly, better taste or more wholesome food is not a major reason why most organic gardeners do it that way - it's because it's more environmentally friendly.
Thirdly, organic gardening is not just a matter of avoiding this or that chemical: it's a whole different approach to gardening - working with nature, not against it, by building up the humus in the soil over years, rather than feeding lots of artificial fertiliser and treating the soil as a mere inert anchor for the plants' roots. That approach, taken to extremes, led in the 1930s to the dust-bowl in the USA.

[pipscariad]

I have to disagree with your statement that nobody can tell the difference of organically grown produce against grown with pesticides, chemicals etc.

I certainly can.. If I buy - a prime example here is carrots from our local super market. If I eat them raw, they don't taste that great, but with ones that I buy from our local farm when they grow them (which is one thing I like about buying from farms! - the (proper) seasonal veg) I can really taste the difference. Carrots stand out for me, as Ireally like them raw.

I do think that much of the difference in taste of organic/non organic veg comes down to freshness - carrots, for example, start to lose their flavour as soon as they're picked - the carrots from your supermarket are days older than the carrots from your farm shop so are bound to have a lot less flavour, organic or not. I buy organic carrots from the supermarket occasionally but they have far less flavour than the ones from the non-organic farm shop!

I agree though that I have on occasion had fruit or veg that had a revolting and very obvious chemical taint to it, bleurch!!

As for meat I can't comment, being a (life long) vegetarian, but I could almost have thought that the difference in that is even more pronounced than in fruit and veg.

[DavidJP]

That approach, taken to extremes, led in the 1930s to the dust-bowl in the USA.

Whilst I'd agree with the general argument you make I don't think you can link it to the Dustbowl of the 1930's in the US prairie states. I believe that was more down to a severe drought period combined with the ploughing up of prairie grass cover which previously had bound the soil together. This left the soil exposed and combined with poor farming practices in a arid region that probbaly wasn't well suited to that type of farming allowed erosion to occur. It wasn't really until after the war that extensive inorganic nitrogen fertiliser was used on a massive scale.

Dust Bowl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[chris]

I do think that much of the difference in taste of organic/non organic veg comes down to freshness - carrots, for example, start to lose their flavour as soon as they're picked - the carrots from your supermarket are days older than the carrots from your farm shop so are bound to have a lot less flavour, organic or not. I buy organic carrots from the supermarket occasionally but they have far less flavour than the ones from the non-organic farm shop!

I agree though that I have on occasion had fruit or veg that had a revolting and very obvious chemical taint to it, bleurch!!

As for meat I can't comment, being a (life long) vegetarian, but I could almost have thought that the difference in that is even more pronounced than in fruit and veg.

That's true, I guess I didn't think of that!