I can hardly wait!

Most of us gardeners know that all the brassicas we grow are at least kissing cousins.  Now two of them, with a little human assist, have been doing more than kissing.  And if you haven't had enough kale, you are going to be really excited with the result - it's Kalette, a conventional hybrid of kale and brussels sprouts.  It grows like the sprouts, but looks like little colorful kale.

Johnny's will be the source of seeds for home gardeners in the U.S.  Read their press release here:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-press-release-kalettes.aspx

Oh - and of course the Kalettes have their own Facebook page - just search for that name.

But I still think "the Kalettes" sounds like a barbershop quartet of nutritionists.

What gardeners need

Yesterday I stopped by Imwalle Gardens, the farm stand in my neighborhood, the business for more than a century of four generations of Imwalles .   I buy produce and plant starts there.   But yesterday I bought only fruit - two kinds of local apples and a crane melon.

I commented to the family member who waited on me - in the form of what I thought was a rhetorical question - that I was buying only fruit, because if you have a vegetable garden with tomatoes, beans and squash, what else to you need?

His response:   Friends.

Valuable pictures

The Union of Concerned Scientists Plant the Plate infographic is pretty nifty.  You can download it here, though I have pasted it in below.
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/plant-the-plate.pdf

It explains how we might grow enough fruit and vegetables in this country to meet the needs of people for good health.

I thought it was just Sonoma County where we had so little acreage in fruit and vegetables.   Not so - it's just that our mono-crop is grapes, not wheat or corn or soy or rice.  And, of course, the grapes are not eaten as fruit!

The story in pictures.  That last frame identifies where our Farm Bill advocacy needs to be.