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The Amazon-Whole Foods Question

6/30/2017

Since Amazon announced its plans to acquire Whole Foods a few weeks ago, many of you have emailed GardeningAustin.com asking me what I think of the news. I’ve given it some thought and…

Amazon announced plans to acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, that is no chump change so you can be sure that Amazon is aware of the importance many consumers put in the organic and healthier grocery choices this business is famous for offering. While this is a big and big-money move that shocked many, many people are starting to ask what this means for Whole Foods going forward. Is this a good thing? A bad thing? Or both? What does it mean for the future of food — and the future of natural and organic foods, in particular? These are all important questions, questions I want to take a look at but first, I think we should take a quick step back.

How did this takeover come to pass? One important thing to understand is that the Whole Foods company has been struggling over the last several quarters. The company has been experiencing declining sales for months. As demand for organic food has been rising, organic food has come to be sold in more places and often for cheaper prices. In many markets people wanting natural and organic foods used to have to shop exclusively at Whole Foods. Not anymore. In many communities, Whole Foods is no longer the primary option for organic and healthier options. Mainstream supermarkets like Kroger, Costco, Safeway, HEB, Food Lion and Walmart now stock natural and organic foods, too; right alongside their conventional (and “junk food”) offerings.

Recently, Whole Foods has been under enormous pressure from investors to merge with another company, though very few expected it would be Amazon. Amazon is an enormous company that’s come to be known as “the everything store.” But even though the company has been trying to muscle its way into the grocery and produce business, it hasn’t been able to master online groceries the way it’s mastered other areas, such as books and electronics. Now, however, as the owner of Whole Foods, the company could be poised to dominate the online grocery business — which it sees as a major emerging opportunity.

The acquisition deal still needs to be approved by Whole Foods shareholders and regulators, but it’s considered likely to happen later in 2017. If the merger does happen, John Mackey will remain CEO of Whole Foods, and the store will continue to operate under the Whole Foods brand, according to a joint statement by the two companies.

Fair enough, but how will this change Whole Foods? I mean, surely there will be some changes, Whole Foods has long been controversial among natural foods consumers. On the one hand, the company has pioneered taking fresh, organic, fair trade and sustainable foods into the mainstream. While on the other hand, it has driven many independently owned natural foods stores out of business, and advanced consolidation and corporate takeover of the natural foods industry. Now, Whole Foods may soon be controlled by Amazon, a company that is known for being efficient and standardized, but that has a poor environmental record and questionable labor practices. Amazon is known for selling things faster and cheaper. And for selling just about everything, without regard to its impact on health, workers, or the environment. So undoubtedly, changes are coming for Whole Foods stores. But exactly what changes will occur, and how much things will actually change remains to be seen.

Will the Amazon-Whole Foods merger change how people will shop for food in the future? Right now, most people go to a physical place to shop for groceries. But in the future, you may be doing all your shopping online; without ever leaving your home. The fact is that many local grocery stores allow you to do that even now. And if you do shop in a store, the experience will likely be very different, and more focused on technological innovations.

So many people “in the know” are saying that this is the first step to changing how society shops for food in general. Perhaps it is, for example, AmazonFresh Pickup, which launched in March, allows customers to order online, and then drive to an Amazon-run store, where employees bring their food right out to their car in a matter of minutes. Amazon has opened two such stores, but now it could potentially expand this idea to Whole Foods markets nationwide. Amazon has also pioneered shopping and paying with a smartphone app, without having to go through a checkout line.

A report from the Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen found that only around a quarter of U.S. households currently shop online for groceries, but predicts that more than 70% will do so within 10 years. In particular, millennials are the largest group of consumers using online grocery shopping. So, for better or for worse, it seems that online shopping really could be a part of the future of grocery shopping, and by purchasing Whole Foods, Amazon could be setting itself up to shape and perhaps even define this new direction. On the whole, it seems that there are some forward looking decision makers at Amazon, but this has pretty much always been the case.

While it remains to be seen what effects this merger will have if it does happen, here are some potentially good things this change could bring.

It could help healthy and organic foods become more accessible and more affordable -

This move could speed up the growth of organic food and expand organic farming. As Jeff Church, CEO and founder of the organic company Suja Juice said, this acquisition proves “that organic is the future!”
And organic analyst Max Goldberg said, “With [Jeff Bezos’] purchase of Whole Foods, he has made it very clear that organic, Non-GMO and healthy food is the future, something that is indisputable.”
The demand for organic is rising globally. The global food and drink market is expected to reach $320.5 billion by 2025. And organic spending is rising in the US too. According to the Organic Trade Organization, Americans spent 8% more in 2016 on organic foods than they did the previous year and that number is expected to continue to go up.

It could bring fresh, plant-powered food to more people-

Amazon would be able to use the 460 Whole Foods stores in the U.S., Canada, and the UK to bring the accessibility of its organic and plant-powered foods to unprecedented levels.
Sheryl O’Loughlin, CEO of Rebbl, said, “This acquisition [would allow] many more consumers to access real, fresh and organic foods, which is a huge benefit for the industry and a win for consumers.”

It could reduce food insecurity-

People who live in food deserts without access to fresh, healthy food could now have greater access to good food on account of expanded online sales.

It could drive down the cost of organic-

According to a report by Bloomberg, Amazon wants to shed Whole Foods “whole paycheck” image and to make natural, organic food more competitive with larger retailers, like Walmart.

It could force other grocery stores to offer a wider selection of high-quality, natural, organic food-

In order to be competitive, grocery stores are going to need to offer more organic food.
“If anything, broader availability of foods with Whole Foods’ very high standards should raise the bar for the entire market and retailers everywhere, in order to compete,” John Foraker, president or organic food company Annie’s, said, when asked about the merger. “That will be good for farmers, ranchers, and the sustainability of our food supply.”

But for those of you who prefer to take a ‘glass half empty’ look at the potential new player on the organic food scene, here are some challenges this merger could bring.

It could be too much power for one corporation to hold-

The grocery industry is already dominated by a handful of big retailers. This merger would further that direction.
John Roulac, CEO and founder of Nutiva, said, “This is an accumulation of a 20-year, Wall Street-funded, corporate roll-up of the organic and natural industry.”
As he points out, the environment could become hyper-competitive, and independent retailers and brands would have even more difficulty being successful. There are even some observers and members of Congress who think the merger may violate antitrust laws. How all of that plays out is still to be seen.

It could reduce the quality of organic foods-

As pressure is put on the industry to lower the price of organic foods, organic standards may suffer. And in turn, small family farmers could be impacted as well.

It could cause Whole Foods to lower their famous high-quality standards-

As major grocers go, Whole Foods is known for its commitment to quality standards. But Amazon is known for selling anything, quickly and for the lowest price. While those two corporate profiles do not necessarily mutually exclude each other, they do not easily go hand in hand either.
Gunnar Lovelace, CEO of Thrive Market, which offers organic and natural products at discounted prices, believes that many consumers are concerned about this merger. He told said: “I’ve looked extensively at consumer responses to the Amazon acquisition of Wholefoods and there is a lot of concern about Amazon getting too big and of not being a trustworthy source of groceries which validates our investment in an authentic brand, clean-transparent supply chains, genuine community and advocacy work as a business.”
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has said that quality standards at Whole Foods would remain the same after the merger. But whether or not this is true remains to be seen and is likely to soon be out of his control anyway.

It could be potentially bad for workers-

Some people fear that this merger will lead to fewer jobs. Amazon is knowing for using automation instead of people, and could bring this mentality to Whole Foods stores.
“Amazon’s brutal vision for retail is one where automation replaces good jobs,” Marc Perrone, the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, told Buzzfeed. “That is the reality today at Amazon, and it will no doubt become the reality at Whole Foods.”

It could prove to be hard on small, independent farmers-

Though organic farming will likely grow, farmers could suffer as the demand for lower cost organic foods rises quickly. Many small-scale organic growers could lose their farms as quality and principle are compromised for quantity and lower prices – at any cost.

The bottom line is simply this, more people are demanding food that is good for people and for the planet, and this merger could help grow and sustain this trend. Organic, plant-powered food could become more accessible and more affordable for everyone. That is one side of the coin, but on the other side it is just as likely that quality will be diluted, and that the standards for how food is grown, processed, prepared, packaged and even delivered may go down. This could put more pressure than ever on consumers to make wise and conscious choices.

Where you shop matters. Supporting establishments that have ethical integrity and moral fiber, and that are more interested in health than just in profits, is one of the ways that you can invest in your wellness, in your community, and in our common future. Farmer’s markets and community supported agriculture (CSA) programs are a great way to support local organic farmers and to invest in your health at the same time. So are independent, locally owned natural foods stores and coops. And if you want to save 30% or more off typical Whole Foods market prices, while having 100% non-GMO foods delivered to your door, Thrive Market or other similar online sites could be another outstanding option.

In the end, (as I have said many time on this blog and in my books) every purchase you or I make is a vote. So, it’s up to each of us to use our dollars to vote for the health and the future we want and deserve.

Happy Gardening!!

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Asparagus Growing 101

6/23/2017

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If you love asparagus and want to grow some yourself, waste no time in getting started. Even with the best of care, an asparagus bed won't hit its stride for several years. But once that happens, the bed will produce an abundant crop of spears spring after spring for at least the next 20 to 30 years! So, the sooner you get it in the better.

In the old days, gardeners were told to prepare an asparagus bed by digging an 18" deep trench and then back-filling it with a mix of compost and soil. Thanks to plant breeders at Rutgers University in New Jersey and elsewhere, today's improved varieties of asparagus are less work to plant (6" to 12" deep is adequate) and produce almost twice as many spears per plant. The production increases are due to the fact that these hybrids are all-male cultivars, so no energy is wasted producing seeds. They also don't produce baby asparagus plants, which can compete for space and nutrients. You can forget about the Martha Washington and other old asparagus varieties. Most of the new varieties are also resistant to two common asparagus diseases: fusarium rot and asparagus rust.

Before planting a new asparagus bed, it's critical to eradicate all the weeds and grasses from the planting area — even if this requires a full year of advance preparation. Asparagus plants simply will not tolerate weed competition. Even though asparagus can sometimes be spotted growing in a ditch among thick grass, the domesticated varieties won't survive. No grasses, no weeds. That’s the rule, period.

Asparagus crowns are usually available just once a year in early spring. So, plan accordingly, it may be too late to find them now but it is not too soon to prep an area for your asparagus to live. Weed the area and top dress with about 3 inches of compost, continue to weed as needed until spring arrives. Once spring has sprung and the bed is weed-free, dig a trench about 12" deep and a foot wide. The crowns should be planted at 18" intervals in the bed, so put a shovel of compost and a cup of all-purpose, organic fertilizer in the trench every 18". Rock phosphate, a natural mineral powder, is another good addition. Phosphorus, which promotes strong root growth, doesn't move through the soil as easily as other nutrients. You only get one opportunity to fortify the root zone, so don't miss your chance.

You will also want to add some mycorrhizal fungi to the beds at this time. I purchase mine from David and Teresa Steinbrunner organic landscaping advocates and founders of www.wildrootorganic.com. I can not recommend their product strongly enough! Order some today, you'll be glad you did.

Mix the compost, mycorrhizal fungi, and fertilizer with some garden soil and shape it into a little mound. Set the asparagus crown on top and drape the roots down around the sides. The top of the crown should be approximately 6" below the soil surface. Cover the roots with garden soil right up to the crown and water well. As shoots begin to appear, add more good garden soil until the trench has been filled back up, level with the soil surface.

If grasses or other perennial weeds get established in an asparagus bed it is almost impossible to reclaim the planting. So, keep your asparagus bed well-mulched from the start, using shredded leaves, straw, or my personal favorite; crushed pecan shells. For the first couple years, weed often and carefully — asparagus roots are near the surface and can be damaged by weeding tools. Don't interplant other vegetables in the same bed. Asparagus hates competition of any kind.

Originally asparagus grew in swamps and wet places, so maintaining consistent soil moisture is important for good production. You may wish to install drip-irrigation or a soaker hose since San Marcos is such a dry region in summer. Watering is especially important during the first three to five years of growth.

To keep your asparagus bed productive, don't be greedy. The first year after planting, you can harvest a few spears from each plant. Pick for about two weeks and then stop so the fronds can unfold and begin feeding the root system. Harvest for three weeks the next year, and four to six weeks after that. Pick too much, and your plants will not be able to develop the strong root system and energy reserves they'll need to produce an abundant crop of spears the following season. Remember, these plants will produce for 20 to 30 years if you treat them with TLC during their first few years. Getting less now means getting much more later so take the long view here.

The diameter of the spear has no bearing on quality. Spears should be harvested when they are 5" to 7" high and before the tips begin to loosen. Once the tips loosen, the spears become tough and fibrous. To harvest spears, cut or snap them off just above the soil level. Leaving a stub causes no harm to the plant. Once the bed is well-established, harvesting can continue until the bed yields only skinny spears that are less than a half inch in diameter.

Once the harvesting season has ended, which will be in late spring/early summer, allow the spears to develop naturally. They will grow 4' to 6' feet high, with lacy, light-green foliage. Keep the bed weeded, mulched and watered. The healthier the fronds, the more energy the plants will have for next year's harvest. When fall arrives, the fronds will turn yellow. At this time, it's generally best to cut the fronds about an inch above ground level and remove them from the area. This will help keep pests, such as the asparagus beetle, from overwintering. It will also make sure your bed is neat and ready to go next spring. I always top dress my asparagus bed with about an inch or so of compost when I cut back the fronds.

Asparagus is a marvelous garden veggie, it produces for years and is packed full of all kinds of nutrition but the nutritional value of this springtime favorite fades fast after it is picked. Just another great reason to grow it instead of buying it in the store! I love steamed asparagus with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some garlic. I put the steamer on and then go pick the asparagus, it doesn’t get more delicious or nutritious than that!

Happy Gardening!!

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Magic in the Night

6/16/2017

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Do you miss those warm summer evenings lighted intermittently by the little flashes of fireflies? Many of us have been fortunate enough to enjoy the magic of fireflies and it is a privilege our children may be denied.

Call them fireflies, lightning bugs, glowworms or whatever, one thing you can’t call them in recent years, is plentiful. You can still find the flashy bugs in many areas of the country, but in Texas you might have to do some serious searching, say two Texas A&M University researchers. Entomologists Ed Riley and Bart Drees say the past few years have dimmed the lights of the flashy insects dramatically.

Like Fourth-of-July fireworks and lazy vacations, fireflies are a sign of summer. Many of us have cherished memories of catching them and keeping them by the bedside in mason jars, or running through fields that sparkled as if strewn with stars. But there are signs that our kids and grandkids will not grow up with the same wonderful firefly memories we had. That's because fireflies are disappearing from marshes, fields and forests all over the world. And if it continues, fireflies may fade forever.

“Why are fireflies disappearing?” It is a good question and the truth is that nobody really knows for sure. Oh, there are many speculations, and in most cases the problem comes down to we humans.

“There’s no doubt the severe drought we had a few years back affected them, too,” adds Drees, who is a Texas AgriLife Extension Service entomologist. “The lack of water had to be one big reason why you don’t see as many as in years past, but there are probably other reasons, too.” You bet there are; urban sprawl, light pollution and the over use of pesticides are at the top of my list!

“Most insects need a certain level of moisture in their environment, so drought can play a big role in their numbers,” adds Riley, a curator for the entomology department with a joint appointment with Texas AgriLife Research. “But another likely reason is urbanization – most insects need natural settings in which to live such as woods, meadows and creeks. In places where you have a lot of homes and concrete, you will find fewer insects, and lightning bugs certainly fall into that category.”

Both experts agree that there has been very little research over the past decade to determine why there appears to be fewer fireflies, which are technically beetles and not actually flies at all.

“As to whether pesticides are to blame,” says Drees, “it is very probable, but there is no definite research. There are just not that many scientific studies to look at to come to any single or group of definitive answers.”

Any way you look at it, fireflies are interesting bugs. They produce a chemical reaction inside their bodies that allows them to light up. This type of light production is called bioluminescence. The flashing, both males and females light up, is a huge neon sign to other fireflies that it is time to mate.

Their environment of choice is warm, humid and near standing water of some kind and in tall grass. They're nocturnal, and during the day they spend most of their time on the ground. At night, they crawl to the tops of blades of grass and fly into tree branches to signal for mates. Long grass conceals the fireflies better and allows them a better vantage point for signaling at night, and over-mowing your lawn may disturb your firefly population.

The problem is that throughout the world, our open fields and forests are being paved over, and our waterways are seeing more development and noisy boat traffic. As their habitat disappears, firefly numbers dwindle. Logging, pollution and increased use of pesticides also contribute to destroying firefly habitat and their natural food sources.

Human traffic is believed to disrupt firefly habitat as well. While scientific studies have only been done for the past few years, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence in areas that were once full of fireflies, and much of it goes back generations. Some areas once had so many fireflies that they profited from running firefly tours in marshes and forests, but since human traffic has increased, firefly populations have gone down.

Most firefly species have one thing in common: standing water, but they don't need a lot of water to get by. Temporary pools and small depressions that hold water just during the firefly mating season can provide the habitat fireflies need.

Scientists aren't completely sure what most species of fireflies eat. It's probable that firefly larvae feed on different prey from that of adult fireflies, this is not uncommon with insects. The larvae are believed to be carnivorous, living off smaller insects, snails and slugs. Adult fireflies may also live on other insects, as well as pollen and plants, but it's possible that some species don't eat anything, after all, their lifespan is only a few weeks long. But scientists believe fireflies thrive in wet areas because their prey does as well.

Fireflies love humid, warm environments. In the US, almost no species of light producing fireflies are found west of the Rocky Mountains. The western US does have fireflies, but just not the flashing kind. They have some glow worms, where the female will give off a constant glow while on the ground, but most of these females can't fly, and some daytime fireflies where the adults do not produce light at all. No one knows why the flashing fireflies never made it past the Rockies, although there are warm and humid areas to the west.

What we can do to bring the fireflies back?
Ecological damages are not easily reversed because they cannot be undone, and only remedied to some extent. But that shouldn’t discourage us from trying. A few of the measures we can take to welcome the fireflies back are:

Preserve wild hubs – A bit of wilderness left undisturbed in the farthest corners of the garden will welcome these insects.
Increase tree cover – The female fireflies park themselves on the cracks of tree barks awaiting their dates. They need some privacy.
Avoid chemical use – Turn to natural pesticides and composting to make your gardens healthier for you as well as the fireflies.
Reduce mowing frequency – The taller grass will provide the much-needed cover for the adults as well as the larvae.
Install water features in the garden – They encourage the growth of slugs and worms that the larvae feed on.
Reduce exterior lighting – Let them have a better chance at increasing their numbers. Businesses have to flash their signboards to attract customers, but do we really need our outdoors to be lighted up so brightly? If people are educated about how light pollution is driving fireflies away, a collective effort could be made to keep residential hubs dark enough to welcome them back, while still being lighted enough to be safe for us.

Awareness of the plight of butterflies and the sudden die-off of bees has brought much scientific research and grass roots efforts which are helping these beneficial insects, isn't it time we all put a little effort into the plight of the firefly?

I don't know about you but if we sit ideally by and allow fireflies to disappear from the Earth, then our summer nights will become a little darker and will forever be a lot less magical!

Happy Gardening!!

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More on Watering...

6/9/2017

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A few weeks ago, in the Phytonutrient Friday Blog, I offered some helpful hints on watering - boy did that open the flood gates - so to speak! I have gotten tons of responses and questions thus we have this week’s post which I am calling “More on Watering!”

In most regions, maintaining a lush, green lawn through summer hinges on watering. Sharpen your irrigation skills and I’ll try to help you know what to do to prevent brown patches from cropping up in your yard this summer.

As I mentioned in the previous post, a very general rule of thumb is to provide lawns with 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week, from irrigation or rainfall. A good way to check moisture penetration is to probe the soil with a screwdriver or similar object. How often you water will vary based on where you live and what type of soil you have. In order to conserve water and give grass just what it needs, it’ll help you to understand the factors that influence irrigation frequency.

Know your Grass Type - Different grass types require different amounts of water. For example:
A healthy lawn of tall fescue has a deep root system and the highest drought tolerance of cool-season turf types.

Kentucky bluegrass consistently goes dormant during drought, reviving when rainfall resumes.
Warm-season grasses, such as zoysia, St. Augustine, bermudagrass, and centipede, thrive in warm conditions, developing deep root systems that make them better able to withstand drought. In general, warm-season grasses require 20 to 40 percent less water than cool-season grass types.

Your Soil Type - Different types of soil absorb and retain moisture differently.

Keep in mind that healthy grass roots typically grow at least 6–8 inches deep.

The Region in which you live - Different regions receive different amounts of rainfall and summer weather conditions, which influences irrigation needs. Grass needs the most water when heat, drought, low humidity, and high winds prevail. It may be helpful earn to identify signs of drought and summer lawn stress so I’ll cove that more in depth in just a bit.

The Age of Your lawn - There’s one other key when determining irrigation frequency. While all lawns need consistent moisture to remain green and healthy, newly planted lawns are in a critical stage for the first year. Don’t rely solely on rainfall to establish a healthy, deep root system – provide supplemental irrigation during the first year of growth. During this critical period of early growth remember that watering deep and infrequently encourages deep root growth – don’t let the new grass dry out but don’t water it everyday either!

Watering Without Waste

During the scorching hot months of summer, conservation is key when it comes to watering and lawn care. Here are a few tips to ensure that not a drop of water goes to waste when watering your lawn this summer.

Choose your water delivery system carefully - For small lawns, try a hose-end sprinkler. Use a timer of some sort (even an oven timer will work) to help you remember to turn it off. With in-ground irrigation systems, use low-volume, low-angle sprinklers with heads that suit the size of the area you’re watering. Angle heads as low as possible to minimize evaporation. If you spot a fog or fine mist, that means that your system pressure is too high. Newer rotary nozzles (also called stream sprays or rotators) apply water slowly and evenly.
Watch your watering - Take the time, periodically, to observe the water distribution to ensure that you are not watering hard surfaces (causing runoff) or creating puddling on the lawn (applying too much water too quickly for soil to absorb it effectively).
Tinker with the timing - Add a smart timer that adjusts irrigation based on local weather conditions such as rainfall, temperature and even evapotranspiration rates. Water an hour or two before sunrise to minimize evaporation and take advantage of calmer winds. Time irrigation to avoid high water use hours in your household and community. Avoid night irrigation to prevent disease.
Fine-tune the watering duration - Measure how much water your system releases by evenly spacing six (or more) straight-sided containers (such as tuna fish or cat food cans) in the area you’re watering. Run your irrigation system for 20 minutes. Measure the amount of water in individual cans, adding them and dividing by the number of cans to get an average. Multiply the average by three to determine how much water your system releases in an hour.
Shorten select water cycles - With clay soils, slopes, and other areas where water runs off quickly, use short watering cycles on separate days to minimize runoff.
Inspect your water delivery system - Two clues that valves need to be repaired, cleaned, or replaced are leaking sprinklers and/or water-filled valve boxes. Fix leaks or unclog heads according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Replace damaged or broken heads as needed. I recommend purchasing an extra head or two to keep on hand so that, when needed, you can replace a damaged head right away – most sprinkler heads are rather inexpensive and easy to change out.
Reset your watering schedule frequently - At least seasonally, reset your watering schedule. Check with your local water authority for recommended irrigation schedules based on records of average weather conditions.

Signs of Drought and Summer Lawn Stress

When summer sizzles, a lawn can easily fizzle, trading lush green for crispy brown shades. The causes of brown grass vary. Insect feeding, drought stress, soil compaction, or other factors can combine with heat to damage grass. In this weakened state, a lawn is more susceptible to attack by weeds and insects. Some simple detective work can uncover the culprits behind brown summer lawns. Learn what to look for when lawn brownouts occur and what to do to keep grass healthy.

Drought StressLike any plant, grass reacts to summer’s high temperatures and lack of water with wilting, browning, or even death. Here’s how to detect drought stress:

Locate a brown patch, and pull on the grass. If it won’t pull easily from soil and is firmly rooted, it’s likely brown due to drought.
Push a screwdriver into soil in brown and green lawn areas. If the blade slips easily into green lawn and won’t penetrate brown, the soil is dry. In rocky soil, dig a small hole to check soil moisture.
Look at the lawn as a whole. When drought is the culprit, brown patches appear randomly and in rough patterns. Lawn near a sprinkler head may be green, while lawn further away is brown. Grassy areas in shade remain greener when parts in full sun turn brown due to drought. Lawn in low spots will remain green while higher areas turn brown.
Learn the early signs of drought stress. Footprints that remain on your grass after it’s walked on (as in the photo above) means your yard is thirsty. Kentucky bluegrass develops a grayish cast, while other grasses become darker hued. Grass blades may also wilt. If you hear a distinct crunching sound when you walk on your grass if is really thirsty!

Grass Dormancy
During periods of hot, dry conditions, both cool- and warm-season grasses can go dormant as a protective measure. If grass receives sufficient moisture, growth slows and blades remain green. During times of prolonged drought without irrigation, grass turns brown. If grass turns brown, don’t irrigate it unless you plan to continue watering the rest of the summer. When grass shifts out of dormancy, roots are depleted of food reserves, making plants susceptible to further stresses.

Don’t let newly established lawns go dormant. With a limited root system, a new lawn might not survive dormancy without extensive injury.

It varies by region, but grass that’s completely dormant may take up to three to four weeks, as irrigation is provided, to turn green. Providing more water than a lawn needs doesn’t hasten awakening from dormancy. You also may have to reseed a lawn that has gone dormant, especially with cool-season grasses. In my part of central Texas our lawns go brown in the heat of summer and green back up when the fall rains begin to fall.

Insects
Lawns also turn brown during summer due to insect activity. To determine if root-munching insects are present, pull firmly on brown grass. If it slips from soil and few or no roots are present, white grubs may be to blame. To learn more about grub control and how to identify a grub infestation in your yard, contact your local extension office.

Other insects eat grass blades not the roots, which causes lawn patches to appear as if they have been mowed too closely. Insects that attack lawns during summer include white grubs, chinch bugs, sod webworms, army worms, and cranberry girdler. Check with your local extension office to learn which pests plague which grass types in your area, the best methods for insect control, and how to deal with an insect infestation.

Cultural Practices
Fertilizing cool-season grasses during summer, cutting grass too short, and over-watering can weaken turf to the point that the grass becomes thin, exposing soil to weed seeds and insects. A lawn that’s frequently used for parking or does not receive regular aeration is more likely to have compacted soil, which produces poorly rooted grass that struggles to survive even when moisture is plentiful. Avoid heavy foot and vehicle traffic on lawns during drought.

Lawn Diseases
Summer is also the time when many lawn diseases attack, and lawns that are stressed due to drought are more susceptible to disease organisms. Other conditions that predispose a lawn to disease include consistently watering after dark and mowing with a dull blade that tears grass. The jagged, torn edges create more openings for disease organisms to enter grass blades. One of the very best things you can do for your lawn is to mow with sharp blades!

The basic thing to remember is that grasses inhabited our world before man ever came along and they did fine without our help. The only reason we need to worry about our lawns and care for them is because we want them to be green, lush, and lovely (by our standards) all the time. That is really not how nature works. In nature, everything has its season and then fades as the next thing reaches its peak. More and more people all the time are starting to wake up to this and by planting a native landscape in your yard rather than a turf lawn you can take advantage of haw mother nature works to have a lovely yard and garden all year long.

Happy Gardening!!

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More Tomato - This time ketchup!

6/2/2017

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Read my blog for very long and you will find I talk about tomatoes quite often. Can’t help it, I love them. But as a bit of a twist, I thought I would talk about a tomato product today instead of the actual tomato. From a 17th-century fish sauce, ketchup evolved into a patent medicine, a carcinogenic health hazard, and eventually, a non-Newtonian fluid. Here’s how ketchup’s rich history is reflected in something very iconic in Americana, the design of a Heinz ketchup bottle.

What do you think about when you see a glass bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup on a table? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t pay very close attention to it. It is a means to a hot dog’s end, unremarkable except for its ability to spread a thick, sweet-and-sour tomato puree on some item of food. Otherwise, what is there to say? But even commonplace objects have been designed, and seemingly simple questions about the design of something as unremarkable as a bottle of ketchup can have remarkably deep answers.

How deep, then, is a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup, really? What is the meaning behind the “57 Varieties” label wrapped around the bottle’s mouth, and why is it there? Why is a bottle of Heinz Ketchup transparent, instead of opaque? And why does the bottle make such a point of emphasizing that it is specifically full of tomato ketchup, when ketchup is synonymous with tomatoes?

Although we most closely associate ketchup with tomatoes these days, ketchup was around for hundreds of years before anyone even dreamed of chucking a tomato into the mix. In fact, ketchup, that most American of condiments isn’t even American. It’s Asian.

The long history of ketchup in the Western world extends back to the early 16th century, when British settlers in Fuji were introduced to a sauce used by Chinese sailors called ke-tchup. Local recipes for ke-tchup varied, but the first recipe on record dates back to 544 AD and instructs any prospective condiment maker to:

“take the intestine, stomach, and bladder of the yellow fish, shark and mullet, and wash them well. Mix them with a moderate amount of salt and place them in a jar. Seal tightly and incubate in the sun. It will be ready in twenty days in summer, fifty days in spring or fall and a hundred days in winter.”

By the time the British discovered ke-tchup, the recipe had been simplified into a pungent, amber-colored liquid made out of salted and fermented anchovies. In a very real way, the original ketchup wasn’t ketchup at all. It was fish sauce, pretty much identical to the fish sauce you can buy by the bottle in any Asian supermarket. When British traders headed back to England with a taste for the sauce, they attempted to re-create it, Anglicizing it with the addition of (what else?) beer. Eventually, anchovies were taken out of the sauce entirely and replaced with walnut ketchup (which was Jane Austen’s favorite kind) and mushroom ketchup (which, I am told, tastes similar to Worcestershire sauce).

In fact, even as they experimented with every other variety, the English enjoyed ketchup for close to 200 years before anyone thought of chucking a tomato in the recipe.

In nineteenth century America, the acceptance of the tomato was divided along the Mason-Dixon line. In the South, tomatoes were part of the daily diet. In New England, however, they were not very important. They didn’t grow well, the varieties took longer to mature, some floks still believed them to be poisonous, and besides that they were unlike any other foods that New Englanders were eating.

All that changed in 1834 when an Ohio physician named Dr. John Cook Bennett declared tomatoes to be a universal panacea that could be used to treat diarrhea, violent bilious attacks, sexual dysfunction, indigestion and darn near anything else you could think of. Pretty soon, Bennett was publishing recipes for tomato ketchup, which were then concentrated into pill form and sold as a patent medicine across the country. His claims were published in newspapers and magazines throughout the country. Bennett took a bunch of theories that had been circulating in the medical community and created a popular craze.

At one point Dr. Bennett met a Dr. Alexander Miles, who was busy selling a patent medicine called the “American Hygiene Pill.” Bennett suggested to Miles that he change the name of his pill to “Extract of Tomato.” Miles began advertising his extract of tomato pills and newspapers in virtually every part of the country came through with headline articles on miraculous tomato cures:

“We knew an instance of a very severe case of dyspepsia, of ten years standing, cured by the use of the tomato. The patient had been unable to get any relief; he could eat no fresh meat, nor boiled vegetables. Reading an account of the virtues of the tomato, he raised some, and used them as food in the fall, stewed, and made some in a jelly for winter use. He was cured.”
- The Boston Cultivator, 1843

A publicity wave surged through every region of the nation and all Americans—lower, middle, and upper classes—were infected with tomato mania. Even those who did not believe in tomato miracles began to understand that the tomato was a wholesome and delicious food.

Around 1840, the medical profession decided to investigate the tomato pills and find out what was really in them. All of their research suggested that there was nothing related to the tomato in any of the pills or liquid medicines. Ironic headlines, such as “Tomato Pills Will Cure All Your Ills,” continued to appear in the press. But in the end the pill was unimportant, what was important was that Americans started eating more tomatoes.

By 1876, tomatoes had undergone a remarkable turnaround in the court of public opinion. Tomato ketchup was not only popular, but because of the teachings of the influential quack mentioned above and by the patent medicine trade, tomato ketchup was actually considered to be a sort of tonic, a condiment that was actually healthier than normal ketchup. At the time, though, nothing could be further from the truth. And that dear readers, is why the Heinz sold his ketchup in a clear glass bottle.

“Filthy, decomposed and putrid.” These were the words that cookbook author Pierre Blot used in 1866 to describe the quality of commercial ketchups being sold at the time. Of course, prior to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (and as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle famously showed), the food manufacturing business as a whole could largely be described with these same memorable adjectives. But ketchup was particularly bad. In fact, when you opened a bottle, the contents could literally kill you.

The reasons ketchup was such vile, potentially deadly slop are varied, but let’s start with the shortness of the tomato season. Lasting from mid-August until mid-October, ketchup could only be made fresh for two months out of the year. However, by the late 19th century, Americans were used to expecting ketchup year around. A year’s worth of ketchup could not be made in two months, so manufacturers preserved tomato pulp to meet yearly expectations. It wasn’t a bad strategy, except for the fact that they did so with the same carelessness, filthiness, and lack of quality control that was endemic in the food manufacturing industry at the time. Entire barrels of pulp were stored so badly that, when opened, they were found to be filled with mold, yeast, spores, and even deadly bacteria.

The result was that commercial ketchups in the 19th century really were disgusting filth from the get-go, and only got worse in processing. To prevent the ketchup from moldering further, ketchup makers filled their batches with harmful preservatives, including boric acid, formalin, salicylic acid, and benzoic acid. Then, because ketchup with the pulp sieved out is actually more yellowish in color than anything else, coal tar was added to dye the ketchup red. To put this particular additive in its proper perspective one must understand that coal tar is flammable enough to fire boilers, is commonly used to coat asphalt in parking lots, and in concentrations above 5% is considered a group 1 carcinogen.

Still worse: Many ketchups were cooked in copper tubs, leading to a chemical reaction between the copper and ketchup that could actually make the concoction poisonous to consume. How bad were the ketchups of the time? In a study of commercial ketchups conducted in 1896, 90% of all ketchups on the market were found to contain “injurious ingredients” that could lead to death.

This was the sorry state of ketchup when Henry J. Heinz released his first bottle in 1876. But Heinz was a visionary, a morally strong man who believed that “heart power is better than horse power.” Under his leadership, the H.J. Heinz Company was truly ahead of its time. The factories were models of progressiveness. Not only were Heinz employees given free life insurance, death insurance, doctor and dental services, but also access to onsite cafeterias, dining rooms, medical stations, swimming pools, gymnasiums, and roof gardens. The workers were also encouraged to be meticulously clean. At a time when many factory workers didn’t even have running water at home, Heinz provided fresh uniforms, a free laundry service, and even an in-house manicurist to help them keep their nails immaculate.

Mr. Heinz wasn’t just driven to make his workers happy and healthy, though. At a time when no one else cared, Heinz was obsessed with making all or his products as pure as possible. It was a principle that had always guided Heinz in his business dealings. In fact, when Heinz began his career selling horseradish, he refused to sell it in the brown opaque bottles common at the time. Instead, he used transparent jars, so that buyers could see his horseradish’s purity for themselves before they gave him a penny.

But the recipe to make his ketchup as pure as his horseradish eluded Heinz for nearly two decades. It wasn’t until 1904 that Heinz’s chief food scientist, G.F. Mason, was able to find a good preservative-free recipe for ketchup. Before then, Heinz used many of the same preservatives as his competitors, even coal tar to dye his ketchup red. By 1906, though, the nut had been cracked, and Heinz was producing five million bottles of preservative-free ketchup every year.

If there was one principle that Henry J. Heinz valued more than any other, it was purity and transparency. “It is always safe to buy the products of an establishment that keeps its doors open,” Heinz once famously wrote. That every bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup sold is see-through is no accident. It’s a design statement: purity through transparency.

And What’s the Story Behind Those 57 Varieties?

Each bottle of Heinz ketchup somewhat mysteriously brags about the company’s “57 Varieties” in a small label wrapped around the neck. That there are actually 57 varieties of Heinz products has literally never been true. Inspired by an advertisement he saw on a train for a company that made “21 varieties” of shoes, Heinz combined his favorite number, 5, with his wife’s number, 7, to brag about his company’s own breadth of products. When he first began to put the “57 Varieties” label on his ketchup bottles, the H.J. Heinz Company already produced over 60 different products. So “57 Varieties” has literally always been playful nonsense. But the small label that circles the neck of every bottle of Heinz ketchup sold? No nonsense there. It’s purely functional, it is important, and you probably never knew it!

One interesting fact about ketchup that everyone should know is that it’s a non-Newtonian fluid, there is a lot of math involved but basically what it means is that a non-Newtonian fluid does not pour as well as most fluid will. Naturally, ketchup is rather thin and watery, because the tomato pulp that gives it consistency is sieved out. As a result, commercial ketchup makers add a small amount of xanthan gum to their ketchup recipes to thicken it. But this ingredient has another side effect: It turns ketchup into a shear thinning (non-Newtonian) fluid. In other words, how quickly ketchup flows depends upon the stress that is being placed upon it.

That ketchup is non-Newtonian is the main reason why getting it out of a glass bottle is so slow. Allowed to flow naturally, ketchup only travels at a speed of 147 feet per hour. And yes, I tested this to confirm that it is true! The only way to speed it up is to apply force, which through the principle of shear thinning decreases the ketchup’s viscosity, and thus increases its flow rate. This is why you have to thump a bottle of ketchup to get it flowing from the bottle. The concussive force makes it flow faster.

But despite common opinion, the bottom of a bottle of Heinz Ketchup isn’t actually the best place to thump it. If you apply force to the bottom of a bottle of Heinz, the ketchup closest to where you smacked will absorb most of the force of impact. It will flow freely, but the ketchup that is viscously clogging the neck and mouth of the bottle won’t, leaving you no better off than you were before. The solution is to trigger the shear thinning effect at the top of the bottle, not the bottom. What you need to do is tap the neck of the bottle, right on the number ‘57’ and that unclogs the mouth and lets the ketchup below freely flow.

So, while the substance of Heinz’s “57 Varieties” label may be just a fanciful whim on the part of the company’s creator, its positioning is deliberate. It’s a target. By simply tapping the label with two fingers, you create the optimal conditions for shear thinning, transforming non-Newtonian ketchup into a free-flowing liquid. Hooray for Physics!

Of course, these days, most ketchup is sold in squeeze bottles. Even Heinz’s competitors have figured out how to make ketchup that they aren’t ashamed to sell in transparent containers. In our modern world, tomatoes are synonymous with ketchup, and you’d be hard-pressed to find even the most grotesque, lunatic quack recommending ketchup as a cure-all.

None of that matters, though. A bottle of Heinz isn’t just a container of ketchup. It’s a design classic because of everything besides the ketchup it manages to bottle up: not just the history of a condiment or an object lesson in non-Newtonian physics, but the guiding principles of a forward-thinking innovator, a man who believed, more than anything else, that good design was transparent.

And also, perhaps, tasted pretty good on a plate of French fries.

Happy Gardening!!

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