Sunday, July 29, 2012

Tomatoes! They're ripening on the Tower Garden ---- not all at once but in turn. This means that they don't have the mutation stumbled upon in the 1920s by commercial breeders who liked the idea that tomatoes would ripen uniformly. It simplified the harvest and it has pervaded lots of tomato breeds.

This mutation has been connected to the same gene that reduces sugars and nutrients in the tomatoes. The discovery has valuable ramifications for professional growers but also means that the mutant tomatoes don't taste as good as heirloom nor are they as nutritious. 

Researchers at Cornell University along with colleagues in Spain and Turkey --- A. L. T. Powell, C. V. Nguyen, T. Hill, K. L. Cheng, et. al. --- have recently published their report about the discovery of this gene.  

Another reason the Tower Garden is superior: Late blight. For tomato plants grown in soil this is a pervasive bane. I'll post a picture of my neighbor's tomatoes, which also are ripening by turn, but as you can see the vines are already gone by late blight and it isn't even August yet! 

On the Tower Garden the vines are in place and we will get more tomatoes. 




  

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Peppers! This 70-year-old gardener has never seen anything like this. Clusters of peppers coming on the plants on my Tower Garden. http://melvins.towergarden.com


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Juniper berries. This morning I took this picture on our walk. Who knew that juniper berries are a "male fragrance" for cologne, a spice used in the cuisine of Central Europe, notably for sauerkraut and venison, and used medicinally as a diuretic and to treat indigestion, flatulence, and kidney and bladder disease?  In fact, juniper berries are the only spice in the botanical group coniferae. This is just so you'll know.

Friday, July 20, 2012

The rage in art when I was in college was called Minimalism. The underlying was to try to remove metaphorical symbolism, symbolism, and spiritual transcendence. Which means Duchamp's urinal probably wouldn't cut it. Anyway people like Donald Judd were looking for another boundary of where something was "still art" though it broke society's rules about what is and isn't art. Now I learn that Minimalism didn't outlive the 60s. Here I'll share another of what I call found found art.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

All art is abstract. I thought maybe Pinterest had made an aesthetic judgement about my found object art, but  then I heard that the picture was just "too small".

Eggplant. Today we see purple fruit. We've seen many purple flowers but from now on the Tower Garden will be producing eggplants.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

All art is abstract. It's just a question of how abstract you like it. Found objects like urinals carry notation and connotation some of us don't like in our work but that's been done before. Here's my offering for today.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Found Object. In the history of art there came a time when artists tired to challenge the line between what "is art" and what "is not art". This led to the concept of the "found object" which has not been subject to the artist's hand but yet has art value anyway. It led in 1917 to Marcel Duchamp displaying a urinal as a piece of sculpture. Picasso and Kurt Schwitters were also early proponents of "found object" art. Here's my "found object" art for year 2012.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Minnesota Nice.  You must be from Minnesota if you have a complete conversation with a wrong number. In fact, once we sang "happy birthday" to our grandson on a wrong-number voice mail. Even after the "wrong number" man knew it was our mistake he called and complimented us on our singing and extended his own birthday wishes for our grandson! From public radio's "Prairie Home Companion comes the joke that in Lake Wobegon people only lock their doors during zucchini season. That's to keep neighbors from sneaking zucchini into their homes unawares!  As you can see from this picture the zucchini season is upon us.
This picture shows four of the eleven zucchinis that are maturing on our Tower Gardens! Neighbors be forewarned!!
http://melvins.towergarden.com

Friday, July 6, 2012

Have you heard of a "strange loop"?  It's a self-reference that twists the world back upon itself. Consider the two statements:

The following statement is true.
The following statement is false.

The picture above comes from http://pinterest.com/maniska/ Let's see what happens when we twist it!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Spinach! This 70-year-old person who has been gardening all his life has, for the first time raised spinach. This is thanks to the Tower Garden by Juice Plus+. "Your soil is to acid, Melvin. Grow the Swiss chard." "Don't try to grow spinach." Now we're harvesting mild-tasting baby spinach salad greens, fresh from the garden to the salad, no middle man.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy Independence Day! It's not "interdependence day" as it winds up being in some countries. It is celebrating our independence: our life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; for which our founders jeopardized their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. Many gave the supreme sacrifice.

We have come quite a distance. The founders gave us a representative republic. Since early in the 19th century politicians have tried to change that to be a democracy. Then 100 years ago Woodrow Wilson, a progressive who despised the Constitution, tried to make "the world safe for democracy". The rest is history.

We need to be vigilant. The Constitution is being shredded. Our national sovereignty is being betrayed to unaccountable international panels. Our everyday decisions are being dictated by faceless bureaucrats who have no accountability at the ballot box. Our freedoms of worship and speech are being abridged.

We need to make ourselves heard. We need to exercise our freedom of assembly. We need to hold our representatives accountable. We need to vote. Celebrate Independence Day 2012 with a feeling of gratitude but don't become complacent.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

July 3 and we see blossoms on the eggplant. No eggplant yet, but that'll come. We've seen pea, tomato, cucumber, zucchini and now eggplant blossoms. Last night's storm didn't do any damage. I was surprised. Each week brings a new exciting episode in our tower gardening experience!
Happy Independence Day to everyone!

Monday, July 2, 2012


We’re making a real difference in the lives of people through nutrition.  It came home to me especially this weekend when my 12-year-old granddaughter posted on Facebook a rundown of her statistics:  favorite movie, age, etc. and then --- favorite food: Melvin Niska food (!)

This is the upcoming generation that Dr. David Katz says won’t live as long as their parents and it is more than flattering to me that she likes the way I prepare food: healthy and tasty. In fact I have a cookbook that I’m giving away as a referral gift that shares my experience with whomever is also interested in healthy and tasty food.

My cookbook: "Cooking Secrets from Mel's Deli" I give away as a free gift to anyone who gives me a referral resulting in a new Juice Plus+ capsule or Tower Garden customer.