Heirloom Seeds

I started canning because I wanted to make jam, it began as a fun thing I could do in my spare time. Around the same time, I was taking Anatomy and Health courses to finish off my degree and both instructors were saying the same thing….do you have any idea what is in the food you are eating. I would seem simple enough, fruit cocktail is just mixed fruit and diet soda is with a sweetener rather than a can of sugar. We were very wrong, along with the fruit cocktail comes an array of chemicals may people, including myself, have a hard time pronouncing. The diet soda has sweeteners such as NutraSweet (Sweet N Low), which my mom uses and, admittedly, I do too or more recently Aspartame, or Equal. My Anatomy instructor, who will remain nameless because he publishes his own books, informed us that Aspartame probably would not be on the market had it not been for a friend at the FDA who helped push it through, and since its launch into society as a sugar substitute, diseases such as Alzheimer’s has been on the rise. Sweet N Low is pegged for causing cancer, although lab tests have shown that in order to get cancer from Sweet N Low, one would have to ingest substantial amounts, not just a morning cup of coffee, but gallons on a daily basis. In comparing the less of two equals, and because I don’t care for the taste of Splenda or Truvia, I’ll be sticking with sugar for baking and Sweet N Low for my coffee. 

After seeing posts and articles on Monsanto and other GMO products finding their way into the marketplaces unannounced and unlabeled, my desire to begin my own garden was given a healthy shove. I came across a company that is one of the few remaining heirloom seed providers; D. Landreth Company http://www.landrethseeds.com/ offers an online marketplace as well as a beautiful catalog ($5.00) to purchase seeds. Their staff is informative, unlike Lowes and Home Depot, who really don’t know “shit from Shineola” as that saying goes. The variety is amazing and the quality is excellent.