Water | Swimming Pools
Organic Living for All
This is my local organic nursery and garden center, where the owner teaches neighbors like me how to grow organic vegetables in soil that is basically beach sand. I’ve been using her soil amendments that rebuild and reminerlize the soil so that anyone can grow healthy, nutritious and nutrient-dense food in their own backyard. If I can grow organic food in my beach sand, you can grow it too.
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Listen to my interview with Organic Living for All Founder Jai McFall. |
Denture Cleaner
Question from Susan
As an older couple, my husband and I both wear dentures, but are not satisfied with the two cleaning tablets available on the market. They are toxic, as they say on the box to “wash hand thoroughly after touching tablets”. They leave a terrible aftertaste even after rinsing many times. They also say to contact poison control if a child puts in mouth.
Is there a safer product or can I use baking soda and water as a soak? My dentist offered no help at all.
Many thanks if anyone has a remedy.
Debra’s Answer
Readers? What are you using?
Food Dehydrator
Question from Gigi
Debra, I understand that you have a dehydrator. Which one do you have?
I am looking at the following four models:
How would you rank them in terms of safety?
Also, I plan to use good quality parchment paper such as Beyond Gourmet.
Debra’s Answer
I have the Excalibur 9-Tray with Timer and am very happy with it.
I considered the stainless steel, but it was more expensive and I know enough about plastics to know which are the safest and which to avoid.
Here’s what Excalibur says about their case material:
The tray screen material is NOT polycarbonate. It’s polyprolylene.
I feel satisfied that this is safe at this low temperature. I had to balance this against the possibility of metals leaching from stainless steel or chrome.
Cookware – What’s Toxic and What’s Not
My guest is Rich Bergstrom from Ceramcor, makers of Xtrema Ceramic Cookware, the cookware I use every day. For 23 years Rich worked for and represented Corning Glass Works, considered the finest ceramics company in the world—makers of Corning Ware cookware, Pyrex bakeware and Corelle dinnerware. It was during these years he worked wit many wonderful people who helped to shape and mold his love for the glass ceramics business. In October of 2004, three years after his tenure with Corning ended, Rich received an unsolicited e-mail from Asia asking if he would be interested in a new high temperature ceramic material that could go on top of the stove and under the broiler, a product that would surpass the cooking performance and benefits of the original Corning Ware (the original Corning Ware manufacturing facility in Martinsburg, WV was closed and dismantled in 2002. Corning Ware is still being marketed today by World Kitchen but the product is now being made of stoneware and not the patented Pyro-Ceram material that made Corning Ware so recognizable). That single e-mail became the catalyst for three additional years of research, testing and product development, which led to the introduction of Xtrema cookware In February of 2007. Their vision is to make Xtrema products the healthiest for you and our planet. We’ll talk about the toxic exposures in various types of cookware and what Ceramcor is doing to make the safest cookware. www.debralynndadd.com/debras-list/xtrema-cookware
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Cookware – What’s Toxic and What’s Not
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Rich Bergstrom
Date of Broadcast: November 24, 2014 (May 30, 2013)
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world. Yes, the toxic chemicals are all around in consumer products we use every day, in our environment, in our homes. But we don’t have to be exposed to them. We don’t have to get pricked from them. We can choose non-toxic products. We can choose to remove toxic things from our homes and toxic chemicals from our bodies and live the happy fulfilling product lives that we want. And that’s what this show is about.
It’s Thursday, May 30th 2013. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida. Today, we’re going to talk about cookware, which is actually one of my most frequently asked questions. People want to know what they should cook in. There’s a lot of information about toxic chemicals in cookware, which we’re going to talk about today, but there’s also safe dinner ware (safe cookware, I should say).
But before I get to my guest, I just want to tell you a little story about my experience with cooking. I’ve been cooking many, many years since I’ve been six years old and I used to cook a lot of foods that weren’t actually good for me and I’ve eaten a lot of junk food in my life.
But several years ago, I decided that I was going to go for one month only eating food that I cooked myself and that I was not going to eat any packaged foods or go to any restaurants or eat any take-out, not even from the natural food store, but that I would only eat food that I cooked myself.
I consider my health to be pretty good, but the difference to my health after that month was just stunning in terms of how I felt, then energy that I had and some of my minor annoying symptoms went away and it made such an impression on me that I continued to cook and cook and cook and so of course, you need cookware (unless you’re on a raw diet of course).
But recently, I’ve been very, very busy and haven’t had my usual time to prepare my own food. And so I’ve been eating outside and sneaking back in. I’ve noticed even in a short of period of time that my health was not good as when I cooked on my own.
So this is one of the reasons why it’s so important to have good cookware, to be buying fresh ingredients and to know how to cook, to know how to put together tasty dishes that you want to eat.
So today my guest is Rich Bergstrom from Ceramcor, makers of Xtrema Ceramic Cookware, which is my favorite cookware and the cookware that I use every day. It’s made from ceramic material through and through. Thanks for being with us, Rich.
RICH BERGSTROM: Hi, Debra. It’s a pleasure being on your show again. You’re one of my favorite people. I know we’ve had a relationship for the last four or five years and I’m a big proponent of what you’ve done. I’m just glad to be on the show.
DEBRA: Thank you! I’m really glad to have you too. I should say, when Rich said, “I’m glad to be on your show again,” I actually had an earlier version a few years ago of Toxic Free Talk Radio and this is now a new version. So if you’re looking online for another show with Rich as guest, it’s not there. So we’re just going to start over.
But yes, I’ve known Rich – haven’t we’ve known each other almost since the beginning of your company?
RICH BERGSTROM: Yes, the company, I started it in 2004 with the testing of this new ceramic material, but didn’t really launch the company until 2008 and at that time was when our relationship started.
DEBRA: Yes, yes. And I am very happy to be recommending your cookware and using it every day.
Well, let’s start with just having you tell us what made you interested in creating healthy cookware? Why is that important to you?
RICH BERGSTROM: I guess it was by accident. I worked for Corning consumer products started in 1978. They were the manufacturer of Corning Ware, Vision Cookware, Corelle and Pyrex Ovenware. I had a 23-year work experience with them. So I grew up in the ceramics business and all my cooking has always been with Corning Ware.
And then Corning sold their company in 1997 and they stopped making the Corning Ware material. But what was interesting about Corning Ware is that is a glass ceramics. So the one key factor of glass is it’s completely non-toxic, it’s somewhat durable, but it doesn’t heat very well. And when we started this company, when I started looking at different materials that would work well with a stove, that led me to Asia where they’ve had a 5000-year history working with ceramics. I was fortunate enough to work with several scientists and engineers over there that developed a new type of ceramic material unlike Corning Ware.
A glass ceramic actually retracts the heat. It doesn’t absorb energy. So we needed to make inorganic ceramic compound and minerals that could be mixed together and make a cookware that would absorb heat similar to metal cookware.
It took us three years. And in 2008, we were able to come out with a product that was selling now called Xtrema. What makes this so exciting – and I didn’t know this at the time because we want to come up with a ceramic material that would also go on a microwave or go on a steamer oven, would go on to a broiler, refrigerator, freezer and go to the table similar to Corning Ware. And having worked in the restaurant business many years in college, I know in the backend, what they call where food is prepared, all of the chefs and the prep people work with either stainless steel or aluminum cookware, yet on their front end or where their food is served, everything is served on either porcelain or stoneware ceramic plates.
And so the question is why do you cook on metal and why do you serve on ceramic? The reason is metal is very durable and therefore, it can take the abuse in the industrial kitchen in a restaurant, but yet, they’re not serving on metal cookware.
So I said, “You know what? There’s got to be a reason for that. So I found a laboratory in Pennsylvania. In 2007, we started testing various types of metal cookware. There’s a standardized test that they do for extracting lead and heavy metals.
And there’s another test that I invented. The laboratory, they do this with all different types of products and the results that we found is pretty astounding, that most metal cookware, even quality stainless steel, when they performed this testing would prove that was actually leeching chromium or nickel or iron or aluminum or copper into the food during the cooking process. We weren’t even looking for that. We just thought it might be something to test.
When I saw those results, a light went off and I said I wanted to contact Dr. Mercola who is a big proponent of healthy living just like you are, but he was selling a line of cast iron cookware. I tested his cookware as well and I found out that it wasn’t as healthy as he thought it was because nobody has ever tested metal cookware.
So I developed a relationship with Dr. Mercola. We also make the cookware for Dr. Mercola. We’re very proud of that relationship. He’s been very good for our business. He believes in non-toxic cookware and he also believes in ceramic cookware.
So from my relationship with Dr. Mercola and then getting involved with you, we changed the whole focus of our business to healthy ceramic cooking, as well as versatility.
So since that timeframe, what has been really interesting is there had been a lot of studies. If you look on our website (and you’re a big proponent of this too), there’s a tremendous amount of information available on our website not by us, by other people who are experts in the field who have tested the toxicity of metal leeching in the food and some of the ramifications that can have on your autoimmune system.
Dr. Bernard who was just on Dr. Oz did a wonderful show about Alzheimer’s, how 50% of people, by the time they’re 85 years of age will end up with Alzheimer’s and most of that is from the leeching of heavy metal from cookware and the food that we eat.
And actually, there’s a video on our website. I think it’s like a 30-minute video that you can watch, the consumers can watch. This is something that we’re finding out from a lot of other experts in the field. We like to think we’re the experts in making high quality cookware, but we’re not the experts when it comes to testing and leeching of heavy metals. We leave that to the scientists and the people who…
DEBRA: I’m sorry, Rich. I need to interrupt because if I don’t, they’re going to cut you off. We need to go to our commercial break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and we’ll be back in a moment.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. We’re here today with my guest, Richard Bergstrom from Ceramcore, makers of Xtrema Ceramic Cookware, the cookware that I use every day.
And Rich, before the break, you were talking about studies on your website that show testing. I’m on your website and I’m not finding them, can you tell me where to look for them?
RICH BERGSTROM: Yeah, you have to go – and I don’t have my website in front of me. You go to the ‘products’ section or ‘about us’. And then it goes down, you scroll down and you’ll see ‘testing’. It should say ‘testing of Xtrema products’ and it will show you various reports. There’s a whole bunch of PDF files of testing of not only our products, but then all of our competitors’ products. We don’t list their names. We don’t believe in doing that, but we show the various types of cookware whether it’s cast iron or aluminum or stainless steel.
DEBRA: I see it now. Anybody who’s listening who wants to go see this at their website, across the top, there’s a menu. It says ‘about’. And then when you hover over that, another menu comes down. You want to click on ‘product testing’. That takes you to a page that has an index of articles. Here’s one about the making of seal, hidden dangers in metal cookware and – let’s see, stainless steel drink ware (that’s by me), Alzheimer’s disease, ‘Is Your Cookware Killing You?’. There’s lots of stuff to read on this page.
Also, you have a lot of wonderful information on your website. I’m looking here in the left-hand column. There’s a little graphic that was like a piece of film. It says ‘watch the Xtrema videos’. When you go there, there’s information about – you can watch videos about heating up pans and they’re not melting and things like that. There’s actually quite a lot of interesting information you have here.
So I think we were talking about that you wanted to make a material that gave the qualities of being able to hold the heat like metal that you wanted to have, but also be clean like glass. I’d just like to interject for those who don’t know that glass is made from silica, which is basically glass. It’s an abundant material. It’s completely non-toxic.
I do know that sometimes, toxic things can be mixed with ceramics to have various characteristics like lead and [inaudible 00:16:52] and things like that. But your ceramic is designed to be non-toxic chemicals, no metals. It’s just ceramic, correct?
RICH BERGSTROM: Right. And what makes a difference with our product, when you manufacture different types of metal, first of all, there are a lot of companies out there today. They say that their cookware is green. It might be a metal. It might be aluminum cookware, stainless steel. And now, a lot of people are getting away from the non-stick coatings that people are familiar with. Teflon and POFA and PTFE, those are different types of polymers that were put in chemicals/synthetics that they would put on metal cookware that would make it non-stick so it would be easy to clean.
And now, a lot of companies have gone to a new type of ceramic coating on metal cookware, which does not have PTFE or POFA. It’s called the sol gel coating, but it is a synthetic material…
DEBRA: Yeah, tell us more about this. Tell us more about this because I see different things being labeled in different ways. A lot of them will say it’s a ceramic coating, but it doesn’t really say what it is.
RICH BERGSTROM: Yes.
DEBRA: And every time I see some green-ish name on a skillet, I look for it in a store and I touch it. Some of them feel very much like plastics. Some of the feel very slippery. I mentioned Green Courmet a lot. [Inaudible 00:18:33] Green Gourmet, I have a couple of their skillets. But what I have found over time is that the shininess and the slipperiness of the finish wears down. And yours does not. Your pan is the same as it was the day I bought it.
When I first got my Green Gourmet pans, I thought, “Oh, I can cook eggs in this without fats. It would just slide around in the pan. It was very easy. And after a couple of years, I had to spread a bunch of butter on the pan as any other pan. It really loses its effectiveness.
So do tell us about these other ceramic finishes.
RICH BERGSTROM: Okay. So what is happening – and that’s a great question. You put up a perfect example. These new ceramic coatings have only been on the market for about three to four years where the Teflon coatings, believe it or not, the PTFE coatings, it’s a plastic type polymer that is sprayed on. Those coatings are basically safe unless you heat them over 500°. And that’s when they break down and it causes toxicity. And a lot of people unfortunately cook on higher heat than they should. So those coatings have a tendency to break down.
But the original Teflon coatings that were on most of the cookware had a life expectancy of up about three to four years. These new ceramics coatings that had just been coming in the last two to three years, in all honestly (and a lot of manufacturers won’t tell you this, but I know because I’ve been involved with some of these coating companies), they really only last about six months because they’re so new.
The problem is when you’re dealing with ceramics, ceramic material is harder than steel. What I mean by that, it’s not necessarily stronger, but the material itself is harder. So when you put a ceramic coating, which is a hard material on metal, which is softer than ceramic, it’s not going to bond as well and it’s not going to last as long.
So when you talk with these companies and you ask them what is sol gel, it’s a silicon-type base synthetic mixed with ceramic material, but you can’t really get a true answer as to what that coating is made of.
I think the difference between what we’re doing at Ceramcor with other cookware companies is the accountability.
DEBRA: And I need to interrupt you again, I’m sorry because we have to go to break, but we’ll talk more about that after this message. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Rich Bergstrom from Ceramcor, makers of Xtrema Ceramic Cookware. You can go to their website at Xtrema.com. That begins with an x, x-t-r-e-m-a .com. This is the cookware that I use every day and I’m extremely happy with it. I’ve been using it for I guess five years. That’s as long since I got it, when you started the company. It is in good a condition today as the day I got it. I’m extremely happy with it.
So before the break, Rich, you were telling us about the difference between the ceramic coatings on metal cookware that are being used today and your Xtrema Cookware.
RICH BERGSTROM: Yes. And my point was that we get a lot of calls from consumers in emails. They ask us about our product and then we point them on our website where we have our test results. We believe in total transparency and accountability. That’s why we probably have more information on our website about testing than all of the cookware manufacturers can find. We just believe that it’s better to tell the customer exactly how our product is made, why we believe our product is green as opposed to metal cookware.
The manufacturing of metal (which is a necessary product and we understand that), when there’s a metal manufacturing company that makes cookware that says their product is green because they put a ceramic coating on it would be like me saying there’s a toxic landfill and I put a green bamboo fence around the landfill, that does not make the landfill green. That just makes the fence green.
So if there’s a metal manufacturer out there and they call their cookware Green Pan or ‘green’, that really is scamming because that’s taking a ceramic coating that has not been tested or proven and they’re putting that on metal cookware, which is not green.
So there’s a lot of misinformation about green and the manufacturing of ceramics, all different types of ceramics – local potters, the dinnerware companies – that is green because they use natural fired kilns. There’s no toxicity, no pollution to the environment, to the worker in ceramics factories as opposed to the manufacturing of metal.
So there’s a lot of misinformation. And probably the one thing that really upset me the most when we were finding out about the difference between ceramics and metal cookware – I spend a lot of times with various doctors, I’ve had some health issues like yourself and I’ve had a lot of heavy metal in my system that I had to detox several times.
What I find out is that there are a lot of doctors when I would go to the doctor with my wife, the doctor would say, “Well, if you’re low in iron, you should cook in cast iron because the iron that you have from your metal cookware would be good for you.” I say, “Well, that doesn’t really kind of make a lot of sense to me.” I said, “There’s got to be some documentation on that.”
And then having done some testing and asking doctors and really finding out the truth that there’s really two different kinds of iron – and really, cooking in cast iron is the biggest fallacy. The truth is that iron comes in ferrous and ferric form and our bodies cannot assimilate the ferric iron from cast iron cookware.
Actually, what the term the doctors use is it’s not ‘bioavailable’ meaning when you need healthy food, it goes to your cellular level and its value, it becomes bioavailable and it’s actually good for you. But if you cook your food in toxic metal cookware, if it’s a poor quality aluminum cookware or cast iron, that metal is absorbed into the food, then you absorb it into your body. It can actually do damage if you have autoimmune problems.
A lot of people really don’t have the information about how toxic some of the poor quality aluminum cookware or cast iron cookware can be. And actually, you get the metal taste in your food.
DEBRA: Yes, yes.
RICH BERGSTROM: That doesn’t happen when you cook with ceramics because there’s no metal in ceramics and it’s made of inorganic, natural minerals, so there’ll be no leeching into your food during the whole cooking process.
DEBRA: It fills the food. One of the things that I noticed being somebody who loves to cook is that I have tried different types of cookware and food taste different. You can cook exactly the same food in different cookware made of different materials and it will taste different.
I especially found that out when I was trying to figure out what to cook my eggs in. I was very impressed by your cookware, it was very neutral. It doesn’t give any metallic taste or any taste at all of anything. It just is the food. It feels good.
I also want to make sure that we mention – I’m kind of going off on a tangent here. I want to make sure that we mention that ceramics have thousands of years of history. Isn’t ceramics like making a pot and cooking something in it, isn’t that one of the first forms of cookware, ceramics?
RICH BERGSTROM: Yes. You go back 8000 years. If you go back to biblical times, actually, the first pots that they cooked in was clay. And then they went through the bronze age and metal. But clay, obviously, is an abundant material. From that, the pottery goes dating back thousands of years. Mainly in China, you can trace it back to 8000 years going back to the Ming and the Tang dynasty. So the finest ceramics in the world to this day with an 8000-year history come from Asia even more so than in Europe or the United States. The United States has only really had about 150-year history in the manufacturing of ceramics.
So a lot of people ask us, “Rich, why do you make your products in China as opposed to the United States?”…
DEBRA: I was going to ask you that…
RICH BERGSTROM: And I would like to say, “We could make it in the United States, but unfortunately, there’s only three ceramics factories left in the United States that make dinnerware.” I’ve had conversations with them. They just don’t have the materials, they do not have the artisans, the craftsmen that can make our products.
And so there’s really no alternative than to make our product in China because it takes about 20-21 days. Our products are all handmade. The artisans in China had been making ceramics going back 8000 years. So the technology, the materials, the way the product is made, the manufacturing facilities are more conducive to making our product in Asia than it would be in the United States.
It would be cost-prohibitive for me to be able to train place and take years. And the factory, it would take me probably ten years to get a factory that would be able to make the same quality product that we make in our factory in China. So that’s why our product is made where it is.
DEBRA: Oh, good. We’re going to take another break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest is Rich Bergstrom from Ceramcor. We’re talking about Xtrema Ceramic Cookware. We’ll be back in a few minutes.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. I’m here today with my guest, Rich Bergstrom from Ceramcore, makers of Xtrema Ceramic Cookware. Their website is Xtrema.com. That starts with the letter x-t-r-e-m-a .com.
If you haven’t ever seen their cookware, go to their website and take a look at it because it’s absolutely beautiful. It really does go from oven to table as a beautiful serving piece in addition to being healthy. I just love the way the food tastes that comes out of these pots. It’s delicious.
So Rich, tell us briefly how the cookware is made. You start with what and then what happens?
RICH BERGSTROM: Basically, it’s like all stonework type material. Any type of ceramic material, you take minerals from the earth crust. That could be – and I’m going to throw around some terms that are not very familiar. It’s [inaudible 00:39:43], it’s clay, it’s sand, it’s quarterite, petalite. They are inorganic minerals from the earth’s crust that are mixed in different combinations. And the formula that we use gives it its thermal properties.
So our cookware can withstand temperatures up to 2700°F. So that means if you’re using our cookware on top of a stove and you put it in a sink that it’s not going to crack. That’s very similar to Corning Ware, which is very famous for that as well.
So it had that very good thermal properties where it can go from one extreme to the other. That became very important to us because people, you could take it from the stove, then bring it to the – it’s attractive enough to go to the kitchen table. And then if you wanted, you can put it in a freezer. You wouldn’t have to worry about transporting it to a different type of vessel to go from the stove to the freezer. It could all be done in one.
So our cookware became very versatile and multi-functional. And now in various parts of Asia, the type of cooking that they’re doing there, they do a lot of steam cooking. So in the United States, steam or ovens are starting to become popular, but even more so in Asia, so our cookware is absolutely wonderful. If you use a steamer oven, it’s actually perfect.
I just found out last year that the no. 1 appliance sold in the United States last year are toaster ovens. So we’re coming out with different shapes and sizes that will fit a toaster oven because why turn on a big oven at 450° when they can heat your whole kitchen when you can get a high-quality toaster oven for $49 to $69. You can cook a 12” pizza or one quarter or two quarter casserole. You don’t have to heat up your whole kitchen. It’s much more functional.
So we’re designing products that would go on to toaster ovens and then if you have a microwave – some people like to use a microwave, some people don’t. I prefer using the top of the stove, the oven or a toaster oven more so than a microwave, but there are people that do water-based cooking in a microwave, they find that our products work extremely well there. You wouldn’t put a metal product in a microwave oven. And if you put it in a toaster oven, once that metal heats up, then you start pulling some of the metal components into your food.
So when you heat metal, you’re actually extracting the metal into your food. But when you cook on ceramics (and not only our cookware, but any other ceramic cookware or bake ware), you’re not going to pull any heavy metals into the food because it’s basically non-porous. It doesn’t have any metals in it. So it’s a much healthier product.
And like you said – and you’re an expert on that. You know more about toxicity than probably anybody in this country…
DEBRA: Thank you.
RICH BERGSTROM: …and have written a lot about that and you’re an expert. That’s why we found you and we sort of worked together because we found as we developed this product, we were going after customers who are very educated about health, were concerned about their health, wanted to live longer, were very educated about nutrition and working out and exercising. Those are the people that are attracted to ceramic cooking because they’re very much aware of their environment, their health and the whole toxicity of our planet and how we live.
So it’s been really eye-opening for us because when we started this business, we just wanted to make a product that we thought was going to be pretty cool, that was neat, that could work on top of a stove. It moved us in a completely different directions to go whole health and green aspect of our cookware. We’ve been really blessed with a really good following of people that really understand what we’re trying to do. We just appreciate all the support that the people like yourself and others have given us over the last four or five years.
DEBRA: Well, I’m very happy that you’re there because I do think that this is – if you look at the whole, entire picture of the product, I do think it’s the greenest product in terms of cookware and the least toxic product for people who are just eating and are not even concerned about the environment, but just eating healthy food if you’re going to cook your food. This is the safest and healthiest way to do it that I’ve been able to determine.
I just want to tell the listeners some of the different pieces you have available and which pieces I have and how useful they are.
I have the – I don’t know, 12” skillet. That’s a pretty big one.
RICH BERGSTROM: Yes, yes.
DEBRA: And then I also have three nested pots. And they do nest. I put them in a drawer and they don’t take up space. And then I also have the wok, which I totally adore. I would say that if people could only buy one piece of your cookware, I would recommend the wok because it could be a skillet or it could be a pot. It’s big enough that I can make soup in it. You can make a one pot meal and yet, you can also stir fry in it. It’s the most versatile one.
I make beans every week. I bake beans every week. I just cook the beans. I work at home, so I can just leave something in the oven all day. I just start them in the morning and cook the beans in and cover them with water. I put them in the oven, 300°. Four or five hours later, I’ve got perfectly good beans. It’s really nice to just –
They’re easy to clean. I wouldn’t call these non-stick because to me, a non-stick pan means that you can cook anything in them and it won’t stick. Eggs will stick. You need to use some kind of butter, oil or whatever you want in order to cook scrambled eggs or fried eggs or whatever.
RICH BERGSTROM: Yes, yes.
DEBRA: But I can tell you that if you just let the pan sit in water for a couple of minutes, they’re extremely easy to clean. It’s not like a metal pan or pot where you have to scrub and scrub and scrub and scrub.
They don’t scratch. So I don’t have ‘scratch that pot’. Really, I keep saying this over and over, but it’s an impressive thing that my pot and pans look exactly that they looked the first day that I got them.
I also have a – what do you call it? A teapottle?
RICH BERGSTROM: Yes, we call it a ‘teapottle’. It’s a funny kind of a name. There’s tea wares and there’s tea pots. In the serving of tea, normally, people would use a metal or stainless steel teapot. And then they would pour that into a porcelain or a ceramic teapot to serve in. That’s basically how people would serve tea. They wouldn’t serve it right from the metal teapot. So we call it a ‘teapottle’ because it’s a teapot and…
DEBRA: …and a kettle.
RICH BERGSTROM: …both the teapot and the kettle. It’s two combined. We kind of came up with that catchy phrase. Actually, the first company to make a teapot that can go on top of the stove and boil water out of ceramic and not crack (because you couldn’t do that with porcelain or stoneware) and really with boiling water…
DEBRA: [inaudible 00:48:06]
RICH BERGSTROM: Most of the teapots out there are really made of a low gauge aluminum, a real thin gauge aluminum. That’s probably the most toxic thing to boil water in. Not only that, you’re heating, you’re boiling the water and then you’re extracting the metal into your water and then you’re going to make a green tea, a healthy white or black tea and suddenly, you have water that has a heavy metal in it, it kind of defeats the purpose of drinking tea, which is a very healthy product to drink.
DEBRA: I would agree.
RICH BERGSTROM: So with ceramics, you don’t have an issue because there’s no leeching.
DEBRA: Yes. And so your teapot just sits on my shelf. It’s very clean and hygienic. And when I want to make my green tea, which is about every day, I just fill it up and it very quickly boils the water. I just drop my tea bags in. And then I make iced green tea. And then I have my iced green tea for the rest of the day.
I’m sorry to say we’re at the end of our time. This time has just flown by. It’s been so interesting to be talking about all these cookware. It really is something that I think every kitchen – if a family wants to be healthy, we need healthy cookware. We need to be cooking ourselves. We need to know how to cook and enjoy cooking. I certainly have been enjoying cooking with my Xtrema cookware.
So go to Xtrema.com – it’s x-t-r-e-m-a – and take a look. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is – they’re going to cut us off. I’m sorry.
RICH BERGSTROM: If I could say one thing, if you go to our website, you can get an extra 10% discount by using your name, DEBRA10. You get an additional 10% discount.
DEBRA: Okay, thanks. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about thriving in a toxic world.
Garment Bags
Question from Jennifer
I need to find garment/storage bags to hang dresses in when not in use. Are vinyl ones okay to use?
Debra’s Answer
No, they outgas toxic vinyl chloride.
Google “natural garment bags” and you’ll get lots of results for garment bags made from natural fibers.
Original Indian Earth Makeup Powder
Question from Diane
Is Original Indian Earth makeup non-toxic?
Debra’s Answer
Wow. It’s been a long time since anyone has mentioned this to me.
About thirty years ago this was one of the only natural mineral makeup powders available. I used to use it. Nothing wrong with it that made me stop using it, just more choices became available and I’m always trying new products.
The ingredients are “a naturally occurring mixture of minerals containing iron, silicon, aluminum, calcium, copper, vanadium, molybdenum, nickel and strontium, existing in oxide, silicate and carbonate forms as they occur in nature.”
Transforming Your Yard Into an Organic Edible Garden
My guest is Bridget Guzzi, owner of Gardens of California LLC in San Ramon, California, which offers products and services for the at-home organic edible garden movement. As a child, her community was graced with fresh home grown gardens. Some fondest memories include lunch in the pea and rhubarb gardens, washing berries for homemade jam and jelly, going to the open fields to collect hazelnuts and to the lakes for fresh fish. Bridget boasts front and backyard organic edible gardens that are visited almost daily by neighbors and friends where she continues to emphasize one at home garden at a time. Bridget also introduced a garden birthday party where children gather to plant edibles. Bridget’s garden apparel line offers elegant comfort with easy care properties. The fabrics used for her apparel include GOTS certified organic cottons from Harmony Susalla, Harmony Art Organic Design, and SPF 50+ fabric that is made rated and tested in the USA. Bridget will give us inspiration for growing our own food at home. www.gardensofcalifornia.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Transforming Your Yard into an Organic Edible Garden
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Bridget Guzzi
Date of Broadcast: May 28, 2013
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world instead of being sick from toxic chemical exposures.
Yes, there are toxic chemicals all around us in consumer products, in the environment, in the news. We’re always hearing about how toxic things are. But on this show, we’re going to hear about how to be safe, happy, healthy, protected and able to do anything we want to do in the world because we’re not being limited by the effects of toxic chemical exposures.
Today is Tuesday, May 28th 2013, and I’m here in Clearwater, Florida. And today we’re going to talk about gardens and gardening.
I had an experience over the weekend where a friend of mine who’s writing a book about music made a reference to a trellis. The staff of a music staff looks like a trellis that you – the music staff, you put notes on a music staff and on trellis, you put plants on the trellis.
And he had various people reading this book to make sure it was understandable and one of them said (this was a fifty-year old man), “Oh. I don’t think you should use that reference to a trellis. Most people don’t know what a trellis is. I don’t know what a trellis is. And besides, young people today don’t know anything about gardening. They have no reality on it. You just shouldn’t have a gardening reference.”
I was just shocked to hear this, but I actually think it’s true. I was shocked to hear it because I grew up around gardening. In my family, we had gardens. We grew tomatoes, we ate tomatoes off the vines. I’ve had my own garden as an adult. I love gardening, I go to garden shows, I like to go to nurseries and walk around and look at plants, I love to go to botanical gardens. And for me, the idea that there will be children and young people who don’t have the joy of gardening as part of their reference of experience was just shocking actually.
And coincidentally or serendipitously, at the same time, here I am having our guest on today who is working on introducing children to gardening. Bridget, welcome to the show!
BRIDGET GUZZI: Hi Debra, it’s nice to be here!
DEBRA: Thank you! Bridget is the owner of Gardens of California. She’s in San Ramon, California, which is right next to where I used to live in Concord, California. I spent my entire childhood in Concord, California where we had a garden in the backyard. She offers products and services for the At Home Organic Edible Gardening Movement. Bridget, would you tell us how you became interested in this?
BRIDGET GUZZI: Well, it’s been part of me like it’s been part of your life story, Debra, and I’m positively thrilled to be one of the voices in Global Grow at Home Movement. My company is structured around that movement. Its products and services are designed to draw the passion and provide the inspiration for others to grow at home as well.
So, my hope is that homeowners will restructure their property to this end and I also would like to see the day comes once again with this healthy lifestyle is never taken away or repressed from our children again by the food and diet industry that truly does not have our health and wellness in mind.
So, in essence, I’m bringing what has been good in my life. It’s a call to beauty, not to pain in making the human-plant connection for both children and adults. It’s seriously awesome. And if I may endeavor…
DEBRA: How did you – yes, you may, but my question was…
BRIDGET GUZZI: Oh, thank you.
DEBRA: How did you get interested in it?
BRIDGET GUZZI: Well, I got interested because it worked for me. I got interested because I got so tired of listening to the news stories of the disease in children, what was happening to our planet. We can see this firsthand now and I have the passion and the inspiration to bring it forward to gardens of California.
DEBRA: Tell us about some of your fondest memories from your childhood about gardens.
BRIDGET GUZZI: I correlate it to freedom, to happiness, to growth, to family, to friends, picking blueberries out in the wild, coming home and having to clean them and getting a smack on the hand if we ate too many when we were cleaning them, pulling off the shells of hazelnuts so they can be stored, having fresh rhubarb pie, made at home. It’s so many, so many great memories of delicious food.
DEBRA: My major food memory from my childhood about gardens is my grandparents had a large vegetable garden. I was always helping them in the garden. And the key point of the garden is a large peach tree.
I remember just being very small (maybe three years old) and my grandfather would pick me up and hold me up, so I could go way high in the peach tree and pick whatever peach I wanted to have. He would guide me as to which one to pick so that I would get a nice, ripe peach.
And then, I would take it in the house and my grandmother would cut it up and put in a bowl and pour cream all over it.
And that was my favorite food, peaches and cream with the peach right off the tree with all the sunshine in it and the grain and the leafy vegetable out of the garden. And that is one of my earliest food experiences. I think that most children don’t have those experiences today.
BRIDGET GUZZI: Yes, I agree. That’s a beautiful story, by the way. The children in my neighborhood do. They aspire to my trees that are growing right now and their daddy or their mommy picking them up when the food is ready to pick their own. It’s a story we can share today.
DEBRA: I know that you are involved in wanting to inspire people to grow food at home. But let’s start by telling the audience what are some of the problems going on in the food world today that this is a solution for from your viewpoint.
BRIDGET GUZZI: Well, I saw a lot of the leaders in this movement including Pesticide Action Network, Ronnie Cummings from Organic Consumers Org and listening. I post documentaries on my website which is how my learning takes place. And what I’m seeing is that we are in a position right now where everything is failing.
We’re taking great risks. I listened to David Suzuki yesterday talking about genetically engineering new trees for our forests and how he talked about the spill-over from the roots and the pollen and we’re really at a time of crisis here.
We need to back up, we need to stop this disease and we need to prevent it by getting into our gardens with organic practices, sustainable practices. And that’s only then can we, I believe, get a handle on what’s going on.
DEBRA: And tell them you grew it here. What do you think is a good way for people to start? What’s an easy thing to do if they’ve never garden before? What’s a good first step?
BRIDGET GUZZI: I think by being a leader. And that’s exactly what I do with my demonstration garden. I pulled up my lawn sometime go and there’s nothing more than a beautiful canvass of lawn to be honest with you. You engage on a community on a personal level this way.
There are three schools that walk by. Children are continuously learning and watching food grow. I can invite them in to the extent I can and show them the processes. But most importantly, I’m looking to the adults and say, “I like that. I’m sensing that. I can taste that food that you’re growing.”
For years Debra, when I started this, I would grow food and I would give away heirloom seeds thorughout the neighborhood. So, I was bringing people in, one person at a time. And then I put my foot down and I said, “Okay, it’s time for me to start.”
So, by being a leader, by showing, by demonstrating, you can grab the most amount of people to come to that who wants to grow at home and deliver the message that your children have to be sick anymore. You can have fun, you can grow, you can become so very healthy in your garden.
DEBRA: We have to go to break now. We are talking with Bridget Guzzi, owner of Gardens of California and her website is GardensofCalifornia.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. We’re today with Bridget Guzzi, owner of Gardens of California, GardensofCalifornia.com. We’re talking about the Organic Edible Garden Movement, specifically growing your own fruits and vegetables at home.
So, Bridget, what was the first thing that you planted? What was the first thing that you did in your garden?
BRIDGET GUZZI: What I’m planting in my garden?
DEBRA: Yes.
BRIDGET GUZZI: What I’m planting in my garden depends on the season. I’m in California, I’m in an area where I can grow year-round.
So, I eat in season and I plant is season. It’s an array.
I, myself, am an eccentric gardener. I understand I need a clean soil. It’s imperative to have worms in my soil or I can’t go forward. I understand I need to have birds and hummingbirds and little pests around in my soil around my garden. But what I grow is dependent on what the season is.
I save my seeds and I grow them once again. So, it becomes just a beautiful, beautiful reflection of honoring what we can get from Mother Nature when take care of it.
DEBRA: So, what’s in season right now?
BRIDGET GUZZI: Some of the things I growing? Right now, I have so much. I have two asparagus beds. I have taken out English peas and put in some carrots. I have watermelon veins that are growing down my front yard. I have sweet potatoes. I have green beans. I have beautiful, big sunflower heads that are coming out so I can harvest them and eat them and put them in my breads and my foods. I have cabbages, tomatoes, lettuces. It’s just is an array of anything or everything I can get my hands on. I love to grow!
And what I have done with my particular front demonstration garden is I’ve integrated herbs and flowers into that. One of the compliments that I get is how beautiful that you have thought this to be a garden where it’s just not a standard bed. You’ve designed it like a piece of artwork. So, there are lots going out there, Debra.
DEBRA: It sounds like an abundant, wonderful lawn. I’ve gardened off and on in different ways in my life. I studied different types of gardening including permaculture. But I am of the mind as you that I like to see edible things all mixed up.
I love to see just nice rows of lettuces and I want a beautiful garden. And herbs and flowers (especially herbs and edible flowers) mixed together, I have a little pathway up to my front door.
I haven’t planted it this way yet, but it’s actually I think a perfect spot to have about – oh, it’s about probably 30 feet altogether if I were to plant it on both sides and about three feet wide just to have this gorgeous border of edible flowers and all kinds of herbs all mixed together and lettuces.
I think that would just be a gorgeous thing to do. I could just go out there and take whatever I want and make a beautiful salad and it would just be lovely in addition to my garden.
It sounds like you’re just wanting to plant things to be integrated and beautiful, that it can look like a garden instead of – I think that people sometimes have this idea that their house will look like a farm instead of something like a garden. And that’s not necessarily so. It sounds like you’ve got that one down.
BRIDGET GUZZI: Yes and also, right now, I’m harvesting calendula on a continual basis and chamomile and the neighbors are welcome to it. It’s a great way to get a prune because they stop by and they grab some for themselves. Wonderful peace are made from this. And once again, the garden’s organic, so I have no fear.
And if I may, about taking out your lawn, when I started this process, I worked so hard. I dug, I did this on my own. And people who walk their dog by (because that was a concern for me) started to go the other side of the street or if they brought their dog by my garden or into my yard, I will always receive their dogs underneath the chin because I love them. They don’t lose their legs on my yard.
There is an outgrowing, tremendous respect in this community for this type of process and I’m going to see it come further, further to light and the lawns are going to be removed. I’m excited, Debra!
DEBRA: I’m excited too because as you’re talking, I can just see all the lawns in your neighborhood being removed and being replaced by gardens like yours. And then, it really takes somebody like you taking that first step in the neighborhood and saying, “I’m going to do it and set an example,” and then, other people can see the beauty in that and do it as well.
So, I’m glad to see that your neighbors are responding in a respectful way. I’m assuming you don’t have any concern about people stealing your produce?
BRIDGET GUZZI: This is about bringing beauty and adding beauty too and it just replicates in ripples through people’s hearts. And they see this and they feel it. If somebody is so in need, they are so welcome!
DEBRA: I am very happy to hear that I have heard some people say, “Oh, I need to put up fences around my garden so that people don’t steal it or rabbits don’t steal things or whatever.” But I think if there’s such an abundance. If I were to fully plant my yard out (and I don’t have a big yard), if I were to fully plant it out, it would be so much more food than I could ever eat. There’ll be plenty for whatever animals or insects want to share. If somebody walk into my yard and took some food, they’ll be plenty for everyone.
Here, I live in Florida and almost everybody here has citrus trees in their backyard because they were planted so long ago. I don’t have mine anymore because we had a citrus blight come through. But when I moved here, I had five mature citrus trees. I have grapefruit, lemons, tangerines (the best tangerines you’ve ever eaten). We had so much citrus fruits we couldn’t eat it all. And everybody else has so much citrus fruits they couldn’t eat it all and so we’re constantly trying to give it away. There’s so much!
How can we go hungry in a world if we’re all growing food? We just would not. We just would not. I really think that this is really the solution to hunger. I remember reading an article about in Cuba from years ago, but we’re coming up on our break again, so I’ll tell the story after the break.
This is Debra Lynn Dadd. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. We’re talking about Organic Edible Gardening with Bridget Guzzi.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Bridget Guzzi, owner of Gardens of California. That’s GardensofCalifornia.com. She has a very beautiful website inspiration itself.
Of course, it’s about organic gardening, but it’s different from other organic gardening websites. It’s not about what to plant or where to plant it or how to control pests so much as it’s about the whole philosophy (I guess would be the good word) of why grow your own food.
And it has beautiful pictures.
I just want to explore some of the things that you have on your website, Bridget.
First of all, I want to make the point about how fresh food contributes to good health. Why don’t you tell us something about that?
BRIDGET GUZZI: How fresh food can contribute to our health? Well, I live a fairly daring life and often, I wake up in the morning and ask if I’m still here. And every time I look for an answer, I look to my garden. I look at my grandson, singing in the garden (he’s six months of age) and I’m watching his development. I am not seeing the concern for the many other children who are eating GMO, processed and non-organic foods are having.
I believe in it because it worked for me, it worked for my children who were raised in a garden and it’s now working for my grandson. We need to make that natural transition back to our gardens. We don’t know what’s out there and what we’re eating, we can start knowing that by getting it at home.
And it’s time for us to think like a fish, not a fisherman. We need to watch for the bait that’s out there that’s disguise as natural and we need to lean in to real foods one gain. We can do that at home and the benefits will show.
DEBRA: I totally agree with you. Our bodies need to have nutrition from fresh foods. And sometimes I write up like a little scale of what would be the worst foods and what would be the best foods. And the worst food is always processed food with lots of additives in it, and the best food is always, not food from the farmers market, but food right from your own backyard.
There’s just no better food than walking out into your backyard or side yard or your front yard and pulling a tomato right out of the vine or pulling a lettuce right out of the ground and eating it immediately. It has the most nutrition, it has the most aliveness and you know exactly what it is that went into it.
I used to have chickens too. I don’t know if you have any chickens, but I used to have chickens until the police took them away because they’re against our city ordinance. But when I had chickens, it was just a miracle to me (I’m going to have chickens again. I’m changing the ordinance). But it was just a miracle to me to go out and feed them the food and then see the egg come out.
You know intellectually that’s what’s happening, but to go and take my own scraps from the kitchen and wheats from the garden and feed them to my chickens and then have this egg come out that I could see embodied in the egg and feel it as I’m eating those ingredients that I have put into the chickens was quite amazing.
It’s the same thing with growing food I think because you know what you’re putting into the soil and then this plant grows and that’s what you’re eating. It’s that cycle just right there in your garden.
BRIDGET GUZZI: Oh, I agree! My neighbor has chickens, Debra. I actually collect the snails from my garden and bring them over to feed her chickens. And when I need some micromanaging here with pests, she brings one of them for lunch.
DEBRA: It all works! I saw on your website you mentioned something called Horticulture Therapy. Could you tell me about that?
BRIDGET GUZZI: Oh, certainly! I’m actually certified in horticulture therapy a couple years ago in Oakland, California. And it just sung with me. It just resonated. And that was my plant-and-human connection. It works really well.
I work and volunteer to various populations (children with autism, some elderly, developmentally delayed in different environments) and when I structured gardens in California initially in 2008, I structured it on the principles of horticulture therapy in services that I could offer. And one of these is a birthday party that I designed. It is based on the structures of horticulture therapy and continuing with the grow-at-home.
The party basically involves a package party where the children get an earth box or a large growing container, I bring the soil, watering cans, plants, the seedlings work every well with this (and some seeds for them for future use), a reading, a gift, one of my garden book. And the party favors are Norcal pots with herbs or seasonal plants, whatever is in season.
So, it starts the plant-care relationship. We’re emphasizing the human-plant connection here. And Debra, I encourage everyone to do their own party. And if they want any help or suggestions, they can send me a note. And as you write in Toxic Free (your book that I’m enjoying so much), we don’t need to wait for others to find our way to health and happiness. I really appreciate that sentiment that you sent out in your book.
DEBRA: Thank you! And I do believe it. I believe that each of us has the power to create whatever it is that we want to create in our lives and make our own decisions and that we don’t have to live by what the government says or what multinational corporations want to give us.
We can live around them and say that, “This is the right thing” as you have and take out matters into our own hands. Every single person can make that choice. So, I’m very happy to see that you’re doing what you’re doing.
What if somebody doesn’t have a yard? How can we grow food?
BRIDGET GUZZI: Oh, well, there are always pots and community gardens. We have local community gardens here. I would hope that would search out one that has organic, sustainable practices. Of course, we support our farmer markets and we support our small growers, organic growers who are up and coming.
We have a lot of weather issues that are going on right now. People could lose plants. People could go under. We have so many issues going on. So, this focus, this at-home garden focus is basically a supplement to also all of the people to [inaudible 00:34:23] and the small farmers who are trying to take on the big agra and make a difference.
DEBRA: We’ll talk more after the break with Bridget Guzzi of Gardens of California. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and you’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio where we discover how to thrive in toxic world. We’ll be back in a minute.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. We’re here with Bridget Guzzi, owner of Gardens of California.
Her website is GardensofCalifornia.com.
Bridget, one of the things that I like in your website that you have is that you designed a line of clothing for gardening, things like smocks and dresses. Tell us about your clothing line. What inspired you to do that and what materials do you use and things like that?
BRIDGET GUZZI: Sure, Debra! Well, I love fashion, I always have. I’ve had a ball with it my whole life. But when I started out as the design entrepreneur for Gardens of California, I wanted to offer more than a fashion statement. I wanted to offer a difference. So, I decided perennial, comfortable, safe, functional garden apparel and branding on value was the way to go.
I set the bar very high. I took as many social and environmental considerations and respect into this apparel as I possibly could. From lead-free buttons to a silver-weave, sun-protected, breathable fabric, made, rated and tested here in the USA to global standard certified cotton. I also manufacture local to not only keep jobs here and watch quality, but also to avoid potential exploitation of workers in underdeveloped foreign markets.
And Debra, my gateway to you is Harmony Susalla of Harmony Organic Art Design. After years of getting started and researching fabric largely through the Fashion Business Incorporated in L.A., I came to know Harmony. And I not only came to know it, but I really came to love her.
DEBRA: I love Harmony too.
BRIDGET GUZZI: Oh, for sure! Her store is so kind and it’s so healthy. And once I met Harmony, I knew I had an outstanding source of fabric to offer to the consumer.
When I heard about how the workers who grew the cotton were respected, they were paid, they were not subjected to pesticides and herbicides, and when I saw the work that she put in getting this global standard for this beautiful cotton and what I experienced mostly from natural print (after just the array of digitized, loud, aggressive printset that have been in the market), I just felt so warm and at home and connected to nature.
So, Harmony is the bomb when it comes to prints and fabrics, she lives in nature. She’s an environmentalist and really a wonderful person to know.
When I do a show of presenting my apparel and selling my apparel, I always recommend Harmony for anyone who’s sewing at home especially for children. If they’re sewing at home for children, also the sheets (which you and Harmony discussed previously) and also for new entrepreneurs who were coming in to the apparel market.
DEBRA: And you can find Harmony on my website, just type in ‘Harmony Art’ into my search engine and her listing on Debra’s list will come out. But I am also adding a lot of websites that are making things out of her fabrics. I just added your website today to Debra’s list,
Bridget, for your organic gardening apparel.
The last question I want to ask you – well, it might not be the last question, but I’m hoping we’ll talk about this in-depth. As I’ve been saying throughout the hour, I love gardening and I have had gardens in the past. But the problem that I run into with gardening (and maybe you can help me with this) are two things.
One is I don’t always have success and I get discouraged. I know that I need to [inaudible 00:42:50] about gardening, but also I did much better in California as a gardener than what I’m doing here in Florida. I am learning the differences about Florida gardening and what I need to do.
But as much as I experience bonding with nature while I’m doing it, sometimes I don’t always get the result where nature gives me what I am expecting in return for all that I’m doing trying to grow these fruits and vegetables.
So question number one is how do you get through that discouraging phase and learn enough to be able to have success with gardening like you have?
And number two is, I’m a working person where I’m working full time and more doing my work, how do people find time to garden enough in order to be able to produce enough in order to feed themselves?
BRIDGET GUZZI: Okay. As for discouragement, there’s really nothing to be discouraged about. Seedlings are like people and seeds are like people. They have various degrees of potential and we need to respect what they bring to us. I just not have found that that has been the way for me. And I know people are losing plants right now because of the weather changes, so be it. We are not in control. Mother Nature is in control.
So, go back, and do it again and do it again and until it comes about. That’s my feeling. I don’t bring negativity to my garden or discouragement. I bring hope. When I put a seed in, I give it a kiss and say, “Good luck!”
DEBRA: I like that!
BRIDGET GUZZI: “Do well, I love you! Love me back.” But it’s all about the focus and the respect that we know who’s in control.
As to the time factor, there are a lot of people out there right now who have lawns and who have gardeners who are maintaining their lawns because they don’t have the time. And my suggestion for that is to say to your gardener, “How would you like to eat well?” because I’d like to eat well.
So, you can take your garden and a gardener if you don’t have the time and let them build these for you. And when they go home, they’re going home with some fruits and vegetables and you’re eating well. We’ve made a beautiful transition as far as what we’re doing with the time that we have.
So, we ourselves may not be able to, if busy, apply ourselves, but we can have our gardener do that. We can change everything with one homne garden at a time.
DEBRA: I like that suggestion too. I hadn’t actually thought about that. I have thought about, “Well, maybe I need to hire somebody to do the gardening for me and then that’s another expense,” but now that I’m thinking about it, it probably wouldn’t cost anymore to pay somebody to be working in my garden and growing food than it would cost to buy the food.
Right now, I don’t have a gardener, but I do know people that don’t have gardeners. They don’t have yards in which to garden. I think that would be a fabulous thing for people who don’t have time to garden to hook up people who don’t have yards. People could do the work and get paid in the produce because there will be plenty of produce for everybody. A yard, as I’ve said before, can feed much more than one person, much more than one family.
Another thing that I wanted to say (it’s actually a realization that I had while we were doing the show and looking at your website and talking with you), it really is I think about making transformation to growing food and being in connection with nature and your yard. It’s almost like an at-hom organic edible garden lifestyle. If I were to say, “I’m going to make that central with my life and even put in 20 minutes a day, instead of going to the gym,” I don’t go to the gym, but I’m trying to figure out where could people get time in their lives to do this.
I go for walks. If I were to spend more time walking instead of bending over and weeding and getting exercise by working on the garden, it would produce food. I think that’s what’s needed. It’s for people to be thinking (including myself) in terms of how can I incorporate growing food into my life?
Sometimes people think, “In order to do something like this, it’s going to take a lot of time. I can’t do it because I don’t have time.” But what happens is that things get busy in my life and I don’t go out and take care of the plants and I think that taking care of the plants, having time to take care of the plants, they don’t require that much care, do they? Taking care of the plants, sharing care of the plants with someone else is akin to taking time to take care of ourselves.
It’s the same issue. Are people taking care of themselves and their lives in other ways? Taking care of our gardens is taking care of ourselves because the garden takes care of us if we take care of it.
BRIDGET GUZZI: And we get that.
DEBRA: Yeah, it’s a really important point. I would like to see more and more people understand the necessity for health, that health isn’t just doing whatever you want, eating junk food, drinking tap water and going to the doctor and taking a pill when you get sick. Health is taking care of ourselves and taking care of each other and taking care of the environment and the food. And taking care ourselves to give ourselves the best quality things that support life. I see you doing that and appreciating that very much.
Are there any final words you’d like to say? We’ve got just a few seconds.
BRIDGET GUZZI: I would like to say thank you. This has been one of the nicest introduction to someone who’s making such a huge difference. I appreciate your time and I feel wonderful. Thank you so much!
DEBRA: Thank you! Thank you for being with me. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio.
Plants Don’t Like WiFi
From Debra Lynn Dadd
One of my readers sent this to me.
Five young women in the ninth grade in Denmark devised a science fair project to see the effects of their cell phones on plants. I had to smile at this because it reminded me of a science fair project I did in the ninth grade to see if there was a listening to classical music or rock music made a difference to plants.
Here is what was forwarded to me:
Photo courtesy of Kim Horsevad, teacher at Hjallerup Skole in Denmark.
It started with an observation and a question. The girls noticed that if they slept with their mobile phones near their heads at night, they often had difficulty concentrating at school the next day. They wanted to test the effe ct of a cellphone’s radiation on humans, but their school, Hjallerup School in Denmark, did not have the equipment to handle such an experiment. So the girls designed an experiment that would test the effect of cellphone radiation on a plant instead.
The students placed six trays filled with Lepidium sativum, a type of garden cress into a room without radiation, and six trays of the seeds into another room next to two routers that according to the girls calculations, emitted about the same type of radiation as an ordinary cellphone.
Over the next 12 days, the girls observed, measured, weighed and photographed their results. Although by the end of the experiment the results were blatantly obvious ? the cress seeds placed near the router had not grown. Many of them were completely dead. While the cress seeds planted in the other room , away from the routers, thrived.
The experiment earned the girls (pictured below) top honors in a regional science competition and the interest of scientists around the world.
According to Kim Horsevad, a teacher at Hjallerup Skole in Denmark were the cress experiment took place, a neuroscience professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, is interested in repeating the experiment in controlled professional scientific environments.
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In my experiment, the results were the same. The seeds wouldn’t sprout. I also did an experiment trying to sprout seeds in microwaved water. Again, they didn’t sprout.
This is why I use a Pong case to reduce radiation up to 95% from my cell phone. I also now only use my cell phone in speaker phone mode and do not hold it up to my ear. I only use my cell phone when I’m away from my landline, which I always use at home.
BugZooka Bug Catcher Vacuum
This quiet, battery-free little vacuum makes it easy to sneak up on and capture bugs of all kinds, then take them outdoors and put them where they belong. Just push the bellows to compress some air, extend the telescoping arm up to 24″, and push the trigger.
Gardens of California
Apparel for working in the garden, for women and children, made of Certified organic cottons and SPF 50+ fabrics with lead free sunburst buttons. Designed and made in California. Also children’s books about organic gardening and inspiration for giving garden parties for families.
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Listen to my interview with Gardens of California LLC owner Bridget Guzzi. |
