Seed Exchange?

I just looked at this blog and realized I haven't posted since MAY. Weird.

A little bit of an update: I'm drying mint right now. Aragula and basil were last week. Onions will probably be next. I have a couple baby watermelon and we've got zuccini coming out our ears. Corn is coming on, but for some reason the tomatoes aren't ripening.And I have seeds.

Please, does anyone in the Salt Lake area have need of seeds? Particularly carrot seeds, since I'll be harvesting the new seeds in the next few weeks and I still have a lot from the last batch. I have carrot seeds, parsnip seeds, zuccini seeds, watermelon seeds, and a couple other kinds. Onions and beets are unavailable this year, but I should have plenty of onion seeds next year. For some reason I just can't get beets to survive through the winter, so we're short on beet seeds. I hate throwing the seeds away, poor little things, but with the new crop coming on I don't have much choice if I can't give them away.

I tried the seed exchange I found, but unfortunately it appears to be merely a scheme to sell books. I am also looking for Sonoran White wheat, if anyone is growing that in this area.

I have set up an open seed exchange, Seeds For The Future.

I'll try to be more regular on the blog, although with the job hunt and the garden and writing full time I'm rather overwhelmed.

Food sensitivities

Last week I discovered that one of my sisters is lactose intolerant. She hadn't told any of us, so of course Thanksgiving was heavy with cheese and cream and butter.

Food sensitivities are rampant, especially as people get older. Stomacheaches, heartburn, etc, are pretty much ignored except to pump pharmaceuticals and other chemicals into an already overstressed system.

If you have food alergies or sensitivities, the best thing you can do is tell other people about it. Other people can help you (or snipe and warn) and adjust their foods to accomodate. Mashed potatoes may not taste the same with margarine, or without the heavy cream, but they're still good.

Avoidance may be the best option, but some people lack self control and sometimes you simply don't know what is in the food you're eating. Once in a while you may slip and unknowingly eat something you shouldn't simply because it's related to something you're sensitive to.

If you do slip up there are a number of herbs that will help with digestive problems (many of the mints, dill (carrot familly) as well as turmeric and ginger). But herbs, by their nature, are related to other herbs and people will often have the same sensitivities to their relatives (rather like your sister-in-law's mother).

That being the case, I'm going through all the old posts here and putting up plant family information. I've started but not finished, so look back later for additional information.