John, I'm smiling. Last year I just put a few potatoes in around my bee hives and forgot about them. Lo and behold, one day I'm out there and I see these small round rocks protruding through the soil. Wondering where did these come from? Imagine my surprise when I found them to be the baby spuds of my forgotten sowing. I definitely know the logic behind bang for buck on planting the best plants possible. However, since that time, my bees have provided, honey, wax, pollen. My trees provide an abundance of varied citrus, avocados, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plum and more. Tomatoes and Onions around the yard, herbs here and there amongst the trees, pears over there. I raise superworms for my Orpington, Delaware, Australorp and next week I add a Maran to the girls. The idea of a chocolate colored egg shell just thrills me. Why do I point this out? Because John, don't fail to understand why we do all this, not sometimes to say, how can I learn to accept a No but rather how can I find the yes that makes me happy. I tell you, some don't have the skills to do it all, but anyone can grow a potato, even if you don't mind it. It's the baby steps that make one happiest. Just look at the movie THE MARTIAN, I had something in common with that character. I grew a potato. I'll never go to the moon or to Mars, but I can conquer my little space on planet Earth. In your face Neil Armstrong.
This guy is great! My sister moved to Colorado and used his tips & advice on horticulture to help grow the cannabis & stevia (natural sweetner) medicine which turned her uterine cancer into self destruct mode as according to the doctors and she might still have the ability to carry babies :). Please keep these vids coming sir, Thank You, ,,Zak
Hey John, you have so many videos now that I'm just seeing this one from 3 yrs ago. Just wanted you to know that I did in fact buy Jerusalem artichokes from you! Based on your advice I built a 2ft x 5ft x 18in raised bed to keep them contained but give them plenty of room to grow. The 1st and 2nd seasons I grew them were awesome and I harvested tons of delicious sunchokes! After moving due to divorce they were left unattended and uncared for for the past couple of years. However, I went to my ex-wife's house just a week ago and rescued every sunchoke I could find. To my surprise I dug up literally hundreds of sunchokes!! I bought a home this year with a huge yard and plan on growing more sunchokes than I know what to do with!! Thank you again John for all you do to educate and share your experiences! You rock! BTW, I also purchased scarlett runner beans and walking stick kale seeds from you years ago too. I had a lot of success with both and will be planting the descendant seeds of the ones I got from you next spring.
Thanks for not charging $5 for the advice. There's other ways to consume potatoes besides fries or hashbrowns. Potatoes contain 45 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, more potassium (620 mg) than even bananas, spinach, or broccoli, 10 percent of the daily value of B6, trace amounts of thiamine, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, and zinc and all this for just 110 calories and no fat, sodium orcholesterol.
You mean like eating them raw and fresh? I've tried that before and I was surprised at how good they were. The ones I tried had a little of a brown sugar taste.
The Q & A is awesome! Why? Because the A to the Q gives John extensive credibility in his competence, not that we have any doubts. If I have any questions, I know who to ask!
I think potatoes get a bad rep from the way people prepare them, i.e. French fries, chips. Potatoes themselves are nutritious and filling. They've saved populations from starving.
the minerals of potatoes are in the skin and ppl don't usually eat the skins America. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Potatoes get ppl through the winter and have saved many cultures through times of famine.
long story short, I had to spent some time at a place where there was no stove, just microwave, and I discovered not only that I could cook sweet potatoes on the microwave but that I could also eat the skin, which was delicious!
Yep! And for people that have a hard time with this - you want to wash the skin well to get rid of any soil, then rub olive oil and salt and any other dry seasonings you would like onto the potato thoroughly before cooking. Gets everyone to eat the skins even kids LOL
ok i am going to try and explain very quickly and post a video. Potatoes are very good when it comes to keeping your garden naturally healthy, of course there are other ways but potatoes are very easy to grow and turn high yields if done correctly. i reccomend not growing potatoes with other crops, instead cover your entire crop fields with potatoes and follow the steps in the video to produce luscious soil for your next plantings. you can also take your overstock of potatoes and store them for a longer time then most crops, also potatoes will sprout new potatoes even if in an old basement rotten so having backup food to replant incase an emergency is never a bad idea. you can also use potatoes to plant trees and other things. take a potatoe, drill a hole in the potatoe 3/4 the way through, wet the end of the stem and apply cinnamon, pour honey in the hole, apply the lemon tree ( you can do this inside for a while until leaves start to look unhealthy) you can also trim the leaves strategically to help the growing process, stick the potatoe in the ground with lose soil around it, the potatoe feeds the tree even during the rotting process ( gives your garden life!!) potatoes are also a very hardy crop, if the rest of your crops happen to flood or burn up hopefully you still have your potatoes or backup potatoes. there are many more beneficial things about potatoes and maybe the stores arent so healthy because there not growing them the right way :)
Im not debating the nutritional quality of potatoes. Potatoes have FED and kept societies alive over the centuries. I will not debate that. More of my thoughts on potatoes not shared in the video: 1. Potatoes these days are now being GMO 2. Most Americans eat FAR too many potatoes, and not a diet with a diversity of other vegetables. 3. Potatoes on the ANDI scoring system are 31, where as kale is 1000. Kale is MUCH more nutrient dense. I posted the ANDI chart to the GYG facebook page.
Hi John-I love these Q & A videos!! So many issues that I never thought of before-really informative. I just want to add something though to your answer to the last question about calcium supplements. My tomatoes were getting blossom end rot because my soil was calcium deficient. I started saving my organic egg shells instead of buying an expensive soil supplement. I just dry them out in the oven for 10-15 minutes at about 230 F, pulverize them in the blender and voila!! I always have a jar of one of natures best calcium supplements!! When I am planting my tomato plants, I add spoonful of the powdered eggshells to the hole prior to transplanting my tomato plant, and I have never had a problem with blossom end rot ever again!
I bought a duster pump on Amazon, it works really awesome for the $15-18 spent... There are different grades of calcium, some have little affect on the PH and its a good point to verify what your soil needs before causing harm from an over application. Lime is intended to be used over a period of time to correct acidic soil, plan on 2-5 years to get where you need to be. I prefer to use Gypsum and I'm looking into oyster shell meal as another calcium source. I lived in AZ and grapefruits grow on city streets LOL Run outside and pick one for breakfast ha ha
Great video John. I'm glad you brought up the Mesquite tree, many do not know how beneficial it is. The sap can be used to make candy; the leaves turned tea for medicine for eye infection, upset stomach, diarrhea, in small amounts a cleanser of the urinary tract; the beans when ripe have a sugar that does not need insulin to break down making it exceptional for diabetics, the beans themselves can be ground and used to make a sweet flour also containing the sugar, very high in fiber.
I red "1493", and I was astounded about all the varieties of potatoes they had on S.A. It really encouraged me to plant more potatoe varieties. I was also surprised when they said that the poor people were often the healthiest because they ate potatoes and milk--which were much better than what the rich people were eating. Of course, they were eating them whole, with the skins, not as potatoe chips and french fries. But even these have nutrients. Awesome book!
Potatoes are fun to grow! The plants look great, the flowers are beautiful and it's a great fun to dig out potatoes. You know if your yield is big not until you start to harvest. It's like gold fever! ;-)
Growing whats most expensive...hit the nail right on the head. I was outraged to find out how much the tomatoes are going in my local grocer and some of the other veggies and decided I needed to do something about it and grow my own from seed. Ive gotten 10x more out of the seed for my money
I did purchase copper roof flashing to build into my raised beds to keep slugs away. It didnt work as effectively as I had hoped. I do have a past video on it somewhere.
Instead of potatoes, plant yam or sweet potato. They grow similar underground calories, but UNLIKE potatoes, the above ground leaves and vines are edible. At our local asian store in Tucson, Yam leaves are expensive...
Its the Glass Greenhouse at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens in Santa Rosa. I was out checking out whats growing and decided to shoot a video there.
Hi, John u should know I am in love with you. I am a Gardner I have a raised veggie garden. You have helped me immensely.i watch your webinars just to relax. A question. What do u suggest for winter crops. For Southern California. Happy new year.
We've got a lot of tomatoes going this year. We started growing last year with four tomato plants -- cherries and 4th of July. A successful venture. This year we designed and built our own raised garden supplemented with some container gardens. We also have green onions, red onions, celery, a variety of peppers, corn, carrots, green beans and peas -- oh, and basil. In August we'll be starting our favorite, broccoli for fall harvest. Hoping to build a small greenhouse, too, in Aug-Sept.
Potatoes are among the healthiest crops I ever known. If given a chance, I will surely try and have a garden full of potatoes. If this crop can be easily found in our garden, then you simply make a home that is healthy.
I live in the northeast and many years ago transplanted some wild Jerusalem artichokes which grow along the roadside here.. They are about 3-4 feet tall in the wild, have red skin, and taste just like artichoke hearts. Without the woodland competition, they grow at least eight feet tall and bloom in September. They spread like crazy and I had to pull them up, but you can never get them all out. If even a small piece of the root is left, it will form a new plant. They also attracted voles, which are impossible to get rid of.
Diatomaceous clay (dirt) is a very fine abrasive. That's the reason to avoid breathing it in. Supposedly, the food grade DE helps clean the human intestines, but grinds up the insect innerds. Something was chomping on my squash plants. I mixed DE with powdered sugar to sprinkle on the leaves after I dampened the leaves with a spray bottle. I don't know whether or not it helped. I got this idea from the suggestion of mixing white flour and powdered sugar. The bugs eat the mixture because of the sugar, but can't digest the flour. Perhaps slugs, grubs, and snails in compost are there for a reason. Maybe they break up organic matter into fertile soil. But I would not leave the grubs in the soil when it is ready for the garden.
I personally love sweet potatoes. You can eat their greens and I have found some varieties are grown by some people JUST for their greens. Also, there are cool weird potato varieties like the African mint potato that has a mint growing as the greens and potatoes as tubers. And, finally, even though regular potatoes do not have edible greens and are readily available in the supermarket, if the potato you bought is starting to grow out the eyes, why not just cut it up and plant it? takes 5-10 min max.
I second that. I had a patch of Topinambur (Jerusalem artichokes) last year. They grew big and tall. Took a root from the grocery store, put it in a pot and then planted it in the garden later. But this spring - not a single plant. I dug them up - plenty of roots with shoots, all munched off. I put them balk into pots and 4 weeks later back in the garden. I dont worry anymore about them becoming invasive - the snails seem to completely kill them if I dont save them from them. I hate snails!
Thank you! I like growing lettuce but some guy posted a video about growing potatoes in buckets and I started out with 2 small buckets of the expensive purple russets and yukon gold and now I have 6 buckets from just those 2 I started with. I have branched out to sweet potatoes as well (which here they are $2 per pound and each one is about 2-4lbs) at the store.
.. and the point I'm trying to make is diversify your diet to include all vegetables, so that all nutrients are obtained. For example, making a "mashed" potato with potatoes, spinach, green onions and tomatoes with 2% milk is awesome!
I love Jerusalem artichokes! So did all the wildlife I was amazed over the years how they came from all over to eat them so this year I am doing raised bed for them that I can protect!
John , I had a really cool cat his name was Fred . Fred used to sleep in the center if my raised veg beds so I grew some catnip in his special areas what I'm getting at is he bever went potty in my gardens and he chased away all of the chipmunks and squirrels and bunnies that dared to come near my gardens I always thought he would've been a guard dog in another life .
Potatoes are one of the top foods that need to be purchased organic. Conventional has high herbicide and pesticide use. Must buy organic. The price of organic potatoes is very high. 3 pounds can be $7-8... Fun to grow, fun to harvest, great food source for feeding a family.
RE: Keeping Cats out of the garden - the cheap way Our completely fenced back yard used to be used by all the neighborhood cats as the community pot until I moved in. Every time I saw a cat in our yard I would scare the hell out of them & chase them away. Now I never see a cat in our yard except our own and I've trained it to do it's business under the trees rather than in the garden. They CAN be trained quite easily. Love all your videos, John. -THANKS!
Hi John, I love your videos too :) I want to share my tip, as to how I keep cats out my potted catnip plants. Each morning I find my catnip plants flaten, lol. I use several cut bamboo sticks(6'' to 7'') in middle of plant. This way the cats can still enjoy the catnip from the side of pot. TC!
Depending on where you stay, and how far a stone crushery is from your place, you'd note that rock dust could be nearly free bye-product of crushing. Large stones are crushed to create pebbles used for concrete. The dust produced is unavoidable. Though many of these crusheries, do manage to sell the dust for commercial profit, but sometimes they have excess that they are willing to give away for free, if you can remove it.
John, I'd recommend learning gnocchi and det mix pepper/veg/ potatoe bake recipes and other things, if nothing else, you could help loads of people by donating potatoes to your local food banks! They have a WONDERFUL yield and with soil that isn't the best. You can just harvest half the potatoes and leave the others to renuriah the soil. To get a good start you can just put them in the bottom of a box and leave it in the sun. Also you can make baked chips with those and a HUGE variety of other thin sliced tubers and some ground sea salt and at the end add a sprinkling of a variety of fine diced herbs like oregano etc for that extra health boost many provide. Like tera chips but 100000000x better for you! :) as always, love your vids and your mission, you're a great guy don't forget it!
I have a veggie bed about 30 long and 5 feet wide, on the other side of the patio it's 6 feet long and 5 feet wide. I dug a hole on the smaller side, then place a large plastic bucket with hole in the bottom and side into the ground to keep my garlic from spreading. Next, to the garlic bucket I planted 40 purple onion plants. Now, I need to plant on the other side. I have lettuce, leeks, spaghetti winter Squash, Lettuce, Cantaloupe, Beets, Swiss Chard, Bell Peppers, Spinach, Cucumber, ginger
I infact grow Jerusalem artichokes. easy to grow. A bit of a particular taste but good. You are right, they grow like weeds so I have 1 bad dedicated to them and try to contain them with anti root foil or whatever it is called in english. Still, I do grow potatoes as well coz nothing beats a potato in your mouth that was in the soil less than 20 minutes ago. Also, French fries from fresh potatoes are a whole different ballparc. U will never go to a snackbar again for French Fries
OMG, 1491 was the best book ever! I learned SO much from it. I'd forgotten about eating clay with the toxic spuds! I know what you mean, some people will attack someone at the first hint of something they don't agree with. They never take the time to listen and see whether, maybe, the other person has a valid point. Personally, I'd rather find out I was wrong about something than continue in my ignorance.
there are over 5000 varieties of potatoes in Peru. In the USA we only get a few varieties that have high yields or low pest problems. the truly divine potatoes are in Peru. you can order them online and grow the best tasting nutritious potato in your garden.
Potatoes are a great source of vitamin C, fiber, and a lot of other good stuff. The "potatoes aren't very nutritious" bit is just untrue. I will agree that they're so cheap to buy that there isn't much economic incentive to grow your own...but everything's better when homegrown, so might as well.
I just love these videos! What in the world do you actually do for a living... seems this veggie-scene is more than a full-time job! Glad you take the time to make these videos, John... thanks from your fans in Philly. John and Ginny Child
As long as you not going thru 100s of eggs a day and are adding egg shells in addition to all the other stuff you are adding to your compost, and your soils aren't already too alkaline, you are probably ok.
Regarding potatoes, they are probably the most caloricaly dense common crop people can grow. That may not mean much to Californians into healthy eating, but the prepper types that want the ability to grow foods for actual calories/survival should know how to grow them. If the grocery stores go empty potatoes will be king and calorie rich starchy foods will be back in style.
I totally get the idea behind growing things that are expensive, but potatoes and strawberries are among the "dirtiest" foods to buy at the supermarket, loaded with toxins. I guess if you can find organic that's better. My strawberries are "free" (planted one once and wound up with a big strawberry patch), toxin free and perennial, requiring nothing more than watering once in a while. They are the most delicious strawberries ever. Grocery store berries taste like petroleum after you eat home-grown. ;) thanks for the great videos.
I like broccoli or green beans with cheese sauce. I like to roast broccoli and cauliflower with oil and salt in the oven. Until they're brown and crisp. I cook my collards and kale in a skillet with bacon or saved bacon fat, white wine, salt and pepper. They all make nice rich side dishes. I like potatoes too, but I need to keep my intake of high-glycemic-load carbs low, so I'm always working on tasty high-fat recipes for low-carb veggies.
John, my lettuce and spinach have been affected by an aphid attack. This is resulting in slow and stunted growth. I removed some of them manually with a piece of cotton but they re-generate in a few days. Do you know of any organic pest control solution? Could you also make a video about the steps you take to keep the different kind of pests in check in your garden. Thanks for all the videos and knowledge you have spread over the years. Keep going!
another way to prevent slugs and snails from eating your plants is sandpaper collars around the base of your plants and I have also heard of putting copper pipe down around the perimeter of your garden. worth a try
Hi John..wanted to let u know I got the Jerusalem artichokes planted in4 different containers as well as sharing w a couple of my friends. My plants are thriving and about a foot tall. Thanks,
A tried and true method for cats is chopping a orange zest or lemon zest very finely and put on the ground. Cats hate smell of acidy fruits and it works as a repellant. I tested this on mine cat :)
Hey there love all of your videos they are full of great information. I do not comment much because I prefer to just take in the info :) I am commenting now to point out a neat little guy over your left pocket! At 6:54 you can see the little fella run up under your collar. anyway thanks for the great videos!
Hey John thanks for the great video! I have a suggestion about cats....a motion detecting sprinkler... I had one set up for children's sandbox that was too big to cover..and it worked great for the 7 years that I lived there...I put it on the edge so that I could get behind it and disable it without getting sprayed myself. The cats...gave up trying to trick the sprinkler...
I did grow Jerusalem Artichokes ... $200 worth I sold to the CSA. BUT... they have inulin in them, an indigestible sugar. It gives you bad flatulence.... more than a little. They take a lot of space and then if you do not harvest every tuber, they come up as weeds. I find them tasty although it is difficult to get all the dirt out of them. They are crunchy and mildly sweet. I like a few chopped and sprinkled on salad. DE works mostly on hard shelled insects like beetles by dessication.
a normal egg shell only contains 2 grams of calcium carbonate... also it takes considerable time to break down into a usable element for plants.. up to 3 seasons in some cases. ..add all you like .. it's best benefit in compost is ground up for worms to use as grit in their gizzards to help digest materials.
---- growing potatoes in garden has served me very well for 40 years. my 100# of seed potatoes product 150 bushels sold , 14 bushels keep for family of 4 for winter and did not dig last 14 rows. --- organic gardening is NOT what is being told to people. 1. does your city or county do any kind of spraying from truck or plane ?? 2. what was on land any time in past 200 years ? 3. did any heavy equipment clear land ?? 4. what money is REQUIRED to be paid before organic label can be used ??
Hi John, you said post about artichokes...I have 8 plants growing right now. I live in zone 17 (top of a hill, warm weather but incredibly windy), and 5/7 plants are currently producing chokes right now (today is July 28th). Also, this is my first year with this batch. I've read a lot on chokes and what people come to say is that 1. You can not grow them in summer, and 2. You can not grow them the first year. Well I have at least 3 per plant, and some are opening from the heat but most aren't.
The whole video all I could think was that I wanted to smack that spider off his shirt. It was like watching a horror movie, just watching and not being able to do anything, I even yelled out, "watch out for that spider, John!"
I use DE for parasite control and also in the garden, remember lizards (gets under scales) and other garden creatures (will dry toads out) can be damaged by DE important to water in DE right away.
Just wanted to let you know that I ordered the Jerusalem Artichokes this spring. I now have a hedge of them on a 25 ft fence and another hedge in a 12ft bed. I hope I like them. I think every piece piece I planted came up. I think they sell for over $5 a lb in the health food stores. My mother is diabetic so I'm anxious to see if she likes them as a substitute for potatoes. Thanks for sharing your starts. Have been following your videos for some time and have learned a lot.
You should do a video on things people already grow as decoration, but don't know they can eat. Alot of people grow things like pansies, nasturium, day lillies, etc, but have no idea you can eat them or how. Alot of people feel they have to choose between growing decorations, and growing food, when really you can get both if you plan a little bit. I'm still trying to figure out how to eat my linden tree.
I made a mixture of urine, tobasco sauce and soap to keep the dear from eating the sunflowers (man they like sunflowers) and that seemed to keep the cats away too. You can get coyote and wolf urine, but since I was shooting to just keep deer away I just used mine, maybe I have particularly predatory urine, but its free and ample supply (I hope) so might as well try that first.
Store bought potatoes are terrible compared to spuds grown in an organic garden. I like spuds and have space so I grow hem even though store bought are sooo cheap.
No one has to like potatoes, but the plant is one of the best for human nutrition. You can actually live on potatoes alone, which can't be said for many vegetables. And the fact that some people fry them in oil doesn't stop you from boiling or baking them. Much of the nutrition is in the outer layer, so they skin should be eaten to get the most benefit. And unlike leafy greens, potatoes can be stored, and stored without buying expensive canners or paying for freezing. Spuds rule!
John, first of all thank you for all your informative videos, I enjoy them immensely. Speaking of calcium additives, how do you recommend adding crushed egg shells to your plantings. I have begun keeping them, drying them out and then using a mortar and pestal, crushing them to powder. How do you recommend adding it to?
Depends on the sand. Quarz sand will not, but I can imagine that sand from granite, limestone, vulcanic rock,... will provide some. Plus some micronutrients are brought up to the soil from below by trees. I somehow dislike concepts where lots of energy has to be invested to garden. Like artificial fertilizers. And I suspect that rock dust may embed a lot of energy similar to nitrogen fertilizer due to the production process.
A good way to deal with slugs is to bury a shallow lid like a from a small garbage or something in the ground near the vegetables to a point where it is even with your soil. One thing slugs like better than your vegetables is beer. Pour enough beer in so that they will sink, you can just empty the old beer and the sots right out in the morning.
I tried growing Jerusalem Arichokes for the first time this year. I had never found a vegetable I didn't like, but guess I should have tasted some first. This turned out to be the only vegetable I can't stand. The smell when I was preparing them made me mildly nauseaus, but then when I tried eating them I really got sick. Don't know if I'm allergic or not, but even when I tried hiding them in vegetable soup where I couldn't taste them, I got sick. Guess this Irish girl will stick with potatoes.
Thank you John. It's all good, and very educational but I still think that the Potatoes, are a great source of vitamin C, and fiber too. Lets not forget 1945 German occupation in Russia WWII, Potatoes saved Russians populations from starvation. Home-grown potatoes are delicious.
1. Neither of us would advocate GMO anything? 2. I'm not talking french fries, hash browns or anything smothered in grease and salt. 3. The ANDI system is not the be all end all of nutrition or diet, I am sure you do not "highly recommend" ;-) eating 100% kale or anything else. The main problem with the modern diet is too much density, mostly calories, less dense is not always bad. You are a reasonable guy John,I didn't mean to give you a hard time, I think potatoes are amazing.
Thank you for the multiple web sites that you give so much information on.I am very appreciative of that. I have recently gone to the total vegan diet diet. I have been gardening for many years, but the raised bed concept really intrigues me and I'm going for it this year. My question for you is what type of rock dust do I use in the Rocky Mountain area where I live? And I'm having a hard time finding any type of rock dust in this area. Can you please tell me where I could find some proper rock dust for this area? Thank you! Uwe Abraham
Did you know that you can live on potatoes alone? (well maybe you'd need some B 12) They are extremely nutritious. It's all the oil and junk people put on them that makes them calorie dense. Also, they satisfy hunger like almost nothing else. Try it!!! :)
When grain crops failed in Ireland, the Irish lived healthfully on spuds ...and John should check the prices of real organic potatoes to rightfully assess dollar value...John can pass a lot of bias ...but we like him for his other helpfulness anyway...Potatoes peel pot liguor was famously used by a doc to cure a whole ship crew of severe scurvy...Vit C intensive tubers did it.
For the nutritional density stuff have you seen Dr. Lisle's "How To Lose Weight Without Going Crazy"? It is long, but he has a take on the modern diet that is pretty much spot on. Thanks to you I tried kale in some green juice a few months ago and really enjoy it - something I never would have expected. Even so I cannot eat that much kale. Also, someone like you who has been doing this for 17 years cannot expect others to be able to jump right into it, either mentally or physically
I understand not everyone has to like potatoes but saying they are not nutritious is not right, since they are. I grow organic potatoes that you can't buy in any store, in colors that have even more nutrients.Most store bought potatoes are grown using chemicals that are not good for anyone. I'm all out for diversity so I feel I'm doing something that matters. I grow many vegetables in my yard and still have room for both Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes. I do enjoy most of your videos.
John, I'm smiling. Last year I just put a few potatoes in around my bee hives and forgot about them. Lo and behold, one day I'm out there and I see these small round rocks protruding through the soil. Wondering where did these come from? Imagine my surprise when I found them to be the baby spuds of my forgotten sowing. I definitely know the logic behind bang for buck on planting the best plants possible. However, since that time, my bees have provided, honey, wax, pollen. My trees provide an abundance of varied citrus, avocados, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plum and more. Tomatoes and Onions around the yard, herbs here and there amongst the trees, pears over there. I raise superworms for my Orpington, Delaware, Australorp and next week I add a Maran to the girls. The idea of a chocolate colored egg shell just thrills me. Why do I point this out? Because John, don't fail to understand why we do all this, not sometimes to say, how can I learn to accept a No but rather how can I find the yes that makes me happy. I tell you, some don't have the skills to do it all, but anyone can grow a potato, even if you don't mind it. It's the baby steps that make one happiest. Just look at the movie THE MARTIAN, I had something in common with that character. I grew a potato. I'll never go to the moon or to Mars, but I can conquer my little space on planet Earth. In your face Neil Armstrong.
This guy is great! My sister moved to Colorado and used his tips & advice on horticulture to help grow the cannabis & stevia (natural sweetner) medicine which turned her uterine cancer into self destruct mode as according to the doctors and she might still have the ability to carry babies :). Please keep these vids coming sir, Thank You, ,,Zak
Hey John, you have so many videos now that I'm just seeing this one from 3 yrs ago. Just wanted you to know that I did in fact buy Jerusalem artichokes from you! Based on your advice I built a 2ft x 5ft x 18in raised bed to keep them contained but give them plenty of room to grow. The 1st and 2nd seasons I grew them were awesome and I harvested tons of delicious sunchokes! After moving due to divorce they were left unattended and uncared for for the past couple of years. However, I went to my ex-wife's house just a week ago and rescued every sunchoke I could find. To my surprise I dug up literally hundreds of sunchokes!! I bought a home this year with a huge yard and plan on growing more sunchokes than I know what to do with!! Thank you again John for all you do to educate and share your experiences! You rock! BTW, I also purchased scarlett runner beans and walking stick kale seeds from you years ago too. I had a lot of success with both and will be planting the descendant seeds of the ones I got from you next spring.
Thanks for not charging $5 for the advice. There's other ways to consume potatoes besides fries or hashbrowns. Potatoes contain 45 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, more potassium (620 mg) than even bananas, spinach, or broccoli, 10 percent of the daily value of B6, trace amounts of thiamine, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, and zinc and all this for just 110 calories and no fat, sodium orcholesterol.
You mean like eating them raw and fresh? I've tried that before and I was surprised at how good they were. The ones I tried had a little of a brown sugar taste.
Thanks John for all the time and work you put in doing these videos.
The Q & A is awesome! Why? Because the A to the Q gives John extensive credibility in his competence, not that we have any doubts. If I have any questions, I know who to ask!
I think potatoes get a bad rep from the way people prepare them, i.e. French fries, chips. Potatoes themselves are nutritious and filling. They've saved populations from starving.
My favorite food.
SpinSpin2020 Yay for taters!
Renee N. Saved from starving perhaps, but ultimately not allowing those people to thrive. Its just a matter of higher levels of nutrition :)
Babs & RJ Obviously. You can't thrive on potatoes alone.
in the game Banished they are crucial
You would be the Best president for what ever country! It is a pleasure to watch Your videos! Thank You!!!
the minerals of potatoes are in the skin and ppl don't usually eat the skins America. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Potatoes get ppl through the winter and have saved many cultures through times of famine.
long story short, I had to spent some time at a place where there was no stove, just microwave, and I discovered not only that I could cook sweet potatoes on the microwave but that I could also eat the skin, which was delicious!
Yep! And for people that have a hard time with this - you want to wash the skin well to get rid of any soil, then rub olive oil and salt and any other dry seasonings you would like onto the potato thoroughly before cooking. Gets everyone to eat the skins even kids LOL
ok i am going to try and explain very quickly and post a video. Potatoes are very good when it comes to keeping your garden naturally healthy, of course there are other ways but potatoes are very easy to grow and turn high yields if done correctly. i reccomend not growing potatoes with other crops, instead cover your entire crop fields with potatoes and follow the steps in the video to produce luscious soil for your next plantings. you can also take your overstock of potatoes and store them for a longer time then most crops, also potatoes will sprout new potatoes even if in an old basement rotten so having backup food to replant incase an emergency is never a bad idea. you can also use potatoes to plant trees and other things. take a potatoe, drill a hole in the potatoe 3/4 the way through, wet the end of the stem and apply cinnamon, pour honey in the hole, apply the lemon tree ( you can do this inside for a while until leaves start to look unhealthy) you can also trim the leaves strategically to help the growing process, stick the potatoe in the ground with lose soil around it, the potatoe feeds the tree even during the rotting process ( gives your garden life!!) potatoes are also a very hardy crop, if the rest of your crops happen to flood or burn up hopefully you still have your potatoes or backup potatoes. there are many more beneficial things about potatoes and maybe the stores arent so healthy because there not growing them the right way :)
My parents have had a garden for many, many years and potatoes always got planted in with them. Never had a problem with any of it.
Im not debating the nutritional quality of potatoes. Potatoes have FED and kept societies alive over the centuries. I will not debate that. More of my thoughts on potatoes not shared in the video:
1. Potatoes these days are now being GMO
2. Most Americans eat FAR too many potatoes, and not a diet with a diversity of other vegetables.
3. Potatoes on the ANDI scoring system are 31, where as kale is 1000. Kale is MUCH more nutrient dense. I posted the ANDI chart to the GYG facebook page.
Hi John-I love these Q & A videos!! So many issues that I never thought of before-really informative. I just want to add something though to your answer to the last question about calcium supplements. My tomatoes were getting blossom end rot because my soil was calcium deficient. I started saving my organic egg shells instead of buying an expensive soil supplement. I just dry them out in the oven for 10-15 minutes at about 230 F, pulverize them in the blender and voila!! I always have a jar of one of natures best calcium supplements!! When I am planting my tomato plants, I add spoonful of the powdered eggshells to the hole prior to transplanting my tomato plant, and I have never had a problem with blossom end rot ever again!
I bought a duster pump on Amazon, it works really awesome for the $15-18 spent... There are different grades of calcium, some have little affect on the PH and its a good point to verify what your soil needs before causing harm from an over application. Lime is intended to be used over a period of time to correct acidic soil, plan on 2-5 years to get where you need to be. I prefer to use Gypsum and I'm looking into oyster shell meal as another calcium source.
I lived in AZ and grapefruits grow on city streets LOL Run outside and pick one for breakfast ha ha
Great video John. I'm glad you brought up the Mesquite tree, many do not know how beneficial it is. The sap can be used to make candy; the leaves turned tea for medicine for eye infection, upset stomach, diarrhea, in small amounts a cleanser of the urinary tract; the beans when ripe have a sugar that does not need insulin to break down making it exceptional for diabetics, the beans themselves can be ground and used to make a sweet flour also containing the sugar, very high in fiber.
I red "1493", and I was astounded about all the varieties of potatoes they had on S.A. It really encouraged me to plant more potatoe varieties.
I was also surprised when they said that the poor people were often the healthiest because they ate potatoes and milk--which were much better than what the rich people were eating.
Of course, they were eating them whole, with the skins, not as potatoe chips and french fries. But even these have nutrients.
Awesome book!
I'm glad you addressed the potato characteristics and also genetic diversity :)
Potatoes are fun to grow! The plants look great, the flowers are beautiful and it's a great fun to dig out potatoes. You know if your yield is big not until you start to harvest. It's like gold fever! ;-)
Growing whats most expensive...hit the nail right on the head. I was outraged to find out how much the tomatoes are going in my local grocer and some of the other veggies and decided I needed to do something about it and grow my own from seed. Ive gotten 10x more out of the seed for my money
I did purchase copper roof flashing to build into my raised beds to keep slugs away. It didnt work as effectively as I had hoped. I do have a past video on it somewhere.
I LOVE that you do gardening videos. I've watched your juicing videos for years and just saw this channel. Yay!
Instead of potatoes, plant yam or sweet potato. They grow similar underground calories, but UNLIKE potatoes, the above ground leaves and vines are edible. At our local asian store in Tucson, Yam leaves are expensive...
Yes, the leaves and vines are edible and delicious very nutritious too !
Taste kind of like spinach........
Its the Glass Greenhouse at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens in Santa Rosa. I was out checking out whats growing and decided to shoot a video there.
Hi, John u should know I am in love with you. I am a Gardner I have a raised veggie garden. You have helped me immensely.i watch your webinars just to relax. A question. What do u suggest for winter crops. For Southern California. Happy new year.
We've got a lot of tomatoes going this year. We started growing last year with four tomato plants -- cherries and 4th of July. A successful venture. This year we designed and built our own raised garden supplemented with some container gardens. We also have green onions, red onions, celery, a variety of peppers, corn, carrots, green beans and peas -- oh, and basil. In August we'll be starting our favorite, broccoli for fall harvest. Hoping to build a small greenhouse, too, in Aug-Sept.
Home-grown potatoes are delicious.1 medium-sized baked potato has 70% of your RDA vitamin C, and high K, too. And they are delicious.
Potatoes are among the healthiest crops I ever known. If given a chance, I will surely try and have a garden full of potatoes. If this crop can be easily found in our garden, then you simply make a home that is healthy.
I live in the northeast and many years ago transplanted some wild Jerusalem artichokes which grow along the roadside here.. They are about 3-4 feet tall in the wild, have red skin, and taste just like artichoke hearts. Without the woodland competition, they grow at least eight feet tall and bloom in September. They spread like crazy and I had to pull them up, but you can never get them all out. If even a small piece of the root is left, it will form a new plant. They also attracted voles, which are impossible to get rid of.
John, Thanks for the vid. 10 lbs of organic potatoes for $1? We pay $5 for 3 lbs pretty much year round here in the midwest.
I grow sweet purple potatoes and the green leaves can be blanched and eaten with a little bit of vinegar and spices. Yummm!
Diatomaceous clay (dirt) is a very fine abrasive. That's the reason to avoid breathing it in. Supposedly, the food grade DE helps clean the human intestines, but grinds up the insect innerds. Something was chomping on my squash plants. I mixed DE with powdered sugar to sprinkle on the leaves after I dampened the leaves with a spray bottle. I don't know whether or not it helped. I got this idea from the suggestion of mixing white flour and powdered sugar. The bugs eat the mixture because of the sugar, but can't digest the flour.
Perhaps slugs, grubs, and snails in compost are there for a reason. Maybe they break up organic matter into fertile soil. But I would not leave the grubs in the soil when it is ready for the garden.
I personally love sweet potatoes. You can eat their greens and I have found some varieties are grown by some people JUST for their greens. Also, there are cool weird potato varieties like the African mint potato that has a mint growing as the greens and potatoes as tubers. And, finally, even though regular potatoes do not have edible greens and are readily available in the supermarket, if the potato you bought is starting to grow out the eyes, why not just cut it up and plant it? takes 5-10 min max.
thebunnyfoofoo i like to plant greens 4 my bunnies2
Yes, I grow by the "grow what's expensive to buy" thought as well. For me, that's greens, cucumbers, and tomatoes! :)
I just came across you today... Love Love Love all you are putting out there for people to be informed. Thank You so much for helping me!
thanks for sharing your thoughts John!
I second that. I had a patch of Topinambur (Jerusalem artichokes) last year. They grew big and tall. Took a root from the grocery store, put it in a pot and then planted it in the garden later. But this spring - not a single plant. I dug them up - plenty of roots with shoots, all munched off. I put them balk into pots and 4 weeks later back in the garden. I dont worry anymore about them becoming invasive - the snails seem to completely kill them if I dont save them from them. I hate snails!
this guys has the most interesting informative videos regarding gardening!
Thank you! I like growing lettuce but some guy posted a video about growing potatoes in buckets and I started out with 2 small buckets of the expensive purple russets and yukon gold and now I have 6 buckets from just those 2 I started with. I have branched out to sweet potatoes as well (which here they are $2 per pound and each one is about 2-4lbs) at the store.
1:40 "I need to go for a dump - John 2008"
I love the question from " I needa go for a dump"!!! Ha!!!! And you don't even realize that you said it!! Keep up the good work bud.
Many people I know plant potatoes for the lovely vines they also produce.
.. and the point I'm trying to make is diversify your diet to include all vegetables, so that all nutrients are obtained. For example, making a "mashed" potato with potatoes, spinach, green onions and tomatoes with 2% milk is awesome!
I love Jerusalem artichokes! So did all the wildlife I was amazed over the years how they came from all over to eat them so this year I am doing raised bed for them that I can protect!
John , I had a really cool cat his name was Fred . Fred used to sleep in the center if my raised veg beds so I grew some catnip in his special areas what I'm getting at is he bever went potty in my gardens and he chased away all of the chipmunks and squirrels and bunnies that dared to come near my gardens I always thought he would've been a guard dog in another life .
Potatoes are one of the top foods that need to be purchased organic. Conventional has high herbicide and pesticide use. Must buy organic. The price of organic potatoes is very high. 3 pounds can be $7-8... Fun to grow, fun to harvest, great food source for feeding a family.
And garden grown potatos, as with most vegetables, are so much tastier than from the store
RE: Keeping Cats out of the garden - the cheap way
Our completely fenced back yard used to be used by all the neighborhood cats as the community pot until I moved in. Every time I saw a cat in our yard I would scare the hell out of them & chase them away. Now I never see a cat in our yard except our own and I've trained it to do it's business under the trees rather than in the garden.
They CAN be trained quite easily.
Love all your videos, John. -THANKS!
Hi John, I love your videos too :)
I want to share my tip, as to how I keep cats out my potted catnip plants. Each morning I find my catnip plants flaten, lol. I use several cut bamboo sticks(6'' to 7'') in middle of plant. This way the cats can still enjoy the catnip from the side of pot. TC!
Another great one thanks John you're so much fun to watch :)
Depending on where you stay, and how far a stone crushery is from your place, you'd note that rock dust could be nearly free bye-product of crushing. Large stones are crushed to create pebbles used for concrete. The dust produced is unavoidable. Though many of these crusheries, do manage to sell the dust for commercial profit, but sometimes they have excess that they are willing to give away for free, if you can remove it.
John, I'd recommend learning gnocchi and det mix pepper/veg/ potatoe bake recipes and other things, if nothing else, you could help loads of people by donating potatoes to your local food banks! They have a WONDERFUL yield and with soil that isn't the best. You can just harvest half the potatoes and leave the others to renuriah the soil. To get a good start you can just put them in the bottom of a box and leave it in the sun. Also you can make baked chips with those and a HUGE variety of other thin sliced tubers and some ground sea salt and at the end add a sprinkling of a variety of fine diced herbs like oregano etc for that extra health boost many provide. Like tera chips but 100000000x better for you! :) as always, love your vids and your mission, you're a great guy don't forget it!
I have a veggie bed about 30 long and 5 feet wide, on the other side of the patio it's 6 feet long and 5 feet wide. I dug a hole on the smaller side, then place a large plastic bucket with hole in the bottom and side into the ground to keep my garlic from spreading. Next, to the garlic bucket I planted 40 purple onion plants. Now, I need to plant on the other side. I have lettuce, leeks, spaghetti winter Squash, Lettuce, Cantaloupe, Beets, Swiss Chard, Bell Peppers, Spinach, Cucumber, ginger
I infact grow Jerusalem artichokes. easy to grow. A bit of a particular taste but good. You are right, they grow like weeds so I have 1 bad dedicated to them and try to contain them with anti root foil or whatever it is called in english.
Still, I do grow potatoes as well coz nothing beats a potato in your mouth that was in the soil less than 20 minutes ago.
Also, French fries from fresh potatoes are a whole different ballparc. U will never go to a snackbar again for French Fries
The best reason to grow your own potatoes is that they taste amazing!
OMG, 1491 was the best book ever! I learned SO much from it.
I'd forgotten about eating clay with the toxic spuds!
I know what you mean, some people will attack someone at the first hint of something they don't agree with. They never take the time to listen and see whether, maybe, the other person has a valid point.
Personally, I'd rather find out I was wrong about something than continue in my ignorance.
THANK YOU JOHN FOR ALL THE INFO
there are over 5000 varieties of potatoes in Peru. In the USA we only get a few varieties that have high yields or low pest problems. the truly divine potatoes are in Peru. you can order them online and grow the best tasting nutritious potato in your garden.
Potatoes are a great source of vitamin C, fiber, and a lot of other good stuff. The "potatoes aren't very nutritious" bit is just untrue. I will agree that they're so cheap to buy that there isn't much economic incentive to grow your own...but everything's better when homegrown, so might as well.
I just love these videos! What in the world do you actually do for a living... seems this veggie-scene is more than a full-time job! Glad you take the time to make these videos, John... thanks from your fans in Philly. John and Ginny Child
Another great video John (even if you don't like potatoes!). Thanks for all you do.
As long as you not going thru 100s of eggs a day and are adding egg shells in addition to all the other stuff you are adding to your compost, and your soils aren't already too alkaline, you are probably ok.
Regarding potatoes, they are probably the most caloricaly dense common crop people can grow. That may not mean much to Californians into healthy eating, but the prepper types that want the ability to grow foods for actual calories/survival should know how to grow them. If the grocery stores go empty potatoes will be king and calorie rich starchy foods will be back in style.
I agree! I'd LOVE to know b/c I KNOW doing these videos take a lONG LONG time!
use mulch and don't let the soil dry out to a crust.
some people spray soap to break the surface tension but mulching will be most beneficial
I totally get the idea behind growing things that are expensive, but potatoes and strawberries are among the "dirtiest" foods to buy at the supermarket, loaded with toxins. I guess if you can find organic that's better. My strawberries are "free" (planted one once and wound up with a big strawberry patch), toxin free and perennial, requiring nothing more than watering once in a while. They are the most delicious strawberries ever. Grocery store berries taste like petroleum after you eat home-grown. ;) thanks for the great videos.
Michele Paccione so true home grow is cheap store taste like water
I like broccoli or green beans with cheese sauce. I like to roast broccoli and cauliflower with oil and salt in the oven. Until they're brown and crisp. I cook my collards and kale in a skillet with bacon or saved bacon fat, white wine, salt and pepper. They all make nice rich side dishes. I like potatoes too, but I need to keep my intake of high-glycemic-load carbs low, so I'm always working on tasty high-fat recipes for low-carb veggies.
John, my lettuce and spinach have been affected by an aphid attack. This is resulting in slow and stunted growth. I removed some of them manually with a piece of cotton but they re-generate in a few days. Do you know of any organic pest control solution?
Could you also make a video about the steps you take to keep the different kind of pests in check in your garden.
Thanks for all the videos and knowledge you have spread over the years. Keep going!
another way to prevent slugs and snails from eating your plants is sandpaper collars around the base of your plants and I have also heard of putting copper pipe down around the perimeter of your garden. worth a try
Hi John..wanted to let u know I got the Jerusalem artichokes planted in4 different containers as well as sharing w a couple of my friends. My plants are thriving and about a foot tall. Thanks,
A tried and true method for cats is chopping a orange zest or lemon zest very finely and put on the ground. Cats hate smell of acidy fruits and it works as a repellant. I tested this on mine cat :)
Hey there love all of your videos they are full of great information. I do not comment much because I prefer to just take in the info :) I am commenting now to point out a neat little guy over your left pocket! At 6:54 you can see the little fella run up under your collar. anyway thanks for the great videos!
Hey John thanks for the great video! I have a suggestion about cats....a motion detecting sprinkler...
I had one set up for children's sandbox that was too big to cover..and it worked great for the 7 years that I lived there...I put it on the edge so that I could get behind it and disable it without getting sprayed myself. The cats...gave up trying to trick the sprinkler...
I did grow Jerusalem Artichokes ... $200 worth I sold to the CSA. BUT... they have inulin in them, an indigestible sugar. It gives you bad flatulence.... more than a little. They take a lot of space and then if you do not harvest every tuber, they come up as weeds. I find them tasty although it is difficult to get all the dirt out of them. They are crunchy and mildly sweet. I like a few chopped and sprinkled on salad.
DE works mostly on hard shelled insects like beetles by dessication.
a normal egg shell only contains 2 grams of calcium carbonate... also it takes considerable time to break down into a usable element for plants.. up to 3 seasons in some cases.
..add all you like .. it's best benefit in compost is ground up for worms to use as grit in their gizzards to help digest materials.
---- growing potatoes in garden has served me very well for 40 years. my 100# of seed potatoes product 150 bushels sold , 14 bushels keep for family of 4 for winter and did not dig last 14 rows.
--- organic gardening is NOT what is being told to people.
1. does your city or county do any kind of spraying from truck or plane ??
2. what was on land any time in past 200 years ?
3. did any heavy equipment clear land ??
4. what money is REQUIRED to be paid before organic label can be used ??
Hi John, you said post about artichokes...I have 8 plants growing right now. I live in zone 17 (top of a hill, warm weather but incredibly windy), and 5/7 plants are currently producing chokes right now (today is July 28th). Also, this is my first year with this batch. I've read a lot on chokes and what people come to say is that 1. You can not grow them in summer, and 2. You can not grow them the first year. Well I have at least 3 per plant, and some are opening from the heat but most aren't.
The whole video all I could think was that I wanted to smack that spider off his shirt. It was like watching a horror movie, just watching and not being able to do anything, I even yelled out, "watch out for that spider, John!"
I use DE for parasite control and also in the garden, remember lizards (gets under scales) and other garden creatures (will dry toads out) can be damaged by DE important to water in DE right away.
Just wanted to let you know that I ordered the Jerusalem Artichokes this spring. I now have a hedge of them on a 25 ft fence and another hedge in a 12ft bed. I hope I like them. I think every piece piece I planted came up. I think they sell for over $5 a lb in the health food stores. My mother is diabetic so I'm anxious to see if she likes them as a substitute for potatoes. Thanks for sharing your starts. Have been following your videos for some time and have learned a lot.
You should do a video on things people already grow as decoration, but don't know they can eat. Alot of people grow things like pansies, nasturium, day lillies, etc, but have no idea you can eat them or how. Alot of people feel they have to choose between growing decorations, and growing food, when really you can get both if you plan a little bit. I'm still trying to figure out how to eat my linden tree.
I made a mixture of urine, tobasco sauce and soap to keep the dear from eating the sunflowers (man they like sunflowers) and that seemed to keep the cats away too. You can get coyote and wolf urine, but since I was shooting to just keep deer away I just used mine, maybe I have particularly predatory urine, but its free and ample supply (I hope) so might as well try that first.
You can add paper in the form of cardboard, newspaper, paper from a paper shredder, etc.
Store bought potatoes are terrible compared to spuds grown in an organic garden. I like spuds and have space so I grow hem even though store bought are sooo cheap.
No one has to like potatoes, but the plant is one of the best for human nutrition. You can actually live on potatoes alone, which can't be said for many vegetables. And the fact that some people fry them in oil doesn't stop you from boiling or baking them. Much of the nutrition is in the outer layer, so they skin should be eaten to get the most benefit. And unlike leafy greens, potatoes can be stored, and stored without buying expensive canners or paying for freezing. Spuds rule!
John I am new to gardening can you do a show on how much water to use on different crops
you are my personal hero! honestly! thats great...
John, first of all thank you for all your informative videos, I enjoy them immensely. Speaking of calcium additives, how do you recommend adding crushed egg shells to your plantings. I have begun keeping them, drying them out and then using a mortar and pestal, crushing them to powder. How do you recommend adding it to?
Under 12 minutes, way to go!
ineedagofordump2008? hahaha i need to go for a dump LOL did anyone else catch that?
i literally burst out laughing lmao
Lol I caught it
Did you catch the IVXX... What Roman numeral is that?
I think it meant 420...IV is 4...XX is 20
Proper display would be CCCCXX
Depends on the sand. Quarz sand will not, but I can imagine that sand from granite, limestone, vulcanic rock,... will provide some. Plus some micronutrients are brought up to the soil from below by trees. I somehow dislike concepts where lots of energy has to be invested to garden. Like artificial fertilizers. And I suspect that rock dust may embed a lot of energy similar to nitrogen fertilizer due to the production process.
A good way to deal with slugs is to bury a shallow lid like a from a small garbage or something in the ground near the vegetables to a point where it is even with your soil. One thing slugs like better than your vegetables is beer. Pour enough beer in so that they will sink, you can just empty the old beer and the sots right out in the morning.
01:40...that question is from Anita Go For a Dump in 2008, lol. Oh dear. Love your videos, John!
I tried growing Jerusalem Arichokes for the first time this year. I had never found a vegetable I didn't like, but guess I should have tasted some first. This turned out to be the only vegetable I can't stand. The smell when I was preparing them made me mildly nauseaus, but then when I tried eating them I really got sick. Don't know if I'm allergic or not, but even when I tried hiding them in vegetable soup where I couldn't taste them, I got sick. Guess this Irish girl will stick with potatoes.
Thank you John. It's all good, and very educational but I still think that the Potatoes, are a great source of vitamin C, and fiber too. Lets not forget 1945 German occupation in Russia WWII, Potatoes saved Russians populations from starvation. Home-grown potatoes are delicious.
natural sand doesn't supply many minerals, but you're right about the rest...
1. Neither of us would advocate GMO anything?
2. I'm not talking french fries, hash browns or anything smothered in grease and salt.
3. The ANDI system is not the be all end all of nutrition or diet, I am sure you do not "highly recommend" ;-) eating 100% kale or anything else.
The main problem with the modern diet is too much density, mostly calories, less dense is not always bad. You are a reasonable guy John,I didn't mean to give you a hard time, I think potatoes are amazing.
Thank you for the multiple web sites that you give so much information on.I am very appreciative of that. I have recently gone to the total vegan diet diet. I have been gardening for many years, but the raised bed concept really intrigues me and I'm going for it this year. My question for you is what type of rock dust do I use in the Rocky Mountain area where I live? And I'm having a hard time finding any type of rock dust in this area. Can you please tell me where I could find some proper rock dust for this area? Thank you! Uwe Abraham
Did you know that you can live on potatoes alone? (well maybe you'd need some B 12) They are extremely nutritious. It's all the oil and junk people put on them that makes them calorie dense. Also, they satisfy hunger like almost nothing else. Try it!!! :)
When grain crops failed in Ireland, the Irish lived healthfully on spuds ...and John should check the prices of real organic potatoes to rightfully assess dollar value...John can pass a lot of bias ...but we like him for his other helpfulness anyway...Potatoes peel pot liguor was famously used by a doc to cure a whole ship crew of severe scurvy...Vit C intensive tubers did it.
For the nutritional density stuff have you seen Dr. Lisle's "How To Lose Weight Without Going Crazy"? It is long, but he has a take on the modern diet that is pretty much spot on.
Thanks to you I tried kale in some green juice a few months ago and really enjoy it - something I never would have expected. Even so I cannot eat that much kale. Also, someone like you who has been doing this for 17 years cannot expect others to be able to jump right into it, either mentally or physically
I understand not everyone has to like potatoes but saying they are not nutritious is not right, since they are. I grow organic potatoes that you can't buy in any store, in colors that have even more nutrients.Most store bought potatoes are grown using chemicals that are not good for anyone. I'm all out for diversity so I feel I'm doing something that matters. I grow many vegetables in my yard and still have room for both Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes. I do enjoy most of your videos.