Big news about a common herb I grow concerns me a bit. Stevia is a natural sweetener. I use it and I think I've mentioned it before here, maybe not. Now that the FDA has approved Stevia for soft drink production etc, you can pretty much bet it will soon become impossible to buy seed to grow your own. Such is the way of commercial business laws like possessing ginseng without a government issued permit or not being able to sell the roots of plants that grow wild without a government issued permit, not being able to buy seed like Cardamom etc...Things being illegal to grow in some states such as the idiotic ban on Morning Glory's or castor bean comes to mind. Here's something to look at, how often have you noticed celery seed for sale on the racks in the spring?
I'm allergic to bee stings so keeping bees for honey is pretty much out of the question. I simply do not have enough land to grow things such as sugar beets or cane. A substantial part of my cold storage/preps is refined white sugar. I will be cultivating my Stevia again this spring only in larger quantity.
Perhaps it's time to review the seed you've saved and include some herbs you can still get seed for that can help keep you healthy, make you healthy if you are sick and make your food more tasty in general.
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2 hours ago
Sounds like very good advise to me...thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletei do a lot of my own fresh seed from supermarket produce. plant onions, turnips, parsnip, chick peas, carrots, most spice seed -(frost tolerant, i'm in the southern mountains of australia), potatoes, radish, etc all provide a fresh batch of seed and if a corner of the garden is left for self seeding then the only thing to do in spring is plant most of 'em out.
ReplyDeleteI traded a fella for some Stevia seeds a few years ago and then never did a thing with them. Found them the other day in a coffee can where I'd stored them. Frankly, I don't remember a thing about Stevia. Looks like I should get my GoogleFu on tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up! Tried Stevia last summer from a vendor at a farmers market in western PA. Good stuff if you can get the leaves, but I tried the Stevia extract... tasted just like aspertame to me. Yuck. But I will have to look for seeds in this winters catalogs to save up.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the warning!
Has Stevia become a GMO yet? If not, if you can get some this year, let some go to seed and plant again...
ReplyDeleteThen save some to make a fortune on the black market once the revolution comes. :D
HEY! No stealing my warning about the revolution! (No, its not a real revolution... not that I know of anyways.)
ReplyDeleteJust a PS- of course they have to restrict the herbs that make you well, otherwise we wouldn't need socialized- I mean universal health care.
ReplyDeleteDiva, I know it. Like we all just died before modern medicine or something. God forbid if we think for ourselves and cure that sinus infection on our own without paying.
ReplyDeleteAnon, the produce we buy commercially here is mostly hybrid and GMO, the seed either doesn't sprout or grows something different than what it's supposed to. Frankly, saving seed from store bought produce is a waste of time unless you can buy something locally grown that isn't hybrid.
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