Juxtapositions often make one stop and think – a pair of contrasting paintings in a museum, side by side, can be more than the sum of the parts. On Thursday, my thought-stimulators were a pair of speakers, separated by hours and miles, but both talking about plants.
Dr. Louis Magnarelli, Director of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, spoke at the CT Tree Protective Association’s annual meeting on Thursday. One of his topics was the newly discovered Boxwood blight, which appears to have arrived in
That evening, Tom Christopher, a nationally-known garden writer, spoke to members of the Middletown Garden Club and their guests at deKoven House. Exhorting gardeners to exercise sustainable practices, Tom described how he had had little luck growing tomatoes until he researched and bought tomato seeds appropriate for a short growing season.
Even as I nodded my head, regretting my 20 years wasted trying to grow tomatoes (average yield – two per plant), I suddenly thought back to that nasty Boxwood blight. And I thought about the Hemlock woolly adelgid, which arrived in the
While Tom’s point was that buying seeds and growing your own tomatoes lets you select from the huge array of plants that may be better equipped to grow in your yard than the three or four varieties sold at the local nursery, there’s a lot more sustainability in that choice. First, you are buying something that costs almost nothing to ship and which has scarcely any carbon footprint.
The plant you grow from those seeds can be coddled (or not) in your own seed starting location, without the pesticides a grower would normally apply repeatedly until the plant is ready to ship. Packing materials for seeds usually consist of a paper envelope, so no new plastic pots are needed. You will most likely recycle pots from your own collection (or if you need recycled pots, just call me!)
But by far the best reason for growing from seed is avoidance of diseases and pests. While it is possible to get seed contaminated with bacteria or viruses, those are usually only of concern if you are eating the sprouts, as in the recent broccoli sprout scare in
Two years ago, the tomato crop in
Growing plants from seed also improves the diversity of our gardens. Instead of growing monocultures of one or two varieties of a species, we can grow enough variety to deter pests and diseases. The Irish Potato Famine should have been instructive in this area: although dozens of varieties of potatoes were grown in their native Central America, the popular food staple in Ireland consisted of just one variety, which was repeatedly cloned through the practice of saving seed potatoes for replanting the following year. This lack of genetic diversity exacerbated the effects of the introduced Phytophthora blight, and led to death by starvation for millions of poor Irish farmers.
The international movement to save seed is an important effort, one we may all depend on if things go awry with the genetically-modified seed industry. If your mailbox isn’t bursting with seed catalogs at the moment, check out the Seed Savers Exchange website for glorious inspiration. Seven kinds of beets, 42 different beans, nineteen eggplants – including Red Ruffled, aka Hmong Red – what could be more fun than making all those choices?
And remember that growing from seed needn’t be limited to vegetables – my current project involves a bunch of beech tree seeds. I’ll be reporting on their progress over the weeks to come.
Come Support Middletown High School
PROJECT GRADUATION at
MONDO
Enjoy a night off from cooking with delicious New York Style Pizza,
amazing entrées, fresh salads and unique paninis, in a casual dining restaurant!
TUESDAY, JANUARY 24th
DINE-IN and TAKE-OUT
MONDO will donate 10% of all sales on January 24th, from 4pm-Closing, to MHS Project Grad to aid in its efforts to raise funds for a SAFE GRADUATION PARTY for MHS Students.
View full menu at www.mondomiddletown.com
10 Main Street • Middletown, CT 06457
Take-out Orders - 860-343-3300
(Free Parking in rear of builiding)
January 22, 2012
The Second Lesson--When Jesus calls the first disciples to follow him, their response appears to be immediate, unhesitating, easy. But it wasn’t, really, as the rest of the gospel stories make clear. Spiritual awakening always involves the effort of passage from one place or stage to another. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says, “We are impatient…. but it is the law of all progress that it passes through some stage of instability…” So, to follow Jesus means to allow ourselves to be disoriented in some way, so as to be reoriented in a new way.
ion and Second Hour Art Show
Last night the Northern Middlesex Cable Advisory Board got to see the result’s of its $2,500 grant to Oddfellow’s Playhouse. Oddfellow’s Director Matt Pugliese expressed his jubilation with the results of the 3 public service announcement’s that Oddfellow’s was able to shoot using the funds donated by the Board. Puglieses came armed with a ipad to show the 12 members one of the 30 second professionally directed PSA's that will be used in commercial campaign’s to attract new student’s to the youth theater program. Pugliese said “ In 2009 about a third of our student’s received some sort of scholarship help based on financial need, this past year that number is almost half. We at Oddfellow’s will never turn a child away because of inability to pay; but to be able to do that we need to be able to attract donors, get grants, and attract new students who are able to pay full tuition to be able to offer that cost. The building collapse last year really hurt us financially, and I cannot thank the Board enough for this contribution. With it we were able to make 3 PSA’s – two 30 second spots and a 4 minute long historical overview of Oddfellows. We will be using these on our website, and in the future possibly be using them for TV air time. Thank you all.” A number of board members expressed their eagerness to continue to help Oddfellows and expressed the desire to incorporate the PSAs as commercials aired during their personal cable access shows on Comcast. Pugliese said he would make the PSA’s available and they are now also available for the public to see on Oddfellow’s YouTube channel.
Board member William Wilson discussed plans to create a scholarship in honor of longtime Comcast cable access volunteer and Middletown resident Justin Hinze who passed away two days before Christmas in 2010. “ He was a wonderful person that was bullied at school, but learned to be himself around the Comcast set. He found his place on camera and developed his own show. Making a scholarship that his mother will have input on that’s available to students in all 5 towns that this board serves is a true honor to his memory.” The scholarship will be available to residents of East Hampton, Middlefield, Middletown, Portland, Meriden & Cromwell student’s graduating in 2012. The Board hopes it can make the scholarship offering an annual event. The Boards is currently developing the criteria for which a student will qualify for the scholarship and plan to distribute it to all the high schools where it will be offered.
John Barrow, general manager at Comcast gave his report and invited the public to attend an Open House January 31th at the new Comcast studio location. Anyone wishing to have his or her own cable access show is encouraged to come to the open house as well. Comcast previously located on Tuttle Rd. in Middletown has moved to a brand new facility on Willowbrood Drive in Cromwell. Barrow discussed the new features of the facility that were not available at the old location. The new Comcast Service Center & Studio has a state of the art lobby with 4 TV’s where customers can try out 3D TV and HDTV viewing. There is also a kiosk which customer’s can use like an ATM and directly pay their bill with cash or credit cards in person. There is also a service desk with staff where customer’s can address their cable & Internet issues if they are unable to resolve their needs by phone. The new studio is a huge upgrade from the previously aging studio in Middletown. New features include but are not limited to direct intercom from director to on set, fully functioning digital sound, and inputs for digital media from laptops. Previously any media that an access show’s producers wished to air had to be manually transferred by cd or sometimes vhs tape. The new studio is available to for the public access productions.
CA Board chairman Jon Pulino expressed what was on many of the member’s mind that evening and has been a topic of discussion at almost every meeting for over a year. When will AT&T Uverse have the public access channel? Barrow’s said, “Corporate is working on it but still in negotiations.” Barrow’s later reminded the Board that for other CT town’s some negotiations had gone on 2 years. Treasurer and the most tenured member of the Board Middletown resident John Schilke explained to me after the meeting that the negotiation is out of the hands of the local Board and local Comcast branch, it is something that the national At&t corporation and Comcast have to reach. Currently, Comcast airs Common Council, BOE and P&Z ,and other municipal meetings on the cable access channel, an agreement that has yet to be reached would allow At&T Uverse subscribers to have this channel also. I asked Schilke, retired director of Video & Digital Communications at Yale, what about the possibility of live internet streaming and archiving of these sessions, and he said as far as available technology it is certainly in the realm of possibility of as a service that Comcast could offer if it chose to do so. The Board cannot mandate what services are offered, but citizens can come before the Board to make suggestions or ask questions.
The meeting closed with a motion to move the public session to the front of the meeting, which passed unanimously. Resident’s with issues with their Comcast cable or internet service who have exhausted trying to resolve their billing or service problem by phone can appear before the Board and speak with the Comcast liaison directly to resolve their issue. The Board, as mandated by the FCC acts as advocate for the five surrounding towns.
Open House New Comcast Studio & Service Center –Willowbrook Drive, Cromwell
January 31, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
The Oddfellow’s PSA made possible by the Northern Middlesex Cable Advisory Board
and Tomorrow!
The Traveling Circus Company is comprised of students that have spent many years in the Children’s Circus of Middletown and CT School of Circus Arts, training under the direction of Dic Wheeler (ARTFARM) and Joel Melendez and Heidi Kirchoffer (Matica Arts). The company is comprised of Middletown residents Richard Carnegie III, Denzell Dempsey, Evan Knoll, Zachary Moeller-Marino, Nathan Linklater, Chris Wilkins , Durham Resident Rebecca Weir, Hartford resident Malaika King and Cromwell’s Jasmine Peck. 
Photo Credit: Rob McGuinness
