How to Grow Tasty, Nutrient-Dense,
Fruits and Vegetables
...with flavors like your grandmother experienced
Larry Bailey
Clean Food Farm
Orting WA
www.cleanfoodfarm.com
Organics - only 10% is better for you
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Certified organic produce
–
Does it Taste better?
–
Is it Better for you?
–
Organic growers get paid
by the pound!
Soil Health vs. Health Care
- Maximize investments in farm/garden labor,
materials?
- Investment in bettersoil health and fertility
- 1/6th of our economy spent on health care
- A health care crisis or a health crisis?
- Why not grow health?
We Can Grow Nutrition
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Must be in, made available
or added to soil
Must be in form
plants can take up
Us
Plants
Food
Soil-Food
Web
What Plants Do
1.Collect solar energy
2.Combine earth's minerals with atmospheric
gasses to make organic material
3.Manufacture sugars and proteins
We can measure plant health by how well plants
do #1-3
Vegetables and fruits are stupid!
If not available in soil then fruits and vegetables
can't take up nutrients and minerals
People and animals can't ingest the nutrition
You are what edible plants take up and assimilate
for you and your animals
What is Nutrient Density
A measure of the amount of nutrients a food
contains in comparison to the number of
calories.
Does Nutrient Density Matter?
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More complex and
intense flavor
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Longer shelf life
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Greater specific gravity, or density
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More tendency to dry out instead of rot
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More disease pest resistance in growth phase
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Greater yield per plant/acre
Nutrient Density and Brix
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Costly to send food samples to testing lab
(Blueberries = $400/sample)
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Need a field measure
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Brix refractometer measures refraction of light
correlated to dissolved solids
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Brix = measure of quality
(sugars and disolved solids
[minerals, carbohydrates etc])
Higher Brix = More Nutrient Density
1. More dissolved carbohydrates = better metabolic
function.
2. Greater mineral density, e.g. increased calcium and
trace minerals . (Trace minerals = co-enzymes in
digestive process. )
3. Better taste. Taste is built on
the carbohydrate and mineral
levels in produce.
4. Increased shelf life.
5. Improved insect and
disease resistance
(Bob Wilt story)
Nutrient Dense Gardening/Farming
Soil Test
Sun/Water
Nutrient Dense Food
Testing Lab
Your farm or
garden
You and your animals
Customized Nutritional
and Biological Inputs
Health
Minerals and Carbohydrates
➔
Minerals carry an electrical charge
stimulating our taste buds.
➔
More minerals (in balance) the better the taste
➔
Carbohydrates and mineral density rise and fall
together
Nutrient Dense Produce
Characteristics
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Less water weight
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More weight coming from minerals
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Trace and other minerals
heavier than O2 and H
which make up
water weight
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Weigh more on a weight
per volume basis
Bob Wilt's “heavy”
blueberries
How can
you grow
these?
Not with This
Closed
Environment
Assess and Build Soil Foundation
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Visual clues
Drainage
Structure
Tilth – Workability
Signs of life
Smell test
Varieties and Vitamins
-Some varieties can extract more of vitamins
-May not taste better (a tradeoff)
-Overall may not be more nutrient dense if gown
on poor to average soil
ex. Caro-Red Tomato (1958 Purdue) – High
Vitamin A, = lower betacarotene
What do plants need/use?
Non mineral: H, O, C,N
Mineral: Macro – N, P, K
Secondary nutrients - Ca, Mg, S
Microntrients: B, Cu, Fe, Cl, Mn, Mo, Zn
But plants can take up and make bioavailable
many more minerals that they don't need to grow
These non-essential minerals can enhance taste
and improve overall nutritional value
What do people need?
Calcium
Magnesium
Iodine
Manganese
Iron
Phosphorus
Beta-carotene
Potassium
Boron
Selenium
Chromium
Sodium chloride
Cobalt
Zinc
Copper
If I went to Dr. with these symptoms
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Urinating often
Feeling thirsty often
Feeling hungry even when I
have eaten
What if Dr. never ordered
urinalysis and blood sample?
Would she be guessing?
Don't Guess—Test Your Soil
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Obvious?
Can't tell
deficiencies
only by
observation
See resource
page for labs
and how to's
SF vs. Acre
results
Take Action-Make a Plan
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Understand the results interpretation
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Make a plan to correct deficiencies
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Don't just focus on NPK
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Look at more than Macronutrients and
“essential” nutrients
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Understand, measure, feed soil biology
•
Soil foodweb
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Don't forget organic matter (4% min. Higher OM
holds more trace minerals)
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Fix drainage, irrigation etc
Resource Handout Review
How I did it
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Took initial composite soil analysis (fall 2011)
• Deficiencies in: P, N, Ca, Bo, Mn
• Tilth (Orting Loam)
• Overabundance of K (manured ground)
– Don't overdo compost or composted
manures etc
– Can create imbalance
Used inputs indicated and applied in fall to allow
at least 6 months for minerals to become
bioavailable
How I did it
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Made my own higher quality compost
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Started making my own vermicompost
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Kept soil covered
•
(“Mother Nature is Not a Nudist” Dr. Raymond
Pool - 1937)
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Minimized tillage
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Watered evenly
Nutrients Reflected in Food
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2012 Entered Butternut squash competition
(11th place of 250 competitors)
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Developed and used compost tea – weekly
sprays
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Squash: deficient in Phosphorus, Calcium,
Manganese
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No downy or powery mildew, few insects
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Action: Continued to corrected with Soft rock
phosphate, ground limestone, manganese
sulfate and sodium borate
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Keep making and using compost tea
Fall 2012
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Consulted with competition winner
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Retired US Federal soil scientist!
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Sample tested 37% better overall than USDA
average for butternut squash
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Gave me several recommendations
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Urged patience...
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Re-built his soil over 20+ years
2012-13 Action Plan
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Consulted with competition winner
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Added broad spectrum natural rock dust
powders: Asmoite, Ground Basalt
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Applied lower amounts of rock phosphate
powers, limestone, gypsum
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Applied organic nutrient drenches and aerated
compost teas during growing season
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Did not plant cover crops—mulched instead
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Watched Carbon to Nitrogen ratio of inputs
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Sawdust, bark [620:1]
(locks up N to plants)
Measuring During Growing Season
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Brix=rough measure of nutrient
density
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Use an optical or digital refractometer
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Measure fruit, leaves and compare with chart
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Track status as season progresses and from
year to year
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Helps Determine when to apply foliar feeds
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Costly for vegetable/fruit lab testing
•
Blueberries = $400/sample for vitamin, minerals
etc analysis
Types of Refractometers
Digital ~ $250 up
Optical: $85-150
Measuring Brix (demo)
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Take Brix reading from whatever part you
eat if ripe.
If not ripe take most recent mature leaves
that had full sunlight for at least 2 hours.
Use mortar and pestle, Visegrips or garlic
press to crush/generate plant sap to put
on refractometer lense
Take measurements same
time of day to compare
throughout
growing season
Garden Green Beans
Brix: 6.1 Average
Nutrient (100g USDA
beans)
%DV
Store
Garden
%DV
Protein
1.8 g
4%
1.76 g
3.34 g
7%
Calcium
37 mg
4%
70 mg
130 mg
13%
Magnesium
25 mg
6%
30 mg
50 mg
13%
Phosphorous
38 mg
4%
40 mg
80 mg
17%
Potassium
209 mg
6%
190 mg
580 mg
17%
Copper
0.1 mg
3%
0.1 mg
0.4 mg
20%
Iron
1.0 mg
6%
1.3 mg
2.1 mg
12%
Zinc
0.2 mg
2%
0.72 mg
2.3 mg
15%
Manganese
0.2 mg
11%
0.29 mg
0.35 mg
18%
Comparison
2-brix difference more than doubled dry matter
content.
Weight per volume, as measured by the Mineral
Density Rating (MDR) improved
Taste enhanced.
Grocery store beans were similar to the USDA
average while the beans from the garden
showed great improvement in nutrient levels.
Next Steps
Take a 5 year phased approach and build fertility
gradually
Don't guess--soil test every 1-3 years
Go in with a friend on a refractometer and use it
Resource
Handout Review
Change is hard!
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Are you going to rely on the industrial
food system for most of your nutrition?
Or
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Make and
implement your
own garden/farm
action plan