The final section of this book is titled Seed.
In the first chapter of this part we find out how Klaas, the organic farmer we met at the very beginning of the book, met his wife. It’s actually really cute and the circumstances are very fitting. I also learned about the lake effect, in which precipitation is greater near lakes and the body of water has an effect on the surrounding air.
The majority of the rest of the section named Seed is about: seeds. Most of it is lengthy discussions about different types of grain (wheat, rice, barley). The grains that we eat now are vastly different than the grains our grandparents grew up on, and this has a lot to do with crops being grown in order to harvest the greatest amount rather than grown to create grains that have great flavor. One man mentioned that whenever growers come to him and ask for grains, they ask him what they can grow that will yield the most, not, what can I grow that will taste incredibly good?
Planting seeds that produce more product has led to not only a loss of flavor, but a lack of seed saving and landrace farming. Seed saving is the practice of saving seeds after the harvest to use for planting next season. Farmers aren’t saving seeds anymore, they buy genetically engineered seeds that promise to produce. This has led to a loss of many varieties of seeds and gives no chances for variations. Variation is important, because if you allow the seeds to grow the way they want to, a dormant gene or a new gene could pop up one day, and it might actually be better than what currently exists. Landrace farming is one way in which dormant or recessive genes have a chance to turn up. If the growing season isn’t what is expected, or it is bad, a variant could pop up that has the ability to survive in not so ideal conditions. Letting nature do this naturally is better than anything that can be created in a lab.
There is a lot of good information in this section, too much for me to go over. I feel like I learned more from reading this section, and the book in its entirety, than I did in history class. And I feel like what I learned here is more valuable than trying to learn about the presidents of the United States.
This is a book that I am going to keep on my bookshelf. I know that there is going to be a point in the future when I have my own little garden, and I’m going to want to get it set up right. I know that there is going to be a piece of information in this book that will be helpful that I will want to review before I get started planting. I also want to go back to the Finger Lakes, where I just recently vacationed with a friend, because a lot of the places mentioned in the book happen to be right where I was. I need to go back and see the things I read about. Overall, an illuminating read. And, I only found one grammatical error, it was in the second paragraph in the very first chapter, so I’m very impressed.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 