Thursday, June 5, 2008

Home Growing with Ocean Water

I recently listened to an interview of Don Jansen
on The Best Day Ever.com. Patrick Timpone was interviewing
him, and said it was the one of the most exciting topics he has
covered...not only in the realms of agriculture, but of reaching
full human potential. Patrick Timpone has done a lot of interviews,
so that is a really heavy statement coming from him.

The idea is this. Our soils are HORRIBLY depleted of minerals.
The natural cycle is broken. The minerals pulled out of the soil
do not go back into it because we dispose of our wastes in the toilet
and the garbage, and much of the produce is shipped thousands of miles
away. It must be a closed circle. The soil in much of the US today is basically
a dusty-sponge that temporarily holds the petro-fertilizers used to grow
the pathetic and disease-laden produce that feeds most of the country.

The produce is weak and therefore susceptible to disease.
Sound familiar? Think of disease like a wolf pack. They will always
attack the weakest member of the herd. You cant eliminate bacteria and
parasites, but you can make your body resistant to them.

How? MINERALIZATION.
We must re-mineralize the soil. But how?
Compost? NO NO NO. Where are the minerals?
We are usually composting stuff grown in poor soil.
The other 60+ minerals arent going to appear magically.
So where do we get them? Our true home...the ocean.
The ocean is where we came from, and the craziest fact about all
of this is that the ratio of minerals in the ocean is exactly the same
as the optimal ratio of minerals in the human body.

If we can fully re-mineralize...what is possible?
How would our mind change?


Here are some pics of the wheatgrass that I am now growing
with this method. I use no soil. I water twice a day. Check out
the results. No mold. None! Why? Strong plants, and the
higher amount of sodium seems to keep the mold away as well.


Here is a HUGE idea that Don Jansen presented in the interview.
No animal (yes, that includes us) can absorb a mineral
unless it has been absorbed by a plant first.
He did say that cows and other ruminants have the power
to convert it to organic minerals, but we aren't cows.

So where does that leave Sea Salt??
So many raw leaders have said that we can re-mineralize
by taking sea salt in our water, but this statement
totally blows that idea away...

Sea Salt is inorganic. Humans cannot absorb inorganic minerals?
I do believe this now, but Patrick Timpone couldnt agree with him
on that...most likely because he has accepted the words of others as fact.
Its RAW dogma...just because we heard one idea first, doesnt mean
that we must discredit all new ideas that are presented to us.


Im still going to use sea salt because I like the taste,
but Im open to the idea that Im not absorbing the minerals
contained within it. We have to be open to new ideas always.

Check out the bottom root structure...the roots take the shape of the tray.

Im growing sunflower sprouts too.
Here is a pic from the fire escape.
When someone says "I don't have enough space to grow anything"...
just remember these pictures.


A simple watering twice a day. So easy.
And Im bringing plant life into the world, so that really feels great.

Get more info at www.growgreens.com

They sell a concentrated seawater mixture, that you will
dilute with fresh water. I think the ration is 3/4 tbls to 1 gallon of fresh.
Ill keep everyone posted throughout the summer on how this goes.

Here are some new pics of the Sapote seeds...big changes.
I have read that they get to 70ft...but maybe with some pruning I can
keep them to 14ft? Who knows? I dont really care actually...I just
want to help them grow and see what happens. Its a huge bonus
if I get fruit, but thats not the point at all anymore.


Ive never raised a tree from seed, so this is pretty huge for me.
I need to get it from NY to Minnesota somehow, and Im
petrified at the idea that they will make me run them through
the x-ray machine. My little babies...


Ill do anything I can to avoid them having to be x-rayed.
I would think if the clowns that work in front of the x-ray machines
all day can just look at them and reason that Im not
hiding a bomb in the soil, everything should be fine.
Wishful thinking I suppose...


Anthony

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Anthony,

Maybe this sounds a little wacky but do you think you could get sea water from the East River? It is salt water after all. I just question how clean it would be. What are your thoughts?

yardsnacker said...

Commenting on absorption of minerals...I personally believe that the ability to absorb minerals depends on two things, one the size of the mineral and two the health of the cells receiving. Colloidal minerals and metals do rapidly absorb into cell walls because the molecule is so small. I personally have noticed a real zing, a real healthly feeling when I set up my water with celtic sea salt. But until somebody does a blood draw I suppose it's all heresay.
Oh cool looking sapote, like poetry. Or should I say "Sapoetry"? ;)

Ben said...

Hey Anthony, I'm loving all the stuff you're doing on sea agriculture. I think it's one of the coolest things I've learned about from the raw community yet! I want to start growing my own ocean grown oranges and peaches and I can't wait to experience what they're like. I just bought some marine phytoplankton from sunfood, is that what I need to mix with the water or is it something else? Also any reason I can't just go down to the beach and take some water straight from the pacific ocean?

-Ben

Tanja said...

WOW your wheatgrass looks amazing! I always have mold problems with mine so will def. try diluted ocean water. A question though, what is the growth medium you use? From the pictures it looks like paper of some kind?:)

Btw I planted a couple of loquat seeds a little more than a month ago and they are already 4in! It's mind blowing that such a seed which have been shipped thousands of miles and exposed to god knows what still has the life force to grow into a huge tree!


Hugs
Tanja

Elspeth said...

The wheat grass looks great. Didn't realise you could grow things with just sea water. Although I went to a workshop (backyard organic gardening) last weekend and one of the things we were told we could use as a topping for soil is dry seaweed, collected from the sand. I'll visit growgreen and see if they explain more about the sea water process. Interesting blog by the way.

rawkiwi said...

Wow! This is super interesting!! Your sprouts looks so amazing and healthy!
Can you recommend any books on the subject? I've searched Amazon and found 2 books - 'Sea Energy Agriculture' & 'Fertility from the Ocean deep' Have you heard of these, and if so good or bad?
Lastly, you mentioned horse trainers using diluted sea water grown wheatgrass. Is this the same mixture you use for your sprouts? Do you buy the mixture from growgreens.com?
Phew ok enough questions from me! Thankyou so much for the inspiration and constant new information.
Keep up the amazing work!

Michelle said...

Great Anthony!! This is exactly what we were talking about the other day! Such an intersting concept to think about! Your wheatgrass looks awesome by the way AND your sunflower sprouts are ROCKIN!! Good luck with the sapote!!! Love ya!
M

Anonymous said...

Anthony - Are you just following the growgreens.com instructions for wheatgrass? Were you able to grow the sunflower greens with the paper towel method as well? Just waiting for my shipment of seeds and ocean water! :o)

Anonymous said...

Anthony,

This is very interesting to me. I have a freshlife sprouter that I have been using to grow wheatgrass and sprouts.

I have been feeding my plants with tap water. Do you think it would be possible to add some some this concentrated sea water mix?

Good info and nice sprouts!!

Anonymous said...

Some of this stuff is truly unbelievable. I mean, if human beings can absorb things that are lab made (artificial vitamins, pharmaceuticals) and according to your own posts, have negative impacts from that process...How could we not absorb sea salt? The body is an amazing machine, and it can pretty much deal w/ anything that can be broken down to base constituents. There is no "magic" from plants. The truth is, a lot of what we do eat is pretty toxic/poisonous or unhealthy, but that doesn't make plants any more special. They are simply more nutritious. There is nothing "magical" about them, which enables the body to only used plant sourced nutrition as to any other source.

Anonymous said...

Anthony-Your sapote plant is so cute. It looks like it is being loved. Good luck with it. (That is the secret ingredient in Juliano's chocolate shakes. He doesn't use a chocolate one, but now you can do it.!)

Anthony said...

From what I understand about the absorption of minerals...and I claim to be no expert here, just a raw foodie with an open mind...

There is no carbon atom attached to the mineral if its inorganic. If you study organic chemistry, youll learn that its all about carbon. If there is no carbon, humans cant absorb it. I could be totally wrong, but this is what ive researched lately. Just bringing that to the forefront here...

Remember this...all pharmaceuticals are in fact plant based...right? Im pretty sure of this. Or at least animal based and plant based, which means that they are organic. Dont confuse "organic" with the term we are used to. By organic, I mean "connected to life", not inorganic, likes rocks and minerals and such.
This could be wrong, but really look into it.

Im not ruling the old viewpoint out, but Im open to the new one if it proves true. Truth must be your authority, not the other way around.

AND...

"There is no magic in plants."

Go ahead and read "The Secret Life of Plants" and then think about this conversation we're having now.

No magic in plants...ye of little faith. :) Im laughing right now.

If you only knew.

There is more magic out there if you'll simply open your heart to it.

Plants can read your mind, they can fell your emotions and help you.

Plants are pure magic..science proves it as well. Open your heart and your mind a bit, and maybe it will show itself.

Anonymous said...

Hi Anthony. Thanks for the support about the food addiction issues.

I first learned about depleted soil three years ago in the book, Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About. I heard for years that organic produce cultivated in compost was highly nutritious. So when I found out that even organic produce is inferior when it comes to nutrition I was alarmed.

I'm really glad that you and some other such as David Wolfe have demonstrated a solution to the demineralized soil because eating food that is still lacking nutrients is a kind of starvation. Hope I'm making sense.

I think some people let their egos get in the way of acknowledging that nature is powerful. Oh and I work in a bookstore and I have realized that the books that contain information that is vital in empowering people are not even promoted and not even in the store.

SKIN ISSUES- I have finally discovered that the biggest change that I have done that has helped me fight eczema is eating a lot of raw greens, consuming vita mineral green and rubbing live aloe vera on my skin especially the sensative areas. I have scars and I have used Tea Tree Oil for 4 years and the scars are dissipating. I really believe that you can't be healthy unless you consume a lot of greens. Victoria Boutenko did mention it in her book, 12 Steps To Raw Foods that the condition of the teeth, hair, nails and skin improved dramatically. I am doing whatever I can to increase my consumption of greens.

COMPOSTING- I wanted to mention a while back about what I discovered when I went to the farmers market. I still know little about gardening and agriculture but I'm learning. I met this woman who was giving people tips on gardening. She does composting and she was so prideful of the fact that she has less trash. But it kind of alarmed me a little that she puts newspapers and cardboard into the compost. Isn't the whole point of composting to nourish the soil and therefore cultivate produce that is beneficial to us? So it seems as if the sea water would be a much higher standard than soil that contains dead materials such as cardboard.

Let me know what you think because I found this shocking. Oh and I agree with RawKiwi. Have you ever thought about just going to the beach and collecting the water from there, Or some lake that's clean? I'd have to research. Thanks for the books people; I'm sure to check them out. -Beki

Anonymous said...

WOW. THANKS Anthony. Sea agriculture sounds amazing! What beautiful wheatgrass & sunflower greens! Amazing. Just lovely. I'll surely get some of that loverly sea water mixture.

Your black sapote is SOOO pretty. I don't think I've ever seen such a gorgeous little plant, what a beauty!

Thanks for sharing.

Peace,
tash

MAGIC is everywhere in nature. Plants are magic. Right on.

prunus insititia said...

Thank you for bringing the remineralisation to my attention. I never though about the fact that if the stuff in the compost doesn't have it, it won't magically appear.

Anonymous said...

Where are you getting this sea water from?

Anonymous said...

yet another fab post, Anthony!
few things to share...
1) YOUR SPROUTING: looks fantastic, and again, too weird, i was JUST starting to think about doing my own sprouting and microgreens for one main reason: you don't need alot of room or even soil! and, there you are sprouting on your fire escape. Universe backing up my thoughts. thanks for being validation.
2)COMPOSTING: it is interesting that you mention use of sea/ocean components for our soils. My father, an amazonian indian and gardener here in NJ, has ALWAYS used seashells/oyster shells in his soil. for YEARS...DECADES. He pulverizes them into powder then adds them to the soil. coming from the amazon and then moving to NJ, the first thing he did was enrich the soil. in his compost pile he uses...EARTHWORMS.They help, too!people used to think my dad was a bit nuts using seashells and earthworms..but, when they see how abundant and rich his garden is, they became believers. I remember being little and dad had tons of earthworms in the garden soil, and we reacted with the typical kid 'EWWWWW!!" but dad taught us to love and respect them. He continues to do this with his grandchildren. he also puts his chicken manure in there, too. his compost is so rich, last year we had cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers shooting from it! crazy.
3)the sapote tree...absolutely STUNNING. it's so alive, beautiful, and sensual...from a designing standpoint i was just loving the curves, the layering, and the colours! Nature is ART! ^___^ It looks so happy!!
4) SORRY FOR THE RAMBLING ON!! but, thank you for allowing me to share my experience.

Anonymous said...

Hey - love your blog! And LOVE LOVE LOVE your idea for your farm.

I encourage you to rethink your idea about the body's ability to absorb inorganic minerals. Inorganic simply means a mineral complex that does not contain carbon atoms.

Animal guts are quite able to absorb mined, inorganic salt. There are excellent reasons for not using mined salt, but we are able to utilize it.

In our guts, salt breaks down into sodium and chloride, which are charged particles. These charged particles cannot diffuse through the phospholipid bi-layer that is the cell membrane. Sodium and chloride can diffuse between cells, and can be actively transported into and out of cells by special proteins. These proteins only "see" a single sodium atom, and the atomic structure is completely inorganic. Organic, in chemistry terms, simply means a compound that contains carbon.

There are compounds that come from plants that have a sodium ion covalently bound to a carbon-chain, but once such a compound is put in an aqueous medium like the water of your gut, the sodium dissociates from the carbon chain, which is less polar than the water, and the sodium ion is free to enter the blood or lymph by the process described above.

Anthony - you are such a smart guy. You should get a digestive physiology book -- I think you'd learn a lot, and it would help you defend raw food better.

I'd really love to see more raw foodies into hard science. A raw life style IS defensible using "hard" science, and to convince the unconvinced nay sayers, you need to be able to argue in THEIR language.

Keep up the good work!

Jill said...

Hi Anthony,
I'm curious about they type of sea water you use to grow your plants. With all the pollution and mercury in our waters, do you think this adversely affects the plants grown using it? Do you think it needs to be purified first?
Great, radical idea to re-mineralize and your plants look amazing, but the above is a concern.
Thanks for sharing your ideas and above all being open to other viewpoints.
Jill

Anonymous said...

Hi,

My name is Marc, and I am interested in growing wheatgrass at home without soil. Where can I find the step by step guidelines? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Anthony!

Thanks for sharing this information on growing wheatgrass without water. I wanted to grow my own (buying it is breaking my bank!) but was dragging having to deal with soil, trays, etc. Using sea water sounds like a less messier idea and much easier to handle.

Thanks!
Alina

Tea Fiend said...

Wow, I totally took your advice about Thalassa and I'm glad I did! I noticed that my sprouts grew exponentially faster with the Thalassa :) And it's clean and convenient, too.

I'm growing some lettuce in a little greenhouse tray, and some seeds that fell into spots without soil that were watered with Thalassa still grew! It's practically fail-safe! A middle-schooler that came to my house found it so fun that I gave her some wheatgrass seeds and Thalassa to play with. :) Her parents have a great garden outside, but this is the first time that she's actively participating in growing something.

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