In case anyone missed the PBS special The Botany of Desire which premiered Wednesday, October 28, 2009, you can still watch the entire program online. It's incredible. Book turned documentary. BOTANY OF DESIRE is a documentary which tells the utterly original story of everyday plants and the way they have domesticated humankind. An interpretation of the relationship between plants and people. This two-hour documentary explores plant evolution and takes viewers from the potato fields of Peru and Idaho, the apple forests of Kazakhstan, and the tulip markets of Amsterdam. View online in it's entirety: here This is another related program by the same presenter on LINK TV (a cable access channel) which is timely: Deep Agriculture Traditional methods of agriculture in most developed nations have long ignored environmental concerns. Factors such as soil erosion, water shortage and the impact of chemicals on bio-systems have been overlooked in favour of massive crop yields and cheaper food. But what impact does this have on our health and our environment? View online in it's entirety: here __________________________ Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and witness the evolution of an Organic Kitchen Garden.

I have a Silas Woods that I bought from the real treehouse nursery in Pine Island (not the PI nursery). They are the original source for the Sillas Woods sapodilla. In fact the picture of the tree shown on the Russian nursery site is the actual tree that is the source of budwood at the real treehouse used to graft this sapodilla. The tree shown in the picture from what I was told is over 15yrs old and it measures approximately 8 feet high. I paid $30 for a two gallon size pot. The plant was only 1.5 feet high and it had flowers on it. It managed to produce one sapodilla that I just ate a few days ago. The taste was very sweet, creamy, with absolutely no grit. It tasted like a pear with brown sugar on it. The skin is very thing and you can actually eat it with the fruit. The fruit itself looked like a mini football. It measured 3.5" long and about 1.5" wide. The plant is now full of new blooms again. It has branched out and its now about 3 feet high. I moved it to a 3 gallon pot about a few weeks ago. If you are looking for a tree that is a heavy producer of quality fruit and stays small this is the one.

I don't know where I get my information that I seem to have in my head about Coronado, several sources really. Some of it comes from someone who did a video report pre-internet that I have seen, There does seem to be a dearth of information about Coronado. So I think this might be a good place to put out what I think I know, and maybe some one who does the research can correct it. Coronado was a little ambitious company that wanted to be a part of the modern industrialization of the 1800s, in a large part led by Singer, but they did not set out to be a Singer cloning company; They were into metal work. They had a small plant (picture a brick warehouse with a small foundry and a work yard). They were from the start looking for a good product that would make them good money. It didn't go very well; they did piece work, but their main stay, low profit products were toys. They were looking for a solid product line when the sewing machine opportunity arrived, which they enthusiastically dived into. They got rid of all their non sewing machine making tooling and they made their first sewing machines in house. At that time they decided that they needed a "brand name". The owner was aware of the conquistador Coronado, and he was infatuated with the Southwest though he had never been there, but mainly he like the way it sounded: "It's a Coronado". Many people do not realize the high drama around sewing machines. Sewing machines led the industrial revolution, especially about machines and factories. Singer might be said to be the first multi-notional :-), and of course while their patents were in force, they had a monopoly. When the patent monopoly ended, a number of firms jumped in the sewing machine manufacturing game, little guys. So then, National Sewing Machine sets out to consolidate American, non-Singer sewing machine manufacturing. Singer's scale and internationalism as well as National Sewing Machine's name made it plausibly a patriotic business operation, but I think it was simple anti-competitive market consolidation. So after WWII National Sewing Machine's function is taken over by Brother, and National Sewing Machine goes out of business. I would not be surprised if National Sewing Machine and Brother had major stockholders in common at that time. So Coronado was all in on being a sewing machine manufacturer, but was not really set up for such mass production, and were approached by National Sewing Machine to have National Sewing Machine make their machines. They didn't really want National Sewing Machine to make their sewing machines, but could see that they would never be able to compete and stay afloat, so they made the deal to badge their machines. This was in the 1800s. All the other cloning companies were bought up or went out of business. Coronado survived, but turned basically into a sales company, but they had a solid contract so they could compete as an indy label. They did make another short lived attempt at doing something on the engineering side. I think the 2 step button holing sewing machine might be the only thing to come out of it. I'm not sure. The only one I have seen anything on is the one I posted about at: https://www.reddit.com/r/SewingMachinePorn/comments/1ahdwvu/missing_from_the_internet_coronado_451409_sm51409a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 This is an improved rewrite of a post I made there. This is also the machine where I first made note of Coronado, back in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I was a kid. Is this a two step button holer unicorn? If anyone knows of another, let me know .. or where a manual to this machine, a #45-1409, S.M,5-1409A can be found . Some investigative reporter wanted to know what happened to Coronado when the department stores closed and the Coronado machines disappeared from the market. He tracked the company down to a one room office in some low rent office building. He finally got a hold of the man running the place, who was seemingly well into retirement. At some point the owner just made a contract with minor department store companies to do the selling and to furnish them with machines made by his suppliers, and he put the business on auto-pilot.

stacy You have a real challenge there, trying to grow heirlooms and not having control over what's around your own space. My uncle ran a community garden here 35 years ago and I had a plot there for two seasons. I've been fighting blight for about 8 years. I've found that I can grow tomatoes in a new plot, and I can lower the problem, but not totally eradicate it by rotating crops. But it's apparent to me that you must rotate crops if you want to grow heirlooms today. I grew 10 different beefsteaks, a yellow pear and a yellow Kellogg's Breakfast tomato last year. I had two plants, each of most of those. I've decided that I won't buy transplants in the future. So I grow my own from seed I saved, although I do add varieties from purchased seed. I've also decided to stick to heirlooms as much as I can, because it gives me the ability to save seed and in many cases they're the best tasting varieties. I intentionally set 4 tomatoes out in mid June with the idea that I may get the big tomatoes that I seem to get in the first flush. That worked great. The plants were the last to start showing blight and it was minor. This year I plan to repeat that and try setting out a plant in the 3rd and 4th week of June. It's my opinion that what you learn growing heirloom tomatoes will make you a much better gardener with your non heirloom varieties. If you can grow heirloom tomatoes you can grow anything! Grow at least a few in the middle of your plot, while leaving room for a few next year.