pnb - from NIH (link follows): Sources of Selenium Food Seafoods and organ meats are the richest food sources of selenium [1]. Other sources include muscle meats, cereals and other grains, and dairy products. The amount of selenium in drinking water is not nutritionally significant in most geographic regions [2,6]. The major food sources of selenium in the American diet are breads, grains, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs [7]. The amount of selenium in a given type of plant-based food depends on the amount of selenium in the soil and several other factors, such as soil pH, amount of organic matter in the soil, and whether the selenium is in a form that is amenable to plant uptake [2,6,8,9]. As a result, selenium concentrations in plant-based foods vary widely by geographic location [1,2]. For example, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Composition Database, Brazil nuts have 544 mcg selenium/ounce, but values from other analyses vary widely [10-12]. The selenium content of soil affects the amounts of selenium in the plants that animals eat, so the quantities of selenium in animal products also vary [2,5]. However, selenium concentration in soil has a smaller effect on selenium levels in animal products than in plant-based foods because animals maintain predictable tissue concentrations of selenium through homeostatic mechanisms. Furthermore, formulated livestock feeds generally contain the same levels of selenium. Here is a link that might be useful: Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Selenium

Greetings I am new to posting to this site although I have referred to it from time to time when I had a gardening question. I find that when several people corroborate each other on a subject it's usually the right answer. Very interesting. As to Ruth Stout, I read about her quite a while ago through Rodale, and I thought she made perfect sense. When I built my house here in Sacramento (shout out Carla) I started gardening in earnest. I started out using the Bio-intensive method because my ground had been scraped and compacted down to hard clay. I constucted a few beds with this method, but I always added mulch because I couldn't stand to see the bare soil getting baked. In bio-intensive the ground is supposed to be mulched just by the foliage of the plants close together. Problem is when they are small. Then a friend loaned me "Gaia's Garden" by Toby Hemmenway. I experimented with one bed using what he called his bomb proof sheet mulch bed. I was really blown away. I now have committed my whole garden to this method with some exceptions. It is the Ruth Stout method with a giant kick start. This web site details the process. http://www.patternliteracy.com/ I have added to the knowledge of this method by putting it to work on my 1/4 acres under Sacramento conditions. I generally do not need to water during the winter rainy season, but because we normally get no rain between May and November I add drip irrigation between the top two layers at about five inches apart. If I keep my top mulch at about 6-8 inches I only need to run the drip system every few days when it is 100 degrees F or over. otherwise much less often. This method requires a lot of collecting of materials but i get most for free. Sacramento is a tree mecca. Every late fall I go around in my van with large plastic bags which I use over and over again to collect the leaves which have fallen and people have been so nice as to have placed in nice piles. I stockpile the leaves because when it's done it's done. I don't have to go far from home to find plenty, much more than I can use. I like oak, elm, and just about any deciduous type. Avoid magnolia types. I avoid wood chips for the most part because they do take a long time to break down. I am able to find straw from ads on craigslist for free, and I have my own secret source for free spoiled straw and hay. Because I live in an urban area I use coffee grounds for my nitrogen source and it again is readily available from coffee shops for free. In fact you are keeping it out of the landfill. I supplement sometimes with oyster shell and greensand just to be sure I have enough P&K, but probably with the tree leaves I don't need it. Also I chop up my plants like tomato and everything not harvested and add that as well. I think that because P is supposed to help grow strong stems and stalks P must be in those stemmy parts. Incidentally when you remove your plants with this method you simply cut the plant off at the base level and allow the roots to rot underground. I never dig! Ruth would be proud. I did run into problems planting small starts so I got a few hundred clear plastic pint containers and cut the bottoms off. I clear some mulch aside insert the container and plant inside. When the plants are big enough I pull out the containers. I just keep reusing those containers. When I plant seeds like carrots I reduce the mulch layer down a lot and add it to another bed. When the carrots get big enough i start to add mulch back again. Slugs are an issue especially in a newly formed bed with things like lettuce and chard. I just deal with it by using sluggo and some hand picking at night with a headlamp and a bucket of soapy water. We have a lot of slugs here anyway. Pill bugs are shredders and they seem to go after the areas that the slugs have munched on, otherwise they are valuable for breaking stuff down. I think Ruth would approve because this method really gets thing off to a dynamic start. Afterwards you just do as Ruth does and just keep adding more mulch. I do continue to sprinkle coffee grounds with the other mulch materials. Normally I have to pull my irrigation lines up about two inches a year because so much new compost has formed. I do this when I am planting a new crop. The exceptions to the sheet mulch method is for potatoes and sun-chokes because you would have to dig up your bed to find them all. So for those I use a high-rise method in a wire composter. It works great. I guess that's it except that I wish I could have met Ruth Stout. She sounds like a fabulous person. Come on gardening in the nude! How great! I couldn't get away with that here.

To follow up from January 2012. In January 2012, I was losing my sight in both eyes after having cataract surgery in 2010. The optometrist, Dr. Schell's attitude always included the words "at your age" it is the best you get. I was 47 at this point. It was another 13 months before I received a YAG, laser surgery to get rid of the scar tissue. Since the Crystal lens is back in your eye, the scar tissue is forced up against the lens and stops it from flexing. I was told this on the day of the Yag surgery, Feb 13, 2013. I no longer could tell when the eye chart was put on the wall, but could see down at the end of a hall. Felt very weird and frustrating that no one understood except the surgeon. I came out the surgery with more light than I could stand. It was amazing, but painful and hard to get through the day. That amount of vision did not last, but in 2016 my prescription remained the same. I definitely need glasses to drive, they annoy me to walk around the house though. Need reading glasses to read newsprint, but not the computer. Still have other problems. In the original surgery on my left eye, there was intense pain(think labour pain). I believe I had problems with the muscle relaxant, which I had noted in my file and spoke to the anesthesiologist about. He just rolled his eyes. He gave me too much for my system, the surgeon commented that my eye was spinning and then pain. I have complained continually that I am missing vision on my left side. I have also flew over the top of items, since they were below my line of vision. In my last appointment (7 years since surgery!), there was mention of a retina tear. There is two lumps in close proximity to the tear, The last optometrist mentioned the lumps might be cancer, the latest says maybe the start of AMD. Still believe it is better than being blind, but not a miracle cure. I do not feel the crystal lens flex like your natural lens. I have been in tense situations and when the other person crosses their arms, I think Great!, they are finally listening. After several different situations of arms being crossed, I know I am missing visual clues!:) Trying to learn patience... Sorry for the long post. Hope it is helpful.

mustbnuts: so glad someone else saw cupcakes in that line-up of gallon jugs filled with aa tea. I am going to pull a rifis on you: When I realized how mistaken I was I thought I mustbnuts! rifis: why are you asking my forgiveness? what did you do? I must have missed it? I apologized to Malcolm in case he thought I assumed he is old and you thought that was funny? No problem, I dont think you ever mean harm. I just did not want to be misunderstood. toolbelt: Now I realize where and why I came to call you a she. It was when I saw your gallon jugs of aa tea I thought they were cupcakes. With mindless stereotyping I though you must be a woman since you posted a picture of cupcakes that you must have baked. So many assumptions! Sorry!