Life Sciences

Life Sciences

Biographic introduction by Alan Venet: Dr. Alan Kapuler (Seed Breeder Consultant to Sow Organic Seed Company www.organicseed.com) has been our friend and teacher since our first "back to the land" experiences of the early 1970's. By 1978, we had begun the first "organic-open pollinated" seed service as an extension of growing our own food. Dr. Kapuler's education includes undergraduate at Yale University and graduate work at the Rockefeller Institute in Manhattan. Bio-genetics and the science of life was his field of study as the modern era of science was unfolding in the 50's and 60's. It was his continuous scientific inquiry into the life around us that got "Stonebroke Hippie" seed company started from the study of harmlessness, leading us to replant living carrot and beet tops in the garden and growing the next generation of seeds from what we were eating. As years long learning experiences those beginning years were invaluable and got us on the road to seeds. As early as 1980 Alan was thinking of what vegetable had what true nutritional properties. In some years we grew dozens of tomato varieties, but what was in them nutritionally? The year that Dr. Kapuler looked for amino acids in tomatoes with thin layer chromatography on the countertop of our farmhouse was a meeting of awakening science and traditional food production that we got to see at home. Learning and knowledge have been around us all these years and in the present issues of health, nutrition, sustainability, etc. are topics of garden talk everywhere. People eat!
Our premier breeding source, Dr. Al Kapuler is making available Three Articles of interest to organic gardeners. Be sure to check out Dr Kapuler's page www.organicseed.com/lifesciences.Below are descriptions:
Article 1 " Peace Seeds Retrospective 1973-2003- 30 Years Later" 5 pages $2.00 By Alan M. Kapuler Ph.D.
Article 2 "Free Amino Acids in Vegetables" By Sarangamat Gurusiddiah Ph.D. and Alan M. Kapuler Ph.D. These scientists collaborated for many years analyzing the free amino acid content of hundreds of samples of juices from organically grown vegetables, leaves, flowers and roots. This is a xerox copy of the original papers from Peace Seeds research Journals Vols 4,5,6,7,8(2) (1988-1997) which makes 6 articles with results of high performance liquid chromatographic analysis for most of our temperate garden foods. Legumes whose immature pods are favorites in summer gardem (snap peas and beans) have the highest amounts of total free amino acids. In some foods, glutamine, one of the energy sources for our brains is abundant. Tomatoes with 17 of the 21 amino acids used to build proteins are free amino acid nutritious and, in potatoes where 3% of the tubers are protein, there is another 3% of protein value in the free amino acids in the juice 64 Pages $20.00
Article 3 " Kinship Gardening" The two best articles from Peace Seeds Journal (with recent family level layouts) by Alan M. Kapuler Ph.D. Appearances are frequently deceptive as analyses of whole genomes of organisms is revealing many unsuspected patterns in the relationship of genes to the specific and unique structures and activities of cells. since the cells build the bodies we call animals, plants, toadstools, seaweeds and the teeming herd of microbes, growing gardens encourages these resources, life based resources, and within the core of resources is oue experience with diversity. How deep is the gene pool, how far ranging the detailed knowledge of genomes of many organisms from humans to archaea? how do we develop our energies for the conservation and, perhaps, construction of gardens optimized in genus, species, tribe, family and order diversity in the quarter million species of plants on earth? Do we consult the Planetary Atlas of Organisms to find out the ecological correspondences of the backyard garden? Do we experiment with 120 kinds of tomatoes, and save the seeds of the best? What makes the best? So we begin building gardens that emphasize tree of life connections, kin:siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, 80,000 human generations of grandparents in the interdependent interaction of people with plants. Now, we are laying out gardens based on this kinship notion. One year we did kinship gardening for the major families of temperature zone food plants (chenopodiaceae, amaranthaceae, fabaceae, asteraceae, brassicaceae, cucurbitacae, alliaceae, apiaceae, solanaceae, poaceae, lamiaceae) learning the substructure of the tribes, subtribes and genera and planting out our layouts. It takes collecting as many kinds as possible in a genus, or family and making a garden of them in a way to give insight into their basic affinities; a garden based on an inside view, a genotypic view. During the years of building Peace Seeds and developing Seeds of Change, kinship layouts were developed for most of the temperate zone food families (legumes, daisies, mints, solanums, cucurbits, brassicas, alliums, carrots, roses) they were published and distributed eccentrically, so we have reprinted and bound them together along with two of our best kinship gardening articles, the hands on "An Ark for the Plants" and the new phylogeny form the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group applied to our kinship gardening layouts. 37 Pages $15.00
These publication are available from: Alan M. Kapuler 2385 SE Thompson St. Corvallis, Or 97333Please include $1.00 S+H for Article #1, $2.00 S+H for articles 2 and 3