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The top of today’s love letter is a snap of store bough Bing cherries.

The link to the 2017 Medium article featured tart Montmorency cherries from a tree in our yard. The tree died a few years ago. Now I purchase frozen, pitted tart cherries from the grocery. Works for me!

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I used to order organic Montmorency dried cherries on Amazon. I used some to make homemade Rx Bars. Others drowned in my cereal on a regular basis. 🙂 As the cost rose I tried organic cherries from Turkey. A bit smaller but also tasty! And less expensive.

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Are you an "organic" eater Gary?

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Yes when practicable. EWG, Environmental Working Group, publishes annually “The Dirty Dozen.” These are fruits and vegetables with the highest concentration of pesticides and herbicides, identified as potential or known health concerns by the FDA. This year, they added The Clean Fifteen, not organic but with many fewer residues.

I won’t spoil your day with any from the dirty dozen. 😔

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I’ve always been curious about cross-contamination when organic crops and non-organic crops grow with in proximity? Is the world a closed system? Via condensation, evaporation, and precipitation… Does everything spread everywhere?

And I’m still wondering… if humans are a part of nature, organic creatures in a natural system, how do we create something that is not organic?

Head scratchers for sure!

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Aerial crop dusting fits that concern perfectly. And here’s a twist: when DOW began selling GMO corn seed, pollen from that corn would drift into adjacent fields. Not just organic, any non-GMO cornfields. DOW sent their representatives to such adjacent farms, demanding access to the fields. If GMO corn was identified DOW took legal action against the farmers who could not afford a legal battle with DOW. Some went bankrupt. Others borrowed to pay DOW’s demands!

As for non-organic items. Synthesized (better living through chemistry -DuPont slogan) chemicals, not naturally occurring, are everywhere now. Some are estrogen mimickers which disrupt body systems, some are “forever chemicals” which accumulate mostly in body fat, posing multiple threats to wellness. Some, also inorganic, are the myriad of products that appear in The Dirty Dozen.

Hermaphroditic Gus appear in the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay, attributable to inorganic compounds. Psych medicines are in many bodies of water from which municipalities draw drinking water. Yes, we use a water filter system.

SMH

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I cannot remember her name… a woman on Medium who used to write about farmers in the US. I found her thinking balanced… she was able to see and articulate various angles on issues like organic and GMO. I hope she is well and still writing!

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That reminded me of the woman who was big into border collies, along with farming. Idaho or Wyoming? I think you once mentioned you knew of her.

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Dusty Craig! Oregon.

She has a pup named Casey that’s a couple of weeks younger than Henny.

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Served in the US Navy? She seemed possessed of “get’er done ways,” not unlike another remarkable woman I know. 🤔😉

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Yeah… I like her a lot!

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Chesapeake Bay should have read, “... hermaphroditic fish ...” but owing to sloppy proofing, it read “...guys.” 😔

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One sloppy proof reader (me) welcomes company! 😂

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I think sometimes Siri is my nemesis! But that doesn’t change the fact that I get sloppy.

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In my world view… it’s endearing, not sloppy. 😁

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