LILL’s LIST

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If you happen to be awake at 1:45 a.m. on June 21st, you’ll be able to greet the Summer Solstice with open eyes. Of course, if you’re in my neck of the woods and you’re outside, your eyes might get full of raindrops and/or mosquitoes. This IS Maine in June and the recent monsoons have really bucked up the small insect hordes.

What with the lowering clouds and frequent showers, it’ll be hard to tell that this is the longest day and shortest night of the year. Also not readily apparent is the fact that – from here on out – daylight starts to fade and second by second, we lose a little bit of daylight every day until we get to the Winter Solstice on December 21st of this year.

No way do I want to think about that when daisies are blooming, humming birds and bees are buzzing around the comfrey and wild strawberries are sparkling in the grass like rubies. So,  in spite of the rain, the bugs and the dwindling tomato growing season, I’ll celebrate summer’s entrance and hope that the sun will return, also, before the slugs take over the garden.

I just read a brochure outlining Safe Eating Guidelines for Fish and Shellfish in Maine. It’s put out by the state of Maine, where sport fishing is a big part of the economy. In it, Maine environmental officials urge that pregnant women and children under 8 limit their intake of some fish to two meals a month.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a warning like that, it doesn’t make me run right over to the calendar and circle the two days I’m going to put PCB‘s, Dioxin, Mercury and DDT on the dinner table.

Nope, freshwater fish caught in Maine have been off our menu for years. Ditto for fish caught offshore near the estuaries where toxins accumulate in shellfish, lobsters and fish.  We do eat wild-caught salmon, chunk light tuna on occasion and shellfish from unpolluted waters.

You might want to check your state’s advisories on fish and anything else you might eat that comes from fresh or saltwater. Also, none of these advisories take into account any of the other toxins our bodies imbibe from water, air and food. This stuff is cumulative and also most likely has a synergistic effect when combined.

And while we’re floundering around in murky waters, let’s not forget to help out our froggy little friends who are sinking fast. Fish and shellfish aren’t the only species that are facing extinction. Take a minute and hop over to Save the Frogs where you can learn more about why we can’t wait to do something about the threat that hangs over the future of whole species of frogs and toads.

Kids will like Cool Facts About Frogs and you can print out posters, donate to the non-profit organization or surf the links to other amphibian resources. Or just revel in the many beautiful pictures of these amazing little creatures and find out what a Caecilian is when it’s at home. Hey, my spell-check dictionary didn’t know what it was, do you?

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• Environmental Impact of Disposable Diapers (momblognetwork.com)
• SUPPORT A BAN ON TOXIC PBDEs (thepetitionsite.com)
• Flourishing eagles feast on Maine’s rare birds (msnbc.msn.com)

If, like most people nowadays, you’re terribly concerned with keeping yourself and your kids completely germ-free at all times, you may want to reconsider. I’ve just read about some recent scientific discoveries that shore up my belief that cleanliness isn’t next to godliness, after all.

Here are some of the interesting stories I came across as I ankled across the internet doing research on the relationship between how healthy we are and how clean we are.

Helminthic therapy, or treatment with worms that are usually considered parasitic, is not something most of us would want to contemplate. However, it’s already being tried on autoimmune diseases, autism, MS, IBS and asthma.

Researchers are also interested in how it might affect inflammation in the body, even when there’s no obvious disease causing it. Patients are injected with worm ova at intervals, depending on the type of helminth involved and its lifespan. Reportedly, there is a high rate of improvement in some diseases, compared to conventional therapies, although there are side effects, sometimes severe ones.

I would think that the biggest hurdle would be just getting people to consider the idea of being injected with parasites that mankind has spent most of its history trying to eradicate, but I suppose if you’re sick enough, you can endure anything that promises a chance at a normal life. That is, if you can call hosting parasites for a few months to a few years normal.

Not quite as radical as the worm therapy,  getting dirty is looking like the way to go if you want to be healthy. Scientists have discovered that there’s a bacteria in the soil that encourages the human body to make serotonin. This little Prozac mimic also seems to be connected to a bacteria that causes tuberculosis, but further research is needed to determine the connection.

For now, researchers are working on whether the organism will be of use in fighting Depression. I’d say it might explain why those of us who garden always feel better after we dig around in the dirt for awhile, wouldn’t you?

And now, unfortunately, I have to report that although leech therapy is still hanging in there,  maggot therapy turns out to be slightly less successful than it first appeared to be. I know I was pretty chuffed about it, but we’ll all have to ramp down our expectations a little. While it does help somewhat at debriding, it’s not all that great at the healing part. Still, what can you expect from the larval stage of a fly anyhow?

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• The worm turns (blisstree.com)
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• Maggot therapy hope ‘premature’ – BBC News (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Leeches Have Health Benefits But Not Beauty Benefits (shoppingblog.com)

Coca-Cola, Alcoa, Crown,Del Monte, North American Metal Packaging Alliance, Inc., Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), American Chemistry Council… These are the companies that met recently to come up with strategies to keep BPA from being banned in CA. According to an article at the Environmental Working Group’s web site, they also put up $500,00 to implement their plans.

One of their ideas is having a young pregnant woman giving speeches around the country in support of BPA’s good points. I’m not exactly sure what good things she could say about something that’s a proven endocrine system disruptor, but I’m sure they’d come up with something. They’re good at marketing slogans. Maybe, “Without BPA, What Would You Have to Worry About?”

At any rate, prepare yourself for whatever  the BPA Joint Trade Association Meeting on Communications Strategy comes up with to keep making money from something that poisons baby formula, soda and canned fruits and vegetables. While you’re waiting, you might want to totter on over to the EWG site and sign up to do some campaigning of your own against Big Business and its slimy tactics. Oh yes, and an email to the companies who think BPA is just ducky wouldn’t go amiss either. Tell them Lill – the DES Daughter – sent you.

Eating better is a lot easier if you have a garden to provide fresh veggies. But if you’re like me and kind of jaded after gardening for many years, maybe it’s time for a garden makeover. One way to do that is with novel gardening techniques.

You’ve seen those upside-down tomato growing devices on TV. In spite of my aversion to infomercials, I have to say that I was fascinated the first time I saw one of them. However, I still have more common sense than money, so I searched the Net for homemade versions.

Here’s a link to a great site that will tell you everything you need to know to create your own gravity-defying tomato, pepper or herb plants. I’m planning to try strawberries, tomatoes, herbs and small cucumbers in mine, but I think they’d work with almost any fruit or veggie that isn’t too heavy.

If you try them, let me know how they work for you. Send photos.

If upside-down gardening doesn’t ring your bell, let me know that too. And if you can think of any novel gardening techniques that can revive longtime gardeners’ interest in digging and delving, I’m all ears.