On to my garden. It’s odd looking. As you can see from the picture, half of my garden is thriving; half is struggling. The struggling half are the tomato plants that were stunted from days of hard rain right after I transplanted them as seedlings. They are growing, but slowly. In fact, a couple of the smaller plants have disappeared. Some of my other tomato plants that were larger when they were transplanted are growing quite well and are in desparate need of being staked or caged.

My herbs, green beans, peppers, eggplant and watermelon are growing nicely. If the plant pictured at the right is any indication, I should have plenty of green beans in about two weeks.

Q: What is the difference between "100% organic" and "organic"?

 

A: Organic has a precise meaning under the USDA's organic program. Certified 100% Organic means that all the ingredients in a product have been grown or raised according to the USDA's organic standards, which are the rules for producing foods labeled organic. Certified Organic requires that 95 to 99 percent of the ingredients follow the rules.

As human ethnology has evolved over time, so has our beer. Now, in the era of green, a culture of specialized brewers has emerged who contend that the recipe for a better brew is incomplete without a dash of environmental ethos.

 

Over the past two decades America has experienced a sudsy explosion of consumer demand for specialized, or craft, beer. What is craft beer? According to Seattle-based writer Vince Cottone — who coined the term in his 1986 book, Good Beer Guide: Breweries and Pubs of the Pacific Northwest — a craft beer is one that has been made by “a small brewery using traditional methods and ingredients to produce a handcrafted, uncompromised beer that is marketed locally.”

Image: Matt Callow