Best tomato, spring, and Caffeine, February 18,, 2022

Ice and snow one day and sunshine and grass turning green the next. We drove to Mountain Grove today to pick up our feed from #Peterson Feed. We have wonderful organic, non-soy grain that we can ferment for the chickens and finish off the pigs. It smells so fresh and good. We enjoyed the beautiful drive, stopped for brunch and stopped at Baker Creek Seeds and picked up some varieties we desired. I asked the lady for a variety of tomatoes that would be like the ones my grandpa used to raise, red, big and juicy with wonderful tasting. Guess what she gave me. Beef Steaks. I have stayed away from them because I knew we did not have a long enough growing season in Nevada and wasn’t sure it would work here. She assures me it will and we will be very happy with it. She also said it makes great sauce. Therefore, I need to relook at my garden and where I might plant these beautiful beasts. It will need plenty of room to grow up and I, of course will want to grow a lot of them so that I can insure that at least some will work.

Tomato seeds
Recommended tomato to really taste like a tomato

We talked about placement of different garden items on the way home and into which garden them might go. It was a wonderful trip. Now he is changing spark plugs and cables in the Yukon so it stops misfiring. We are putting short sides on the trailer we borrowed so we can get 3 yards of compost tomorrow. Spring is almost here. We can actually say that in Missouri. In Colorado we could never say that until June and then in July in the mountains, we have still been snowed on. It was 32 degrees and I took off my coat today and just went around in my layers. It as 10 degrees when we woke up so that is 20 degrees warmer. I think it is going to 42 today. The sun, however, makes all the difference.

We are going to try to get our peas in so we can actually have peas before the heat sets in. Don’t worry, we are not planting them today.

The chickens ventured out for the first time in two days and they went everywhere, even in Missy’s loafing barn.  

chicken in barn
Chickens in the cow’s loafing barn

Nutritional Education

Today’s subject is how caffeine affects the brain. It is a well-known fact that caffeine makes a person more alert. Many people cannot function in the morning until they have their coffee, or Mountain Dew, or Dr Pepper or some other source of caffeine. Caffeine is taken in and absorbed through the small intestine into the blood stream. You may have heard of the molecule adenosine. It is naturally present in the brain and there are receptors in the brain that adenosine fits into and the results is the feeling of tiredness. Caffeine molecules are very similar in shape and fit neatly into the same receptor sites. This causes a sense of being alert and having high energy. Once the caffeine wears off, the feeling of alertness wears off. However, the brain has other stimulants that are released such a dopamine, which works better with the adenosine receptors are blocked. The extra adenosine that has no place to go triggers the adrenal glands to secrete adrenaline which is another stimulate and the alertness increases and the tiredness decreases.

That might sound like just what you need to happen if you need to be more alert. But to make that happen every day will, overtime cause the brain to make more receptor sites for the adenosine so the have a place to go. This is what makes the same amount of caffeine not work as well, because now you need more caffeine to fill the additional receptors.

A person is evaluated for caffeine addiction, not by the amounts of caffeine ingested but by the distressed felt when the do not have caffeine. The experts suggest no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine per day which equals four cups of coffee. More than that can cause sleep disruption, headaches, irritability, fast heartbeat, migraine’s, muscle tremors, nervousness and nausea.

If you must have your caffeine, it might be time to give your receptor sites a rest. Literally. (Some of this information was extracted from the AddictionCenter.com website).  

2 thoughts on “Best tomato, spring, and Caffeine, February 18,, 2022”

  1. Caffeine is not good for consumption. It is a stimulant and reacts in the body like any other stimulant such as street drugs. Caffeine also dehydrates you, which can leave you constipated, or worse impacted.

    1. Rhenda Wilson

      Caffeine is absolutely an addictive substance. It is a stimulant as is sugar. It is one of the substances that I help people get off of because of the damage it can do to the body. In the blog I was choosing to talk about what caffeine does to the receptor sites. Anytime are natural receptor sites are blocked, normal processes can’t happen in our body.

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