I found this youtube video of a fellow who made himself a threshing machine out of a bucket, some chain, and an electric drill. Check out Paul Wheaton's Permaculture video if you want to see it in action.

While genetic modification is obviously serious and scary stuff, this bogus 'news' item from The Onion made me smile.  I thought other urban organic gardeners also might enjoy it: Government May Restrict Use of Genetically Modified Farmers

Sure there is a Freedom Gardener's Bread group and all are welcome, especially those of you who have more experience and can help us noobs. Bread is a big subject, and there are threads on sourdough, artisan bread in 5 min/day, whole grains, grinding flour, moral choices in bread, etc. Consider this a plug. Make the group what you want from it.

Front yard gardeners everywhere take note of this story! I heard this on the national Canadian radio show, 'As it Happens' last night. The interview with Quan Ha in Orange County, California, who is being sued by the city for removing his grass. "I guess there's a reason it's called "Orange County", and not "Green County" -- at least in an environmental sense. The famous, arid southern California district is suing a local couple because they removed their lawn and planted drought-resistant foliage. Which they did for environmental reasons -- to save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water they said was wasted in a vain effort to keep their grass green." I think he should have put in lettuce. Here is a link to the 7 minute interview: http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/aihstreaming_20100302_03.wma (Sorry, but the link is to an annoying streaming wma audio file, so before you get to the story on the lawn you might have to sit through a few other stories. The first one might also be of interest: a story on how atrazine, which is put on corn crops, is contaminating water and is so powerful an endocrine disruptor, it changes the sex of frogs. But then you have to sit through a couple of pointless and boring Canadian political stories. Go get a cup of tea until the stream gets about 2/3 of the way through.)

Following this link, you can listen to farmer Percy Schmeiser speak on his lawsuit with Monsanto, and how they contaminated his heirloom canola fields with GMO rape seed: http://www.helgehellberg.com/1013/monsanto-vs-percy-schmeiser/ (a rebroadcast of his recent talk at Eco-farm Sustainable Conference in Asilomar, Jan. 2010) There are a few radio-style ads in the middle of the talk - I hope this doesn't violate the 'no ads please' directive of Freedom Gardens Forums, because this talk is worth listening to, and 'Organic Conversation' is where I found it.  It will take about an hour to listen to the whole talk.