permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 1/11/2011 10:25 AM, Michael Astera wrote:
> Brix is a measure of dissolved solids in a liquid.  It was
> traditionally used to measure the sugar content of grape juice etc
> when making wine and beer.  These days it is used to measure many
> liquids using a refractometer, which looks like a short telescope with
> a glass plate on one end.  A drop of juice or plant sap is placed on
> the glass plate and then the refractometer is held up to a light
> source and you read the Brix by looking through the eyepiece.

This page explains what Brix is all about:
http://realfoodcampaign.org/content/brix
Home » Brix
Brix
What is Brix?
"Brix" is a technical term to measure and quantify the amount that light 
is bent passing through a fluid.

Read the page on Quality Standards:
http://realfoodcampaign.org/farmer/standards
Home » Farmers » Quality Standards
"Quality Standards
The Real Food Campaign has as one of its objectives helping to define 
standards for Nutrient Dense Crops
Primary adviser in this process is Dr Arden Andersen, leading consultant 
in the field of Nutrient Dense crops and medical doctor.
The standard recommended by Dr Andersen has 4 pieces:"

And the page defining "Nutrient Dense Crops"
http://realfoodcampaign.org/content/crops
Home » Crops
Crops
 Nutrient-Dense Crops
What does the term mean?
How do we produce them?
[this link: "CLICK HERE for 2-page .pdf" intends to load the following 
document:]
http://realfoodcampaign.org/sites/default/files/PrinciplesToProduceNutrientDenseCrops.pdf

Start here and select from the sidebar menu:
http://realfoodcampaign.org/home

Go here and download these documents for further explanation of the 
relationship between plant sap Brix readings and plant nutritional 
quality, keeping quality and flavor, plant predator resistance
and how to grow crops with high Brix:

http://realfoodcampaign.org/documents
Documents

This page contains links to general information pertinent to the Real 
Food Campaign.

    * Principles to Produce Nutrient Dense Crops This is the PDF 
version of the PowerPoint document that Director Dan Kittredge uses in 
workshops to farmers around the country. You will soon be able to 
purchase an audio file of him presenting this material to the Eco-Farm 
Conference in California.
http://realfoodcampaign.org/sites/default/files/PrinciplesToProduceNutrientDenseCrops.pdf

    * Refractive Index of Crop Juices A Brix chart that specifies the 
parameters for poor, average, good and excellent Brix for a large number 
of crops.
http://realfoodcampaign.org/sites/default/files/RefractiveIndexOfCropJuices.pdf

    * Nutrient Dense Crop Production Bibliography
http://realfoodcampaign.org/sites/default/files

See also:
---------

High Brix Gardens
http://www.highbrixgardens.com/
Grow Your Own Nutrition!
E-mail Print PDF
highbrix-gardens-grow-nutrition

"High Brix Gardens is all about helping you improve your health by 
growing the highest quality produce."

"What is the difference between health and disease? What is the 
fundamental cause of disease? What is true health and how do foods fit 
into this matrix? The answer to these and many other perplexing problems 
can be summed up in one word: energy. It is energy that determines the 
degree of health or disease. It is the lack of energy that causes 
disease while the right kind of energy causes us to be healthy. Food is 
an energy package that can push us toward health or away from it. Energy 
is associated with the minerals in foods. Thus the higher the mineral 
density in foods, the higher the energy available to the body. This 
balance of energy can be termed nutrition. Sickness and disease are the 
result of a nutritional deficiency—not a drug deficiency."