Cotton has been in food headlines, which has surprised some friends who gave me a shout with a link like this one from NPR — Not Just For Cows Anymore: New Cottonseed Is Safe For People To Eat. The idea of edible cottonseed isn’t one may people have really pondered I guess cause when we think of cotton, we think of the lint that makes our clothing and some of us don’t even think about the reality that there is also seed that is harvested at the end of the season.

Research on Cottonseed

But Dr. Keerti Rathore of Texas A&M University thinks bigger than a lot of us. I’ve had the chance to hear about his research several times and this idea he came up with two decades ago. To see his research is reaching reality is awesome.

Dr Rathore is originally from India. He’s seen lots of farmers there and in other parts of the world who work incredibly hard on their crops but remain hungry, food insecure. A lot of farmers in that place are growing cotton. Cotton seed has a great nutritional profile however they naturally include a toxin to humans called gossypol. It shows up in the plant matter and seeds.

Dr Rathore theorized if he could remove the gossypol from the seed it could be a good food source grown locally and he’s been working on it for more than 20 years! And whereas a lot of other genetically modified crops have been adding something, he eliminated gossypol production. Really cool work and I cannot begin to imagine the sene of pride for accomplishing something that can really help transform the lives of hungry people.

Here’s a video Texas A&M did that explains.

With the USDA review complete, it means farmers could start planting soon however, the cottonseed will have to be held until the FDA review is complete. If the review comes back positive, the seed could be used as a food product, otherwise it would be used as cattle feed.

Why eat cottonseed?

The nutritional profile of cottonseed is pretty well known. My friend who is a veternarian explained how cottonseed is used in dairy feed offering a good source of fiber, energy and protein. Cattle can eat it because and those complex stomachs process the gossypol. As ruminants, they break down some things that humans can’t — I mean we don’t exactly graze on pastures. All of that is part of what makes the headline such a grabber that they got clicks.

Cottonseed oil is processed removing gossypol which makes it favorite for sauteing and frying. I use it in my Instant Pot pretty often. I really need to write about this a bit more!

The post Edible Cottonseed Research Gets USDA Nod, Awaits FDA Review appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

A fiber that is so unique and versatile that it leads to people calling it the fabric of their life, that is cotton. Hundred Percent Cotton brings it all to you. 

Cotton is a favorite fabric whether going to the park with friends or getting a good night’s sleep after a big trip. We work in it, play in it and celebrate big events in cotton. We also sleep surrounded by it and eat foods cooked in cottonseed oils. It’s also a beautiful crop that dots the Southern landscape.

This site is dedicated to covering cotton from farm to fashion. Every article posted here will connect to the crop, hence the name & URL HundredPercentCotton.com!

My love for cotton has been discussed at length over the past nine years as I dove into social media head first. I have written hundreds of articles about cotton and recorded dozens of videos on it too!

It feels strange to launch a new site and already have a few hundred posts on it (actually I launched two new sites today — check out JPlovesLIFE too if you enjoy travel, food & farms). But the content seemed to take a backseat over the years and there was so much more to say. Besides, cotton deserves to take center stage and with this site, it clearly does! 

I appreciate a couple of friends for encouraging me when I talked about the idea, wondering whether it would really interest others. While I am not sure this is a case of if you build the site, they will come.

I’m building and I hope you enjoy it here and share it with your friends too.

If you’d like to help

Since some of the people who read the site have been so supportive, I thought I may leave a few ideas on ways you can be a part of the site & my work here.

Most of us who create content online because we are really passionate about a topic and communications. Creating that content can be teamwork or pretty solitary at times. Either way, it almost always feels great when others want to help.

A few years ago I wrote a short piece about the top 7 ways to support great content. I’ll give you (and the readers of JPlovesLIFE) the CliffNotes version today:

1. Check out more of the content — Browse the site, see what you may have missed. The home page helps you find cool pages & features I am especially proud of.
2. Subscribe so you get the new stuff — Right there on the sidebar, you can enter your email address so you automatically get new posts! Besides, I’m considering doing some fun subscriber only things… that means I’ll need to know how to find you!
3. Follow on your various social media channels — I make it easy! All the links are at the top of every page! We love it when people click those buttons, love it even more when folks interact with us there!
4. Comment on posts — When you read something, if you agree or disagree, we enjoy hearing your thoughts. Also, when you comment, it makes it more likely that others will grow so more people can see it.
5. Share content you really enjoy or find thought-provoking — When you read something you think your friends, family, social media connections, etc would find interesting, please share it. Iharing it along with a personal comment will cue your friends as to why you are sharing & why they should read.
6. Got an awesome idea that would be great on the site? Tell me! Got a question about something? Ask! — Sometimes, when you are creating content you may waffle on ideas. There are ideas around but maybe none that really grab your imagination today. Your questions or suggestions, may just get me back to the writing frame of mind!
7. Support efforts financially — As content creators put more time and effort into what they write, shoot or record, they spend more money on technology, support services, etc. This site is a “side hustle” for me and the redesign needed to get to this point was a big investment. I have a shop that I make a bit of money from items (some brand new for this launch!) and have now started a Hundred Percent Cotton patreon page for people who want to this continue to get bigger and better! If you have other ideas for grants, ads, etc., please let me know!

Enjoy!

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Looking forward to seeing what all comes from @JPlovesCOTTON’s new site that is all cotton! Subscribe so you can stay in the loop! ” quote=”Think some of your tweets will be interested? Please share & tell them to come the way! ” theme=”style1″]

The post The New Website for All Things Cotton — Hundred Percent Cotton appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

If you have known me long, you know I have enjoyed going to Austin for SXSW the last few years. It is a conference where people come from all areas of culture and talks about what matters to them and they think should matter to the rest of the planet. I’m sure you see how cotton deserves a spot on the SXSW stage!

I really do love the beautiful crop and the fabrics and oils, etc that come from it. And when a fellow blogger saw how I regularly put my love of cotton online, she told me she worked with people in developing countries who produce cotton textiles and loved it too. Someone else had been asking me about SXSW, and next thing I knew we were talking about whether or not the two of us should get a panel together. Fast forward to August and we need your help to make cotton get to the SXSW stage.

This video will give you an idea of what we would like to get in front of the SXSW crowd:

We have invited other perspectives to join us as we talk about the full life-cycle of cotton from growing the plant to sewing the fabric into products we use like sheets and what happens to them after. Thinking about the impacts the crop has on our small towns and rural landscapes here in the US as well as the small towns and big cities globally where the textiles are made into the clothes and home goods that we can enjoy for years.

We put a lot of work into the proposal and the process at SXSW includes getting support from the community to show the idea would draw attendees. This is where you come in because whether you have attended before, think you may go sometime or simply think others attending should hear about the sustainability of cotton, you can help us by voting and commenting on the page SXSW launched today. There are a few steps:

• Sign in or create a login & password at panelpicker.sxsw.com August 6 – August 30, 2019.
• Check out the SXSW web page for From Grow to Sew: Exploring Cotton’s Journey panel.
• After reading the summary & watching the video, look for the button that says “vote up” in the top left.
• Cast your vote & feel free to leave a comment about an area of the topic you are interested in, things you’d like to know, etc.
• Browse some of the other panels if you have a bit of time. You can search by keywords or see some great ones friends and colleagues submitted on a wide range of food & farm topics like climate smart agriculture, soil health and food waste and others on broader cultural topics like misinformation and analytics.

If you have submitted an idea or find other awesome talks submitted for SXSW 2019 that you think I’d like to know about, please drop links in the comments. I have been putting together a list of the various panels I think should make it that I will share soon.

(Confession: some of this originally appeared on my LinkedIn profile, and this would be far more exciting than when I talked about haters on social media there ).

The post To Get Cotton on a New Stage at SXSW, I Need Your Help appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Walking through airports, chilling at a concert or just wandering the aisles of the grocery store, I’ve long loved wearing t-shirts to share my favorite farmers, crops, etc. It is such an easy way to start a conversation. I’ve bought quite a few from various sites and some beautiful people have given me some.

With the new logo, my creative juices surged and I decided to do something a few friends have done. I’ve designed some things that I hope will make it easier to share the love of cotton (some 100% easy and some are a blend of fibers). And I took a while to unveil it because I wanted to be sure of the way things would look.

From now on, there is a new section on the navigation bar — the site’s store. And at the end of this post, there is a discount code to help get this moving along!

Fun Stuff, Cotton Themes

There are lots of places where you can get a shirt that has the Cotton Inc logo on it or something if you live in small towns in the South, but I rarely get there and some friends never do.

Besides, I have a different relationship with cotton than some. And my humor is a bit different, especially when it comes to cotton vocabulary. Those things come together for a few primary themes for clothes, etc in the online store.

Boll Buster

With the fall upon us, cotton farmers are trying to be sure all the bolls in the fields are burst open. And yet, when you think of people sometimes the ones that get out of hand… they may be called something close to boll buster. So… there are some things that sort of suggest that.

You can see the onesie for kids above, and then one for adults is a bit more brazen about it.  You can see the products in this group by filtering the catalog for boll buster (or click on this link).

Cotton Pickin’ Good Time

Harvest is definitely a favorite time of year! I have so much fun getting out to see cotton pickers roll, that I had to think of a way to put them on shirts.

I even went through the process of building red and green pickers to look a bit differently so I knew I would be ok with folks with different allegiances.

And I’ve really stoked about what I came up with. Even if I’m the only one that ever has one, this was worth it. I got a regular t-shirt in green and the jersey you see above in red. These are on the cotton pickin’ good time list.

JPlovesCOTTON and I Do Too!

This site expresses my love of cotton on the regular, but it energizes me to no end how many other people share an intense passion for the crop that turns into our favorite clothes.

I hadn’t even thought of doing something along this line but a good friend and regular reader who I gave a preview too asked about men’s shirts with just the logo on it. I whipped this up and she celebrated!

It is a short spin on the new logo, crisp, clean and inclusive. There are a few things in the I do too! category, including coffee mugs.

You Never Forget Your First Stripper

Not everyone is satisfied with a cotton pickin’ good time, some want to see those strippers go for a whirl!

If you’ve ever driven or done a ride along during High Plains cotton harvest, you probably know I’m talking about a dance that is a bit different than some folks think of as they see the word stripper.

I just keep giggling at the thought of the looks on the faces of people…. only wish I had thought of the idea before I did my quality check order. Have got one on its way to me though — check out the You Never Forget Your First Stripper category.

Early Harvest Means Rewards

I love getting out for harvest early in the season. That’s when the rewards are finally coming in. With that in mind, I thought I’d share the excitement of all of this by putting a discount code on the site for a couple of weeks.

I have no idea whether folks will want to pick up anything, but if you do, enter the promo code HARVEST17 and you’ll get 17 percent off whatever you buy in the next 2 weeks (ends at midnight CST Sunday, October 6).

[clickToTweet tweet=”Funny shirts and all that show a love for cotton. Gotta pick a fave or two! ” quote=”Share so your friends can get in on the cottony fun! “]

The post Join Me in Showing a Love of Cotton with an Online Shop appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Sometimes I still shake my head in disbelief that my coming up with something to uses on Twitter, has stuck with me as a personal brand of sorts. But once JPlovesCOTTON started to stick, I embraced it, have even purposefully encouraged it. That takes a new step now.

If you are seeing this in your subscription email, you wouldn’t see the new logo that’s at the top of the website, so let me put it in here now. Oh wait, there are actually two logos — one is being used in the header and the other is waiting for this big reveal. 

I hope you think they fit. They have a bit of energy behind them in my opinion…. positive energy for me and I hope for you too.

Why have a logo?

For a while, I’ve wanted to change the look of the blog…. and since JPlovesCOTTON became a brand for me years ago, it seemed I should just go ahead and let that lead. And it seemed like a logo seemed the perfect start. Problem was, I wasn’t sure what I wanted from it.

The Process of Design

Having worked in marketing a long time, I know that can take quite a process. Still, I wanted to get to work on it. Yeah, you can see that I made some bad decisions early on!

I had one go at it with a dear friend who really was happy to help. He did great work but I had trouble really articulating what I wanted. It made the design process arduous. I wanted to love one of the concepts he came up with (as did he) but my lack of direction made it painful for both of us.

A year after I really wanted that to work, I decided to go a totally different route because I saw the logo that my friend Natasha had created for her We Sow We Grow community garden in Chicago. That got me thinking about what I wanted to capture with a logo and with that I asked who had designed hers and got in touch with Mandi Buckner.

Working with Mandi Buckner on a New Logo

Mandi has designed quite a few logos so she had a whole series of questions for me on what types of elements, emotions I wanted to convey, how the design would be used and more. We talked about schedules and timing and of course we discussed fees and what would be provided at the end of the process.

You can see her first take at right. She totally got me and my mind raced with ways to fine tune it. Lucky for me I got these the same week I got my iPad Pro so I could play with ideas as I traveled.

That was when I decided the design could be strong enough to be simplified and I asked her to do two versions for me, still wondering whether I would be able to do it. She worked on some things and we were both thrilled.

Lots More to Do

So the logo is a start. I need to get the blog redesigned some more but it was safe holding onto the logo… something I’ve been doing for months. I’m ready to put it out there. Let you guys see it, tell me what you think.

And I have decided to start it with a new project, but I think I’ll write another post for that story…. for now, I want to find myself some lunch!

I Would Love to Hear Your Reactions!

The post It’s Been a Long Time Coming — JPlovesCOTTON Has a Logo! appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

[social_warfare]December always brings a lot of reflection about the year and this year has definitely followed that trend. Maybe even moreso since I had a big birthday and celebrated a month of memories. Here on the blog, I have a tradition of looking back at the past year — some of the things that readers found more interesting, some of the things I should consider doing, etc.  Cotton always stands out for me and I love it when it stands out for you too so here are the top 10 cotton blog posts of 2015!

As I looked at the stats on my site, I was blown away by how many of the posts I’ve written about cotton over the years continue to do well. So although I will write another post about some of the other things that stand out on the blog this year, I wanted to devote this post to cotton content specifically.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Just Read: Top 10 Cotton Blog Posts — learning about the farm side of the fabric of our lives” quote=”Top 10 Cotton Blog Posts — learning about the farm side of the fabric of our lives” theme=”style2″]

So what posts about cotton are getting read? Let’s start with number 10.

10.  Cotton 101: How a Cotton Gin Works

This post in the Cotton 101 series describes How a Cotton Gin Works. It is a process that a lot of us learned about in elementary school as we studied Eli Whitney and other inventors. And although the process is similar today, the speed and technology definitely set it apart!

9. Which states produce the most cotton? Acres, Pounds & More

Do you know what states grow the most cotton? Well, it seems not many people do! People seem to have an interest in which states produce the most cotton. That’s why this post that covers acres, pounds & more looks at the 2014 data from a few perspectives. I will be updating it for 2015 figures once the year-end report is available.

8. What’s the Fabric of our Lives About? Why Advertise Cotton?

One of the most recognizable brands in the US is the seal of cotton — that emblem that not only is on t-shirts, sheets and other cotton goods but holds my business card on my luggage. That seal is part of the program that advertises cotton under the Fabric of our Lives.

7. What’s with that Hayden Panettiere cotton commercial?

Given the interest in advertising cotton, it seems logical that more people would be interested in the cotton commercial that features Nashville star Hayden Panettiere. This post explains what is behind the commercial and lets you see one of the ads.

6. Cotton 101: Can you eat cotton or cottonseed?

The role of oilseeds in our diets for cooking, generating oils or meal for other food uses leads some people to ask whether you can eat cotton or cottonseed. This post highlights how cottonseed is used for oils and livestock and the potential for cottonseed being used in human diets.

A Disruptor. Cotton 101

The pattern of several Cotton 101 posts being in the top posts of 2015 is clear. I started the series a long time ago and use it as a place to connect to some of the timeless, more general information about my favorite fiber. This is a page not a post so I really considered pulling it from the list, but hey, my blog, my rules so I decided to put it here as a disruptor! LOL.

5. Cotton Plant 101: What do a cotton plant, blooms & bolls look like? VIDEO

Walking around a cotton field isn’t something everyone gets to do. One of my early posts that still gets a lot of traffic (it’s in the top 3 this year!) is a photo post that I later thought could possibly be more engaging to folks if I did it in video form. This post (video and copy) shows  what a cotton plant, blooms & bolls look like. I am still impressed with how pretty the flowers and bolls are!

4. How is cotton picked nowadays?

Picking cotton has been immortalized in song by Johnny Cash and lots of others. We study in history books about the back-breaking work that picking cotton was. But in today’s world, not a lot of people have ever seen cotton in the field, much less have they witnessed harvest! Looking at the ways is cotton picked nowadays, there are a few ways it is done, but the US, Australia & Brazil rely on big machinery!

3. Cotton 101: What does a cotton plant or field look like?

This is the photo-oriented post I mentioned previously that shares what a cotton plant or field look likes at various times of year. For someone who has worked with cotton farmers for decades, this was a post that I may never have thought to pull photos together for if it weren’t for a friend on a road trip asking me what he was seeing. I decided to go beyond his question to the question people coud ask anytime of year. It took work to get all the pics together (and now I have done the master montage at left!) but I am amazed at how much of a resource it has become!

2. Cotton 101:  Facts about Cotton — The Crop & Products

Most of us don’t think about the little things we come in contact with day in and day out. Heck we can’t! It is something that will overload our minds! But there are some little things that folks may find interesting about cotton, that may peak their interest for a bit. That what this post about the crop & cotton products offers.

1. Top 10 Cotton States in Area, Production, Yield & Value in 2012

A part of me really is bummed that my  Top 10 Cotton States in Area, Production, Yield & Value in 2012 is my top trafficked blog post. I mean it is several years old and a more recent post is available and I titled it in a way I can make it timeless. Hopefully more people will start finding the post on which states produce the most cotton in acres, pounds & more than this one!)

What should be written in 2016?

Having looked at the top 10 cotton blog posts of 2015, and thinking cotton thoughts, feel free to let me know what you think should be put on the to write list. I have a couple of ideas based on some questions I have gotten through Twitter & email, but I’d love to know what questions you have too!

The post Top 10 Cotton Blog Posts of 2015 appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Communities of builders. They are everywhere. People who are looking to make themselves, their families and their communities better. People who put out a hand or knee to help others climb up whether that means pulling someone’s weight or providing a platform for others to grow from.
I have been lucky to have lots of those builders in my personal and professional lives… and those lives are so intermingled that I have a lot of trouble distinguishing the two. And the builders who have helped, usually have been or become friends and mentors.

While I have lots of examples of people who selflessly helped me improve myself, the one that comes to mind so clearly this week is Louisiana’s Dorothy Young. I’ve written about Mrs. Dorothy and her husband Mr. Ray before but I am not sure I drove it home why she’s such a driving force in my life (and no doubt the lives of countless others).

The first on-farm visit I ever did was to the Young’s to hear what they had been doing. We had a great day with Mr. Ray (her dear husband) showing me around for a couple of hours. Me absorbing everything I could! And ended with lunch at home as Mr. Ray fixed the meal for all of us and Mrs. Dorothy came home from work.

Great visit that really helped me get on a good start of getting to know farmers, their families and communities. But it was almost a year later (my first Beltwide Cotton Conference) as memory serves when I really found out how incredible Mrs. Dorothy was.

It was my first big conference for work. There were at least half a dozen talks at any time and thousands of people rushing to the places they needed to be. I still remember feeling lost and vulnerable and wondering whether I would find my footing. Even writing that now, my eyes get misty and I picture this great light & feeling I could do it… the source you probably guessed was Mrs. Dorothy. She helped me get a strong foundation to build from in an industry I ended up calling home years later.

She helped me overcome that lack of confidence by introducing me to the many people she knew. She talked about what a great visit on the farm we had had, the nice article I had written and more. She even told them that she knew I’d need to do more of that and she knew they’d return my calls. I will never know how much of the early work I did could be attributed to Mrs Dorothy but even decades later, she can and does open doors for me when I see her. I just hope I live up to that confidence and that my paying it forward has half the impact on someone she had on me.

I’m not naive. The demolition teams or destroyers are out there too. They leave one hell of an impression or a path of destruction as the case my be. We’ve all seen them rip through our lives. And I have to say with some regret, that there have been a few times when I was more of this than I’d like to admit.

When I look around me now, I see incredible people who are busy building their lives but never so busy they can’t help build others. I’ve always had some of those people in my world but I can also remember times where I had people who looked at things far differently around me. It was hard to think of at the time, and really hard to do, but people I thought of as friends had slowly taken me down a spiral.

I remember stopping and thinking about what was happening, what, if anything I could do about it and when I compared how that impacted me versus other people, I made a conscious choice to seek the company of builders and limit my interactions with destroyers. Admittedly, I have had moments where I may have taken a metaphorical sledgehammer to a wall but I hope those abrupt renovations are rarer each year. I’ve learned I can take a more gentle approach to renovating and I’ll probably create a helluva lot less dust!

I try to make those positive choices far more frequently than the other choices I’m given. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when I see a sledgehammer raised and yet, if I see the weight bearing walls crumbling, I don’t stay for the final implosion. I don’t want to be in the crowd watching the destruction, instead I love that I have communities who will be looking for vacant lots that will be just right for a new project…. and there is always an extra hammer around if you want to help with a 2×4 or two.

Who’s someone who really helped build you up?

The post Looking for Builders instead of Demolition Teams  appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

One of the great things about openly sharing my passion for my favorite fiber, is that by making people aware of that passion, I enable them to share it knowing I will greet their photos or tweets with excitement! That’s exactly what my friend Miss Dazey expected to get when she shared this photo of a custom-painted truck with me earlier today.

Miss Dazey’s dear husband, Mr. Bruce, is busily preparing for a presentation he will be giving this weekend to the American Truck Historian Society convention this weekend in Springfield, MO. With that presentation of 60 years of history in 45 minutes, he has been looking through his extensive photo files and when one was unearthed showing the truck above that had a custom-paint job for hauling in the Mississippi Delta surfaced, it got ear-marked as something I should see.

The truck was painted in the 1960s using Campbell 66 Express’ camel mascot Snortin’ Norton. It was common to paint the trucks in unique ways. If you move forward to today, I have to wonder if they were predecessor to the U-Haul trucks with various states on them. Gotta love that the goal was “cotton-picking good service” and that Norton was even hand-picking cotton which is interesting since mechanical pickers had already been introduced to the area and been gaining popularity but I have to admit that the cotton-picking camel is pretty darn cute!

The post A Custom-Painted Truck Sharing the Love of Cotton appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Christmas is a great time of the year and I have to say it has motivated me to blog several times. Last year, I wrote (and sang) the  “12 days of Cotton” and I’ve also written a post about the Top 12 Indisputable Facts About Santa Being a Cowboy or Farmer. And if you look on the list of the top posts right now, you’ll see my post where I give my thoughts on Why Shouldn’t I Say Merry Christmas? Happy Holidays Isn’t the Same!

With the holidays, I love things fresh from the farm throughout the year. And at the holidays, several fresh from the farm foods to mind — that Christmas ham or maybe a big turkey. I also have had the chance to enjoy olive oil from friends  farms or cheeses others produce milk for! I think my nieces & nephews would be more likely to point to pancakes or French toast with maple syrup.

But like a lot of folks, this weekend I’m trying to finish up Christmas shopping and that turns me to presents. You know JP LOVES COTTON so some of my favorite Christmas gifts are made of my favorite fiber — love cotton gifts! I don’t want to give away any of the presents I have under the tree for family and friends, but its common for me to buy and to LOVE receiving these cotton gifts:

A perfect hoodie! As I write this I am sitting here wearing a hoodie I bought myself during my summer roadtrip out west. The classic hoodie is a perfect part of winter wardrobes! I mean they are great for layering, can show your personality or loyalties (I have a great new University of Memphis hoodie my sis gave me for my birthday).

Thick, soft flannel sheets! With the long, cold nights of winter, snuggling into a really warm bed. Good cotton flannel sheets are a must for me and have been popular for my family for generations! (Yes, we have been generations of cold weather wimps LOL.)

T-Shirts! Classic or Novelty, you have to love them!  There are cotton t-shirts to fit every style! A simple black or grey v-neck t-shirt can be worn to all sorts of events and places. Really good tees are put on under a great leather blazer or simply make a casual day in the park a bit nicer. On the other hand, you can match novelty shirts to express the personalities, mindset or whatever. I love wearing shirts that start conversations when I’m goofing off…. this is a long-time favorite conversation starter! But I tend to opt for simple solids if I’m visiting friends or taking photos. And both are great at layering in winter! 

Pajamas, especially flannel PJs! Friends and I were talking last week and their family and parts of mine have the same tradition and yes, they are cotton gifts — new PJs for Christmas! Whether they are Christmas themed, plaid, solid colors, or whether they are bought at Old Navy or Victoria’s Secret or something else…. Lots of people love PJs whether they wear them around the house, sleep in them or go out in them!

Money! US Dollars are made of cotton! It’s funny, but as I thought through the various gifts that are made of cotton that have really brought smiles to faces, I remembered how I would open cards as a child and seeing cash fall out or how my nephew has previously put money on his list. And in case you didn’t know, the paper US dollars are printed on is 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen. (For this, I’ll use the legendary $5 entertainment tip.)

What’s your favorite cotton gifts that start on a cotton farm?

The post Five Favorite Christmas Cotton Gifts From the Farm! appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.

Recently I was astounded by the amount of agnerdness that took over my Twitter & Goggle Plus streams as friends with the Auburn University Extension Service started sharing photos of a cotton agronomist using Google Glass to scout a cotton crop. Yes, it was Google Glass on the farm! 

Here’s one of the photos that John Fulton (Google+ and @fultop) shared of agronomist Greg Pate. 

And Jim Langcuster (Google+ and @extensionguy) also snapped photos…. I especially like this one of Greg looking at the various fruiting positions on a cotton plant! I wonder if he could use those to record a series of photos and videos like the one on my what does a cotton plant look like post?

Jim wrote a great article on the Google Glass cotton farm demo saying “farmers place a high premium on mobility — namely, the ability to communicate and to upload and download digital information on their mobile devices while their hands are free to conduct all manner of essential business on the farm, whether it’s crop scouting, repairing an irrigation system or calibrating a sprayer.”

The post Google Glass On The Farm? Extreme AgNerds Scout Cotton appeared first on Hundred Percent Cotton.