Archives for category: harvesting
(NYT, “Hold the Drug, Go Straight to the Source,” Jan, 26, 2015).
In this day and age, when many of us are worried about personal data and loss of privacy, such reporting reminds us that we should maybe worry more about the physical loss of biodiversity and our rights to use such resources in a sustainable way. Plant knowledge and even genetic material can easily become proprietary, also known as biopiracy. Meanwhile, enjoy all the richness around you.
Support your local farmer, and consider your global fellow human beings. Nutritious food and clean water should be a basic human right across the globe.
New York Times, 300,000 Evacuated as Strong Cyclone Hits Eastern India, Oct 12, 2013
SUPPORT SMALL FARMING & FARMERS!
for some recipes:
http://www.eattheweeds.com/cattails-a-survival-dinner/
for information of ditch bank diversity:
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/4336/Chapter%20%206.pdf?sequence=19
This afternoon I went with one of the millers to the farmer who cultivates the spelt. On his farm, spelt started as marginal crop, in an effort to create a unique local product, based on collaboration between farmer, mills, and bakeries. The spelt is good, the mills are doing their work, however, the bakeries may be the weak link, according to the miller. Spelt requires a different way of making bread; it contains less gluten, and needs experimenting. The consumer so far is enthusiastic and this may be due to the potential health benefits and the fact that ‘local’ sells. It is nice to know your farmer, your miller, and your baker and their dedication to the product.
For anyone who wishes to experiment making spelt bread, here is a recipe from Pompeii,
Watch the video at:
Mmmm, the fruit is the garden is ripening and is getting some color.
Last year in Hungary, picking my daily apple from the trees.
Long ago, we always had a crate with apples from the nearby orchards,
and could eat as many as we liked. Now the local tree is a luxury.
to read about the benefits of forest bathing visit:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793341/
Also, check out “de Keuken van het Ongewenst Dier”
http://www.wherethefoodis.nl/de-keuken-van-het-ongewenste-dier/
The fruits in the garden are not ripe yet. To get my daily dose of green for health and wellbeing, I just go for a run outside, green is not just processed through the digestive system, but also through the eyes, and other senses. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2760412/
The garden is open to the public and there are plans to create a new section, growing and showing edible plants. Whether or not these plants can then be sourced on the Veluwe for the dinner plate is not clear yet.
In this part of the Marche region (Montefeltro), wheat is the dominant grown crop and the clay soil is not particularly suited for growing anything else. But, as a friend of Silvia, who is an expert in medicinal plants, told me, parts of the region are excellent sources for wild flowers and medicinal plants.
http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/esdb_archive/eusoils_docs/other/eur24131.pdf – page 5
During my travels I notice that many edible wild flowers and plants are widespread globally, but there are cultural differences in the selection of these, both for food and medicinal purposes, and this may also have to do with the variation in flavor in the diet (see post June 23). One man’s weed is another man’s vegetable…
I am currently on an organic saffron farm in the Marche region. Saffron is known as the world’s most costly spice, made from the dried stigmas of the crocus flower (Crocus sativus) Although often thought of as native to Southeast Asia, the cultivation of saffron most likely originated in Crete during the Minoan period. The ideogram for saffron is recognized in Linear B tablets (1450 BCE), documenting large amounts of saffron either cultivated or gathered from the wild. Frescos in Knossos also depict saffron gatherers.
COUNTING THREADS. SAFFRON IN AEGEAN BRONZE AGE WRITING AND SOCIETY, Jo Day, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 30(4), 369-391, 2011
http://www.zafferanomontefeltro.com/page.php
The spice is a valuable agricultural product, in the past and today, because of its variety of uses. It adds flavor to a variety of dishes, is used medicinally, and is a powerful coloring agent for skin, hair, and cloth. The production methods have not changed significantly since those early times and this explains the high price of saffron.
Crocus sativus does not grow in the wild, but derived from the Mediterranean plant Crocus cartwrightianus. The reason why it needs to be cultivated is because the crocus does not produce useful seeds. The corms, the underground bulb-like part of the plant must be dug up, broken apart, and planted again. The flowering period is in the fall. To harvest the stigmas and obtain high quality saffron, the flowers need to be picked before dawn when the flowers are still closed.
Right now is the time to dig up the corms…
The goats eat out everyday. Sometimes in the forest but most of the time they browse the meadow. The meadow has a movable fence and today it was time to get them to fresh pasture. The slope of this mountain is very steep and this procedure of fence-moving requires nothing less than BECOMING GOAT-LIKE.
In Greek and Roman mythology the goat-like creature, who is half man half goat is known as Satyr. Apparently, a female version was a later invention of poets; these Satyresses who roamed the woods and mountains, where not unknown to artists in the Renaissance.
It is a strange to realize that there that there are connections between the things you chose to do and enjoy, the way you view the world and how people in the past thought in similar ways.
Satire of course, is also known as a literary form. Roman satire is a poetic essay that was a medium for biting, subversive social and political criticism, as a force in opposition to urbanity, decorum, and civilization itself.
Sense-ible Bag Lady 