Dymmesdale Hatfield

My broccoli rabe bolted a couple years ago when I wasn't looking...I swear it happened overnight. I ate them anyways, and they were pretty bitter, but I figure that was better than letting them go to waste.

I just heard about this gardening/farming technique that is supposed to produce very nutrient dense crops. I have not yet had the chance to do much research on it, but so far it sounds like this is achieved mostly by using organic or mostly organic soil amendments, particularly those of the mineral persuasion. I am sure someone on here knows a lot more about this than I do. As you may have guessed by my presence here on permies, I am interested in how to incorporate this method in a permaculture setting. Any thoughts?

Ok, so everybody knows that a tomato grown in your backyard tastes far better than any tomato you will find i the grocery store, but the organic ones from the grocery store will probably taste better than the non-organic ones. It seems to me that the further up the "wheaton eco scale" you go, the yummier your food gets. Paul talks about these $4000 hams in france or wherever they are on the podcast sometimes... Is there a trend here? Do permaculture tomatoes taste even better than sustainable tomatoes, and do sustainable tomatoes taste better than organic ones?

That is really neat! Other than drinking glasses, or christmas gifts, what could you use those for?

Dave Bennett wrote:
In my opinion that was very well stated Thelma.  According to my research, the earliest "cultivated" crop in North America was Sunflowers.  That makes a great deal of sense to me since it was a species of "grass" that grew wild all over the Great Plains. 

I have recently fallen in love with eating sunflower seeds. It is a great way for my sleep-deprived self to keep from falling asleep while driving or reading. It seems like they are not very efficient at putting calories in one's body though, since it takes hours to eat a meager amount of calories from sunflower seeds, and I have to wonder how many calories I am using up just cracking all the shells open?

Ok, I tried it. I am sorry to say, I didn't like it. I really wanted to like it, and it was OK for the first bite. By the time I took my second bite, there was an overwhelming aftertaste that was coppery and spicy, and it was just too much. I wonder if it would be any different if the skin were peeled off, but I think I will just let it go, because potatoes are just too easy to cook, and when you cook them, they are among my favorite foods. Oh well, it was a lesson well learned. 

It's mostly just curiosity, along with my opinion that raw things are generally healthier for you...upon doing some googling, though, most of what's out there in the internet tubes seems to say that as long as they are not green or sprouting, they should be fine, but if they're green, there will be some toxins.

paul wheaton wrote:
I came across this little scrap of paper with the recipe.  Before putting it away I thought I would share it.

In a big bowl, put 4 cups of hot water, 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of yeast and a half cup of oil.  Mix.

Add in flour until it's doughy.  Knead.  Rise and punch down.

Put the big gob of dough in a gallon ziplock and put it all in the fridge.  Then tear off pieces as you need it. 

Pizza is the most obvious.  Just tear off a piece, shape it, smear tomato sauce on it.  Throw on pizza toppings and cheese, then bake at 450 for about eight minutes.

You can make a loaf of bread by ripping off about a third of the dough and plopping it into a bread pan.  Let it rise once more and then bake at 400 for about half an hour.

Fry bread:   get about a half cup of oil really hot in a pan and throw in a flatened handful of dough.    Fry, flip, fry and serve.

Cinnamon rolls:  Roll a big gob of dough flat.  Smear on melted butter, cinnamon, sugar and raisins.  Roll up.  Cut into chunks.  Lube with melted butter and bake for a half hour at 400 degrees.

The list goes on and on for all of the things you can do with the dough. 

Pigs in a blanket. 

Piroshkis.

Hamburger buns.

Wait...so this is poly dough? What's the difference between this and, um.......dough?

I tend to think that anything (in the context of eating things, that is) that has been done by humans for over a thousand years is probably not incompatible with a good human diet. Even if you can't just take a bunch of wheat or rice off the stalk and start chewing, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing it. If it were bad for people to eat grains, then there would not have been a universal human tradition of eating grain-based foods. There is a reason "bread" has at times pretty much been a synonym for "food."

I think there is a parallel between grain and soy, in that you can't just take a pod of soybeans and stick it in your mouth without getting sick, or at least a bit uncomfortable, but that hasn't stopped people from making tofu for thousands of years and allowing it to become a staple in their diets.

I do agree with Paul and Michael Pollan, that modern people eat WAY to much grain, and we need to be relying much more on green, leafy foods, or succulent fruits and veggies, but to take grains out of your diet entirely (disregarding gluten issues, as there's been plenty of discussion about that above) is superfluous and, IMHO, pretty silly.

Anyone like eating raw potatoes? I've never tried it, but I've been curious, so I picked some up today at the farmer's market, and I'm gonna give it a shot when I get home.