Timothy Black

Peter McCoy wrote:Hard to put a time frame on the shelf life. Most herbalists say 1 year to be safe. But, in theory, some of the compounds (such as the sugars) are quite stable and could persist for much longer than that.

Calcination fixes the salts, which drying does not. This an extra, experimental step that is not common.

Cheers
Peter

Peter, when you say "Calcination" are you talking about heating to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen? And if so, how would you recommend the spec for that?

Everything he said, plus you could develop the system so that you have a tasty value added food product for farmer's market sales.

Or, you could mulch the fruiting bodies back into the mix once they are exhausted, and spread the entire mass out to add nutrients to depleted soil masses, as a remediation step.

Or you could use the fruiting bodies and mycelial masses as animal feed amendments which are very high in protein.

Or you could process the fruiting bodies for sugars and make ethanol from it.

Or you could partial process the fruiting bodies for sugars and set them out to feed bee colonies additional, natural sugars.

Lots of possibilities for fungi!

Well, if what you want to do is grow food "for now", as opposed to creating an integrated system, then you can use raised or sunken beds and Ollas.

Ollas are used for water delivery by creating an unglazed terra cotta pot with a long, thin neck that is about 1 foot or shorter (longer for bigger pots, etc.. depends on your needs), and a bulbous jar beneath. There is usually a stone or glazed 'stopper' for the top. Sometimes there is a rain collector.

You bury the olla into the dirt with the top barely protruding, and it provides water for as far away from it as its radius. It is incredibly conservative in water usage.. essentially, it acts like a manmade aquifer, or maybe a tiny subsurface pond. Also, because of the nature of osmosis (which is how the water comes out of the pot and into the soil) you cannot overwater.

Doing ti this way means you can cover the soil over with something fairly water impermeable, either organic (mulch, etc) or not (plastic, greenhouse cloth, etc), and you have a closed, water conservative system that will work in almost any climate.

Here is just one of many references.

http://www.arcadia-farms.net/olla-irrigation-for-a-market-garden/

And yes.. if you are growing vegetables in the desert.. you should at least partially shade them!!! That is, unless you are growing varieties you know for sure will work in full sun, in your climate.

Ah! And here is a thread here on permies about them:

https://permies.com/t/19615/organic/Ollas

Yes Sir Tyler, I do believe you have hit the nail on the head

I suppose what concerns me about referring to Permaculture as a 'Science' is that it could dilute the idea.. there are quite a few folks who work in or are adjunct to the sciences that have the same sense of the word as I evinced above.

To me, calling it a Philosophy is a more powerful statement. A holistic design philosophy based on scientifically proven principles. drawing from many areas of ecological, horticultural and agricultural science.

Anyhoo.. I think I am guilty of major digression... I'll fade to black now

From the map, you guys should have access to Cedar.. is there any cedar on the site?

What other trees are you guys using that might be rot resistant? I know black locust is the BEST for this (used a bunch of that doing wooden ship repair in New England), however I have no idea how much access to that you have, and Im not an expert tree identification dude

Welcome! I'm seeing what else I can do.. it would be helpful if you guys said in this thread what you folks can use right now. It's October, and I am imagining you don't need a lot of planting and gardening supplies right this second What's a priority?

Oh my goodness! Found a great resource... its a guidebook to wildlife in your area

http://store.msuextension.org/publications/OutdoorsEnvironmentandWildlife/2B0323.pdf

Ok, I'll send it to the 'ants' address

EDIT: Sent! It has my name on top of it.. just ignore it and split some damn shakes

Can you guys use a Froe?

Tyler Ludens wrote:
"science
noun sci·ence \ˈsī-ən(t)s\
: knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science

Heh. Yes, that's the dictionary definition of 'Science'... that's not what is implied by saying Permaculture is a 'Design Science'. It is certainly "Scientific' in general, but that doesn't make Permaculture 'A Science".

I should have been more particular.. when I say 'A Science', I meant a 'Branch of Scientific Study', which would essentially put it on the same footing as eco engineering, Physics, etc. This is the 'Common Understanding' of what it means when you say something is:

'A Science"

I hope that makes more sense.