s. ayalp

pollinator
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since Mar 18, 2016
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Recent posts by s. ayalp

Thanks! So it seems like there is the black oil seed sunflower and that is it's name. It is one stem and single headed.

While searching I came across Peredovik oil seed sunflower which is poly headed (southern exposure seed exchange). It seems strange that there is like 150 heirloom corn variety for flour,but just few oil seed sunflower.
I am gradually transforming a 11 acre conventional sunflower-wheat plot into a mixed permaculture- market garden - demonstration plot project. It will take couple more years for the process to be complete. Meanwhile I have to learn how to grow wheat and sunflower. It is fun to see how some increase in organic matter content and mineral balancing does to production.
Here is the problem I am facing right now. Sunflower seeds -hybrids- are way too expensive over here. So much expensive that, it almost costs as much as all other inputs. So I did what was expected of me and tried to stabilize f1 sunflower. Then I hit to a rock wall. Unlike wheat - which even F2's perform well,  F1 sunflower seeds are like tomatoes - F2's has nothing to do with F1. Million heads, some tiny flowers some massive flowers. Stalks way too thin or way to thick - some look like Boa trees.

I have been searching for heirloom sunflower seeds for seed oil production. Not the ones for bird feed, not the ones for eating, but for seed oil. While it was easy to find heirloom wheat varieties it has been extremely difficult to pinpoint a single heirloom that was used for seed oil in say 1950. Am I missing something? Why are all varieties for seed oil production F1's? Is there anyone selling old varieties?

I know there will be some loss of production per acre and also oil percentage, but cost saved from buying expensive seed each year should help with the math.

Thanks!

buffalo wings pizza ( at a place called Zetti's)
Oh I miss them so much!

I went to UB for two years, We were eating buffalo wings 5 days of a week, detoxing in the remaining two.
2 years ago
Sourcing seeds is a major challenge over here. Even F1's. Info such as how long does it take from sowing to harvest, disease resistance etc- is not available. There are many local seed sharing groups that claim to save heirloom varieties from commercial companies, but they also suffer from the same problem. I feel lucky if I receive any package from them that has something written on it. Sometimes you receive seeds of a tomato that is claimed to be ancestral, then it turns out to be an Italian heirloom that has nothing to do with the guys grandma.

There is also two other issues that I deal with. Lately I am busy and usually I don't have more than 1 hour per week in the veggie garden. It takes ton of babysitting some heirloom varieties. The other issue has to do with Istanbul's climate. It is humid and hot. Some years it is mostly Mediterranean and doesn't rain for months, but some years it rains throughout whole summer. Powdery mildew -and other mildews- is a major issue. Istanbul has a huge metropolitan area, creating a massive heat island and also air pollution. Regular spraying by municipality does not help either.

So decided to grow my own landrace varieties. And I had some promising results with squash. I was able to get some seeds - landrace varieties, mostly Lofthouses and from some friends. Greg sent squash seeds - resistant to powdery mildew, a variety he has been selecting for the last 5-6 years.

Since I don't have free access to seeds, there is no seed share group focusing on the subject, my first year goal is to grow as many as possible. Turning each seed to 10-20-100 or more.
3 years ago

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:It seems that cooking does not destroy the compound involved in favism. I suppose that's why there is reluctance on the part of food manufacturers -- liability issues. Hence the research.

A couple of interesting reads from Wikipedia:
Fava/broad beans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicia_faba

Favism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose-6-phosphate_dehydrogenase_deficiency

I know, I know, Wikipedia isn't the last word on any subject. I do appreciate how it frames the parameters of the debate, allowing me to ask good questions.



Definetly. It helps a lot.

That being said, when an age old info comes up I dont discard it even if it does not make much sense. When I was a kid I loved to run under ladder (I dont know why I did that, just doing it) My grandmother told me it is actualy a veery big sin. I didn't check it and I was 25 years old when I learned that there is no such thing What I am tring to say is there is usually some truth or a reason behind any age old info. This age old made up "sin" probably helped saving someone breaking his arm/leg.

About fava beans - And I really dont want this to turn it into here is an info, see this article type of discussion - nor permies is a place for that (we dont like that here).
I checked and came up with this article : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224419301992

where it says:
"Vicine and convicine are thermostable, but their concentration can be greatly reduced by soaking the seeds in water or in a weak acid solution (Hegazy & Marquardt, 1983; Jamalian & Ghorbani, 2005) prior to cooking. Thermal processing such as boiling, roasting, microwave irradiation, and frying can reduce the v-c content in faba bean seeds (Hussein, Motawei, Nassib, Khalil, & Marquardt, 1986; Ganzler & Salgó, 1987; Muzquiz et al., 2012; Cardador-Martinez et al., 2012). In addition, the combination of enzyme treatment with fermentation (Pulkkinen et al., 2019) or of alkaline extraction with acid precipitation can reduce v-c content by more than 99% (Vioque, Alaiz, & Girón-Calle, 2012). However, removal or destruction of v-c by dry milling for protein concentration on an industrial scale is problematic because air classification of faba bean protein (Tyler, Youngs, & Sosulski, 1981) concentrates the v-c up to nearly four-fold in the protein fraction (Fig. 1). Pitz, Sosulski, and Hogge (1980) reported a similar trend. Wet processing methods for protein purification, e.g., isoelectric precipitation, can remove anti-nutritional factors such as v-c from protein fractions, but these methods are costly and energy-intensive (reviewed in Singhal, Karaca, Tyler, & Nickerson, 2016). The best solution for the reduction of v-c is breeding for low v-c faba beans, and the discovery of a low-v-c accession with up to 95% reduction in v-c content compared to wild type has enabled the transfer of the low v-c trait to faba bean cultivars by sexual crosses (Duc, Sixdenier, Lila, & Furstoss, 1989)."

Long story short, at the end we reach to the same conclusion I will continue to boil beans for the time being - till we have some seeds of low v-c beans

Does low concentration of those coımpounds make people with favism sick? Frankly I have no clue.
3 years ago
My final recommendation is about diseases. There are many tools, ways and such for dealing with diseases and pests. This book has most of them. Even if you dont implement the recepies, it is definetly a concise referance book about the subject. Highly recomended.

"With growing consumer awareness about the dangers of garden chemicals, turn to The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control as the most reliable and comprehensive guide on the garden shelf. Rodale has been the category leader in organic methods for decades, and this thoroughly updated edition features the latest science-based recommendations for battling garden problems. With all-new photos of common and recently introduced pests and plant diseases, you can quickly identify whether you've discovered garden friend or foe and what action, if any, you should take.

No other reference includes a wider range of methods for growing and maintaining an organic garden. The plant-by-plant guide features symptoms and solutions for 200 popular plants, including flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs, and fruits. The insect-and-disease encyclopedia includes a photo identification guide and detailed descriptions of damage readers may see. The extensive coverage of the most up-to-date organic control techniques and products, presented in order of lowest impact to most intensive intervention, makes it easy to choose the best control."
The Lean Farm by Ben Hartman is all about efficiency. It had a profound impact on how I manage my garden and also my work. Highly recommended. 10/10

" practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation.

To many people today, using the words "factory" and "farm" in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots. Author Ben Hartman and other young farmers are increasingly finding that incorporating the best new ideas from business into their farming can drastically cut their wastes and increase their profits, making their farms more environmentally and economically sustainable.

By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor. Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed by progressive farms around the world.

Using examples from his own family's one-acre community-supported farm in Indiana, Hartman clearly instructs other small farmers in how to incorporate lean practices in each step of their production chain, from starting a farm and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. While the intended audience for this book is small-scale farmers who are part of the growing local food movement, Hartman's prescriptions for high-value, low-cost production apply to farms and businesses of almost any size or scale that hope to harness the power of lean in their production processes."
We have two types of topics: purple and brown of permaculture. I think we also need to come up with a new way to define the people who think permaculture is a means to earn more and the ones who think it as more of a destiny/final form, sort of a retired lifestyle. Some build swales just because it is how you need to do it - for the sake of design. There are some others who check every component of the design whether it makes sense for its feasibility - economy and so on.

Richard Perkins's book is about how he built up a farm and paid its depth in 5 years in a country with harshest regulations (and far up north). The book is not about the story, it is actually about how. Its about: What you need to check for implementing a design? Why he prefered keyline design instead of swales? How he designed it. What you need to do earn from the farm? What you need to check? What costs you might expect? Husbandary, chickens (layers, boilers), market garden. Experiences of his. All that in a book.

"Regenerative Agriculture offers a clear and pragmatic approach to designing, installing and managing profitable small farms, and is built around Richard Perkins’s tireless work to restore the dignity to rural stewardship through intelligent human-scale farming.
It provides a deep look into the ecological, practical, personal and financial realms of making small farms work.
Regenerative farming restores soils and benefits local customers and communities whilst turning a healthy profit for the diligent farmer. With Regenerative Agriculture in hand, you get a jump start on farming for the future."

I believe this book deserves more then 10 acorns, if only it had someone editting it :) A definite must-read for anyone who is going to build a small-scale farm.

here is the link: https://www.regenerativeagriculturebook.com/
One of the books that highly recommend is "Miraculous Abundance: One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers, and Enough Food to Feed the World" by Perrine Hervé-Gruyer,  Charles Hervé-Gruyer

It is prometed by Elliot Coleman as :"Farmers like Charles and Perrine Hervé-Gruyer [are] beacons of light. Their work allows the rest of the world to see that there is another life, there is another way."―Eliot Coleman

We all fantasize about things that we will do in the future and reading a book about a couple who has been there done that made me feel the scale of the work. The book is highly inspirational. I put this book in the same catogory with "Gia's Garden" and "One straw revolution".

"When Charles and Perrine Hervé-Gruyer set out to create their farm in a historic Normandy village, they had no idea just how much their lives would change. Neither one had ever farmed before. Charles had been traveling the globe teaching students about ecology and indigenous cultures. Perrine had been an international lawyer in Japan. Their farm Bec Hellouin has since become an internationally celebrated model of innovation in ecological agriculture. Miraculous Abundance is the eloquent tale of the couple’s quest to build an agricultural model that can carry us into a post-carbon future.

The authors dive deeper into the various farming methods across the globe that contributed towards the creation of the Bec Hellouin model, including:

   Permaculture and soil health principles
   Korean natural farming methods
   Managing a four-season farm
   Creating a productive agroecosystem that is resilient and durable
   Using no-dig methods for soil fertility
   Modelling an agrarian system that supports its community in totality; from craft, restaurants and shared work spaces to jobs, agritourism, energy and ecological biodiversity

Perfect for aspiring and experienced farmers, gardeners, and homesteaders, Miraculous Abundance is a love letter to a future where ecological farming is at the centre of every community. "