Steven Spence

William Bronson wrote: I think grain has the advantage when it comes to storage duration.
How many roots can be stored for years and still be edible?
This allows surplus to be built up, year over year.
This kind of surplus can equate to food security, but also translate into wealth, with all that comes with that.

I have read the potatoes can be dehyrated and powdered and stored indefinately. Haven't tried it myself, but probably will at some point. It appears here that as far as potatoes (and taro) go they are pretty resillient in ground here as far as rodents and other pests go. Same cannot be said for sweet potatoes, arracacha, yacon, oca and sunchokes. Nothing has had a crack at the Mashua yet.

The downer on potatoes is always disease, especially fungal pathogens. At least for virus this can be minimized by growing fertile plants (whether diploid or tetraploid) and there are individuals that do that thesedays. The Kenosha Potato project is one group with a seed train with lots of diversity and minimal cost.

Saying that I agree with Joseph Lofthouse on maize. As a staple that is easy enough to grow/harvest and then process and landraces with low nutrient requirements and drought tolerance can be found. I am working with perennial teosinte introgressing it into tough flour and flint lines with tight husks (from Shane Simonsens' parrot proof line) to prevent bird and rodent damage before harvest.

There is plenty of room for grains I think. But, when it's time to harvest it has to happen quickly and a all hands on deck sort of deal for that time. Shane Simonsens podcast Recombination Nation has an interesting interview with an Italian grain breeder Salvadore Ceccarelli. He has worked with lots of ancient grains reincoporating landrace genetics back into communities as staples. Worth a listen if grains are in your wheelhouse. Here are plans for a thresher that is worth looking at for anyone getting seriously into grains other than maize. Adaptable to many sorts of grains including legumes by changing screens and types of chain to beat the material. It sort of seems to be a community level piece of equipment that could run from electric or pedal powered if need. There are videos of it online for those that are interested.

Maybe Geoff has a point in the subtropics about grains. Plenty of variety for most/all of the year there. But if you have a proper winter its nice to have some options and even nicer to have variety.

Hayley Stewart wrote:Hi gang! Back again with a pea problem... but this time it's this weird, raised, yellowy crystal-like growth on the pods. Anyone ever seen something like this before?

Neoplastic pea pod syndrome. Response to being bitten by pea weavil (though I have only seen it myself with thrips) and in the absence of UV light - so mostly seen in glass/greenhouses. Single dominant gene, and  although the link I post below says its not uncommon - I have only seen it in landrace pea accessions.  Hope that helps.

Cheers
Steve

https://www.jic.ac.uk/research-impact/molecules-from-nature/impact/peas/the-history-of-pea-research-at-the-john-innes-centre/neoplastic-pea-pods-2/

I make keffir in a tea cup with stainless steel strainer and lid made for loose leaf teas. Grains go in the stainless steel bit, pour in the milk, let it ferment to you like it then pop in the fridge. Consume the keffir over the next while and when you are running out either add more milk or if need be put aside the grains and clean the cup/strainer/lid and then restart. One cup solution and no waste. Agreed, keffir is very similar to LAB, but easier in many ways because you have grains that are reusable. I drink it and use left over keffir for predigesting fruit and veg scraps in a bucket of non chlorinated water , feed to the dog and tip the odd bit down the sink to keep the plumbing clear.

Ok, so I do things a little differently. After looking at some of the Korean Natural Farming stuff on no smell chicken and pig keeping (where they spray Lactobacillus around amongst other things) - and after making some JADAM JMS (anerobic potato ferment with no smell) i decided to try and predigest the fruit and veg scraps with lactobacillus. Tipped everything in a bucket, added water which is non treated here and some keffir whey. Sit it behid the wood heater and it bubbles in a few days. A little citrus smell (my children love citrus) but thats it. Every few days i take it out and tip it around the orchard trees and restart. There is a lot of biodiversity in milk keffir. Tends to break down quickly (two weeks) and the micro biology love it, though it is moist here and doesn't freeze.  You could use a lid with a bubbler like you'd do with edible lacto-ferments if mice exclusion was needed. I dont rinse the bucket generally, often just wash the remaining coffee grounds back to the bottom as a bit of an extra starter. Milk keffir is also worth looking into in its own right, lots of publications now on liver protection, gut and skin health amongst other things.  Hope that helps.