Ac Baker

I think you'll find this interesting, "How do you grow trees in a treeless land?" about regenerating wooded habitats on Iceland.  Some intriguing similarities with Skye, and some significantly more severe challenges too:

https://youtu.be/NbkWBmFmdN4

Also being termed "high friction living" in contrast with "frictionless" technology where it's all just "one click away", I gather?

I'm hoping people here can tell me more about this book, which looks really interesting.

"Uncover the stories behind the foods that have linked the natural environments, traditions, and histories of Indigenous peoples .. for millennia"
by Sean Sherman

https://seansherman.com/sean-sherman-new-book-turtle-island-foods-and-traditions-of-the-indigenous-peoples-of-north-america/

In terms of sustainably organic matter and soil nutrients in the land we steward, I recall Iain "Tolly" Tolhurst suggesting 25% of the land needs to be under green manure crops.  These days, Tolhurst Organic makes vast quantities of branch wood compost from sustainably managing their woody perennials on-site.

Here's a nice readable introduction by Tolly about using composted branch wood in tandem with green manures in-situ in veg fields: https://veganorganic.net/composting-woodchips/

I don't know of anyone growing "oilseed rape" or commercial LEAR rapeseed on a non-commercial basis. But there are named varieties optimised for Europe if we wanted to try e.g. https://mspagriculture.co.uk/our-products/cereal-seed/oilseed-rape/

"Brassica oilseed species are the third most important in the world, providing approximately 15 % of the total vegetable oils. Three species (Brassica rapa, B. juncea, B. napus) dominate ..

"The term ‘canola’ is used to describe varieties with <2 % erucic acid in their oil and < 30μmoles glucosinolates per g of meal. ... [also called] low erucic acid rapeseed (LEAR)"

Source: Randall et al. 2024, Increasing oil content in Brassica oilseed species, Prog. Lipid R.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163782724000390

Andre Wiederkehr wrote:
Anyone know some pretty straightforward sources on how to get this essential fatty acid amount and balance about right?

I did look at this a number of years back, and I seem to recall: Brassica seed crops bred for oil came up as another option;  Omega-3 family fatty acids were the limiting factor in seed oils. Growing micro-algae may be a viable way to get enough Omega-3.

"Walnuts, canola [rapeseed] oil, flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, chia seeds, hemp seeds, and perilla oil are high in the omega-3, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). There are two other omega-3s, EPA and DHA .. " [which we can get from algae.]

Adults need up to 1.5 g ALA daily, which would be about a dozen cups of kale leaf! or about four cups of common purslane leaf.

Source: Omega 3s, by Jack Norris, Registered Dietitian https://veganhealth.org/omega-3s-part-2/#dri-ala

Erik Lee wrote:Anyone know of some good evergreen species that respond well to coppice management?

A quick look around online suggests that evergreen broadleaf trees can be carefully coppiced. But evergreen conifers basically cannot.

So Holly can be carefully coppiced, for example.

I am so grateful that I have no need to fly.  The last time I remember, was for my old job, so that would have been .. 2000?

Nancy Reading wrote:(OT - I'm thinking now about hollow compost heaps...)

(Such as a capped "tube" of wire mesh into the middle, to allow in air?)