Homestead mailing list

["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Bill Jones wrote:
> Marie McHarry wrote:

> > > Millions of Chinese have been getting enough calcium for 
> > > thousands of years. That may change now that they're eating more
> > >  meat, but if you keep your protein intake down to maintenance 
> > > levels, you don't need nearly so much calcium. I'd recommend 
> > > looking at the traditional Chinese diet.
> > >
> > > Marie

I was going to mention this earlier, but forgot...
Asian diets often include a lot of broths and such made from bones,
hooves, and other animal parts that are commonly disposed in our modern
culture, but were even once used extensively here when butchering was
done on the farm.  Remember when everything was used except the squeal?
 Today, people are squeamish about cooking down animal parts into
stock-too much fear of diseases like BSE.  People buy their chicken
broth in a can instead of boiling the bones and fat to make their own.
I know that people on this list are different with our "home grown and
raised mentality", so I am not talking about the homesteaders here but
the  population in general.  I have always believed that the use of
whole fish in stews and broths provided a good source of calcium for not
only Asians, but other cultures as well.  By using the whole, unscaled
fish, you extract calcium from the bones and scales for the broth.  If
you acidify the broth just a bit with vinegar, you extract even more
calcium, especially from the scales. (Think fish head soup or shark fin
soup) The traditional Asian diets also included a lot of seafood, and
they would also have gotten more calcium from seafood than other
cultures eating a typical inland diet where most calcium comes from
either milk or veggies.  In some cultures, Asian, Jewish, Indian,
Scandinavian etc. etc. , pickled fish is consumed regularly, and that
usually includes eating the pickled or steamed/boiled bones (Carp,
herring, sardines, salmon, etc.), which provide yet another source of
calcium.



> In answer to the question, "why not look into the Chinese diet?" I 
> can only say that countless Asian staples will not grow here because
>  of the cool climate: peanuts, sesame, soybeans, not to mention rice.
>  Actually I retain hope for growing all but the latter in
> greenhouses, once we've got it all together, but there's still zero
> data on that.

I would think you would be able to grow peanuts and soybeans there, at
least.  I live in zone 7 along the border of 7a/7b, but my microclimate
is almost like a zone 6 because I live in a horseshoe shaped valley that
acts as a cold sink in the winter.  I can grow peanuts here.
Peanuts, depending on variety grown, take about 140 days of growing from
planting to harvest, BUT you can germinate the seed peanuts in flats in
your house or greenhouse, and then transplant them once danger of frost
has passed.  You can grow them in flats for 2-4 weeks before you
transplant them, and if you do that, you will need only about 120 days
until harvest.  Peanuts need a minimum soil temp of 60 degrees for plant
growth, and grow best when the air temperature is between 65-85 degrees.
  They need higher soil temps for seed germination, but if you start
them in flats, you avoid that problem. One of the things I did that you
might consider doing was to make an artificial 'bed'.  I transplanted my
seedlings, then laid  paper feed bags along either side of the row of
peanut seedlings creating a 6 foot wide 'bed'.  Then, I put waste hay
and mulch on top of the feed bags.  The bags kept the weeds out of the
peanuts, and as the vines grew, then fell over onto the feed bag area.
When the time came, the vines 'pegged' into the mulch/compost and the
peanut grew in that on top of the bag instead of in the soil.  Harvest
was a simple matter of pulling up the plant.  The ground around the
roots was soft since it had been covered by the feedbag, and the peanuts
were clean from growing in the mulch instead of soil.  To make sure I
got all of the peanuts with the pulled plant, I just lifted the remains
of the feedbag.  It was easy and weed-free.  I have pictures if you are
interested and the above doesn't make sense.
As for soybeans, search edamame
http://food.oregonstate.edu/v/edamame.html
The following site,
http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/NWREC/gardenlist.html
suggests that the following varieties should grow in all parts of
Oregon: Envy, Early Hakucho, Butterbean, Sayamusume, Misono Green.
You may have to start them in flats, too, but if you want to grow them,
I think you could.
Rice, IMO, is one of those things that I think is very variety
dependent.  There are so many different types of rice that surely you
could find something that would grow in your climate.  There are dryland
types, highland types, wetland types, you name it.  Just because it is
not commercially feasible to grow it doesn't mean that it is impossible
to grow for homestead purposes.



> So my point is, since nature is against us anyway, you can imagine 
> how much I love hearing that I can't grow something because of 
> someone else's inappropriate land management practices.

I know there is this universal theme of "Man vs. Nature", but
try to think along the lines of working with Nature instead of against
it, and you might be surprised at the results.
You live near the coast.  Increase your seafood intake.  Some of the
largest kelp forests in the world are found just off the Oregon coast.
Collect it and use it on your garden to increase the trace mineral
content(like Calcium) of your soil.  There are plenty of ways to
increase your calcium without drinking milk.

Bev
--
Bevanron in NW Georgia          EarthNSky Farm  34.498N 85.076W
SISU! (Finnish--There is no single word in English that encompasses
all that sisu means, but it combines the following ideas: guts, pep,
determination, stubbornness, perseverance, hardiness, stamina, go, do,
nerve, spunk, pluck, and grit.  It's like "Just Do It!" & "Go for It!")
                                GO NAVY!