permaculture

["Kelly Lockamy" <garden_muse@bellsouth.net>]

Friends,
I do small scale permaculture and landscape designs for urban/suburban
clients.  Currently I have the need to build a retaining wall about 2-3 feet
high and about 30 feet long.  It will seperate the yard from the sidewalk,
so i need to be sure it won't tumble into the sidewalk someday.  It needs to
be inexpensive to build, I was thinking a sandbag core with a stucco-type
outer layer.  Can anyone recommend some "how-to" reference materials for
this?  Any suggestions as to other materials, cheap, long-lasting.... (hot
sub-tropical, humid environment)

Many Thanks,
Kelly

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Diver" <steved@ncat.org>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 1:38 PM
Subject: [permaculture] Kunu - a non alcoholic cereal beverage


> Larry -
>
> I came across that abstract on kunu as a grain beverage
> by chance.  It can be added to a library on minor grain crops
> and food uses.
>
> Garden crops that keep well and preserve well -- "keepers"
> and "canners" and "freezers" -- is what I'm growing more of
> in my quarter acre garden.  Butternut and red kuri squash
> did really well this year.
>
> Interestingly, Carla Emory's book "The Encyclopedia of
> Country Living, 9th Edition" is the one that we keep on
> the table as a quick reference for tips on freezing and
> canning different crops.
>
> The paper on cereal beverages reminded me of Noel Vietmeyer's
> work on converting staple grains into a liquified drink through
> a simple malting and fermentation process.  Vietmeyer is known
> in the permaculture literature for the dozens of books on lesser-known
> crops and livestock he ushered through National Academy of Science
> in the BOSTID (Board on Science and Technology for International
> Development) series such as Lost Crops of the Incas, Lost Crops of
> Africa, Vol. 1: Grains, Vetiver Grass: A Thin Green Line Against
> Erosion, etc.
>
> Vietmeyer first noticed that health workers in Africa and Asia
> added sprouted grains to staple porriges to turn the gruel
> into a liquid that infants and children can more easily stomach.
> The enzymes in the sprouted grains convert the starches
> into a more delicious and nutritious food substance.   Vietmeyer
> helped establish the Power Flour Action Network to ship food-grade
> malted barley flour -- a ready-to-use malting agent -- to developing
> countries and relief camps.
>
> See:
>
> PowerFlour Was Idea of Researcher Noel Vietmeyer
> http://www.powerflour.org/news/20010815.htm
>
> Power Flour Action Network
> http://www.powerflour.org
>
> Enhancing the Nutritional Quality of Relief Diets Workshop
> Workshop Proceedings, April 28-30, 1999, Washington, DC
> The Potential of Amylase-fortified Cereals in Relief Settings
> By Noel Vietmeyer, page 58-60
> http://www.sustaintech.org/pub13.pdf
> _____ 136-page PDF
>
> It could be useful to start a collection of these grain
> beverages as part of a permaculture library on food preservation
> and processing methods from around the world.
>
> I don't have a copy of Mollison's book on fermentation, maybe
> it has some of this stuff in their already.
>
> Another item in my archives, somewhere, is an ethnological
> study of Korean villagers and how they make kimchee in
> crock pots that you bury in the earth and dig up months
> and months later.
>
> A related grain topic on my mind is the production and use
> of edible sorghum.   It is a staple cereal grain in many African
> countries.  Sorghum is used in the kunu recipe.
>
> Also see:
>
> "Sorghum and Pearl Millet Recipes: Towards adding value to and
> promotion of sorghum and pearl millet as convenience and
> conventional foods and drinks"
> ICRISAT, Nairobi, Kenya
> http://www.icrisat.org/text/coolstuff/recipes/sorghum_pearl_millet.htm
>
> While we grow vast quantities of sorghum in the U.S.
> across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska it
> is geared to animal feed.
>
> Sorghum is hardly grown as a garden crop for human
> consumption in the U.S.
>
> Kusa Seed Society in Ojai, CA, carried some of the
> edible sorghum varieties from Africa, as I recall.
>
> SourePoint Organic Seeds in Colorado is another
> seed source that comes to mind for edible sorghum.
>
> Pearl millet is another cereal crop raised in Africa
> that is used in grain beverage recipes.  Pearl millet
> seed is more widely available.
>
> Best regards,
> Steve Diver
>
>
>
>
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