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  • From: Norris Thomlinson <norristh@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Edibility of seeds of Prunus, apples, pears
  • Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 09:29:38 -0800

> Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 07:52:29 -0600
> From: Jay Woods <woodsjay@cox.net>
> Subject: [permaculture] Perennial Nonedible Oilseeds
>
> I've just realized that I don't know of a single one good for zone 4 or
> colder. The closest thing to this that I do know is the seeds of most
> fruits such as apple, pear, peach and apricot have a small amount of oil
> and the seeds themselves are inedible because of the cyanide content.

Hi Jay,

Actually, a little cyanide is good for you, so you *can* eat Prunus sp
and apple & pear seeds, in moderation. I have eaten up to a small
handful at a time, with no ill effects. I wrote about this a few
years ago:

http://farmerscrub.blogspot.com/2007/09/mysteries-of-prunus-revealed.html

I haven't figured out an efficient way to crack out cherry kernels
(plums go a bit faster since they're easier to hold and have a larger
kernel). With cherries I mostly run them through our grain grinder at
a course setting to crack the shells, then throw them to the chickens,
who have a lot more time and patience to sort through it all.

Apple and pear seeds I just eat and chew up along with the fruit,
since they have soft shells.

I crunched some numbers this past year, weighing fresh cherries from
our seedling tree then cracking out their kernels and weighing those.
Assuming the same caloric value for the seeds as provided by almonds,
I found that the cherry kernels had about 50% the calories of the
fruit flesh. (263 calories/pound is the value I found for fresh
cherries, and I calculated you get another 124 calories from the
kernels cracked out from that pound of cherries.)

Norris
Portland, OR
http://farmerscrub.blogspot.com



  • [permaculture] Edibility of seeds of Prunus, apples, pears, Norris Thomlinson, 03/09/2011

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