Zero-Carbon Farming and Living via the Acorn Path

[Bruce Steele]

Amaranth flour. It is good for making a gravy to eat with potatoes
It is also very good with some chocolate syrup . Boil two Tablespoons of flour in 3/4 cup of water until it boils down a bit and thickens up. It will thicken more as it cools. Squirt in some chocolate syrup for interesting pudding with a texture like  tapiocca .

[Bruce Steele]

Etienne, It seemed to work when I posted it and then when I checked later it quit. I was just talking about some projects to use or prepare seed staples like amaranth or dent corn. I also have some acorn flour drying, buckets of pears and peaches to deal with and I finished shelling about ten pounds of tarbais beans for storage. There are sunflowers I am trying to get dried before they get eaten by birds or rodents. Another buckwheat crop has gone to seed , the chickens are now getting about fifty percent buckwheat and I will harvest the next crop for them. Together with some cracked corn I can reduce their feed costs a lot.
 Sorry for a lack of pictures.

[etienne]

https://imgur.com/gallery/h6lR8OL

Amaranth flour. It is good for making a gravy to eat with potatoes
It is also very good with some chocolate syrup . Boil two Tablespoons of flour in 3/4 cup of water until it boils down a bit and thickens up. It will thicken more as it cools. Squirt in some chocolate syrup for interesting pudding with a texture like  tapiocca .

The link doesn't seem to work for me.

[Bruce Steele]

I had a soil analysis done in the area of garden I have posted in pictures. There hasn’t been any conventional fertilizers used and other than surface cultivation , no tillage and No fossil fuel equipment or use. I tested at 10 inches of depth . The advice I got from the soils lab was I needed to add 30lbs. per acre of nitrogen and 50lbs. per acre of phosphorus. I also need to adjust soil ph and adjust zinc and boron but I am really happy to get results back that justify the work but more importantly my methodology. Surface cultivation of  winter legume crop , buckwheat spring cover plus second summer cover crop of buckwheat. Also over the last few years goat manure, oak leaf compost ( with steer manure ) and various vegetable crops of tarbais beans, garbanzo beans, peas, spelt, and  wheat but no serious corn crops for at least five years.
 I have recently planted artichokes , cabbage, broccoli , Brussels sprouts, potatoes , beets , and lettuce in the area tested. I have about six weeks to the first frost but sometimes the frost holds back a few extra weeks. If it freezes I will lose most of it but a light frost will spare most the brassicas.

[Bruce Steele]

https://imgur.com/gallery/WaPXcBD
Amaranth, buckwheat and olotillo corn

[etienne]

Hello Bruce,

A long time ago, we have been talking about cakes. Here a muffin's recipe that I found in the Guardian :

2 parts flour – 200g self-raising flour (or 200g plain flour plus 2 tsp baking powder)
2 parts liquid – 200g mashed brown bananas, apple puree, milk, yoghurt
1 part liquid fat – 100g melted butter, coconut oil or olive oil
1 part eggs – 100g eggs, or about 2 medium ones
1 part sweetener – 100g sugar, honey or maple syrup
Chopped nuts, seeds, chocolate etc, to taste

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/oct/12/how-to-make-muffins-from-store-cupboard-staples-recipes-zero-waste-cooking

Maybe somebody knows how to replace eggs to make it vegan. I guess without eggs it won't hold together as well.

[vox_mundi]

American Indian Center's new Food is Medicine program marks a culinary shift in Chicago
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-american-indian-center-food-medicine.html

The American Indian Center's new Food is Medicine program marks a generational and culinary shift for the cultural center to 65,000 Native Americans in the Chicago area.

But the weekly Wednesday senior lunch is where you'll best see the program in practice, and not only for Native American Chicagoans.

"Anybody's welcome to come," said Paul Molina, chef and project coordinator for the Food is Medicine program. His family background is Mexican and Texas Kickapoo, and he previously worked at the Indigenous Food Lab. The professional kitchen and training center in Minneapolis was co-founded by the award-winning chef Sean Sherman of Owamni, which the James Beard Foundation named Best New Restaurant in 2022.

The Food is Medicine program is sponsored by a grant from the Department of the Interior, Molina said.

He buys dried beans from New Mexico to further keep their grant money in the Native American community.

At the recent senior lunch with the herb-marinated salmon, he made cornbread for dessert with scratch-made Wojapi, a traditional stewed berry blend, balanced with an untraditional lemon curd.

"We had braised bison with a blackberry mole sauce. We had roasted rabbit with a spiced cranberry sauce. We had a woodland mushroom wild rice stuffing," said Jessica Walks First, owner and executive chef of Ketapanen Kitchen.

Ketapanen Kitchen is a full-service cultural immersion experience.

"We do bison blueberry, rabbit carrot mole and wild turkey chipotle," Walks First said.

She also offered an apple beet harvest salad with maple vinaigrette, and for dessert, a blueberry cake with warm wojapi pudding and cream.

"All those foods have medicinal properties," she said. "But our food is medicine in a different way. It's medicine that creates connection, that can heal the spirit and the heart. Sharing a meal is sacred. Preparing a meal for people is sacred. Feeding people is sacred. And all of those things are healing acts. So that's the other spectrum of medicine when it comes to Indigenous food."

"But with that mission, it's also to bring the stories," she added. "The education component is very important as well. It's probably the most important piece, because so much of our history has been obliterated or falsely written."

https://indigenousvalues.org/haudenosaunee-values/skanonh-great-law-of-peace-center/

https://indigenousvalues.org/contributions/native-american-foods-medicines/

https://indigenousvalues.org/haudenosaunee-values/

[vox_mundi]

Growing Grains and Legumes In the Same Fields Could Be a Win-Win for Crop Performance and Sustainability
https://phys.org/news/2024-11-grains-legumes-fields-crop-sustainability.html

An innovative experiment growing perennial cereal grains and legumes in the same fields is sprouting benefits for crop performance and sustainability, according to a new University of Alberta study appearing in the Journal of Animal Science.

Using two seeding methods in different climatic regions across Alberta, researchers were able to show reliably consistent levels of forage productivity and quality when two types of the grains were grown alongside three legumes.

Forage—the green stems and leaves left in fields after grain is harvested—is a source of fiber necessary for ruminants like cattle.

... "The legumes naturally supply nitrogen to the soil, improve the organic matter and improve the forage quality for livestock. At the same time, perennial cereal plants have deep root systems, which helps sequester more carbon and makes them more drought-resistant than annual crops, which is important in Alberta's dry climate," notes Ugwu.

The two perennial cereal grains, rye and wheatgrass, and three legumes, alfalfa, white clover and a species called sainfoin—all commonly grown as single crops in Alberta—were planted at the U of A's Breton Plots and five other sites across the province, using both alternate and same-row seeding methods. The resulting crops were then evaluated for forage yield and nutritional value.

The experiment showed that both seeding methods were favorable for reliable forage production across the diverse sites ranging from northern to southern Alberta, with the alternate row method showing a slight increase of 5.3% in yield during the first year of harvest, in 2023.

The researchers also found that the combined crops "had a noticeable impact on key nutritional aspects of the forage," resulting in adequate concentrations of key elements such as crude protein and total digestible nutrients, he adds.

"Legumes typically contain more protein than grasses, which boosts the overall protein content of the forage mix, making it more nutritious for livestock," Ugwu notes. Forages that include legumes are also tastier and often easier for animals to digest, he adds.

Cosmas Ugwu et al, PSXII-4 Intercropping perennial cereal grain crops in alternate or same row seeding method for improved forage yield and quality, Journal of Animal Science (2024)
https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/102/Supplement_3/608/7757803?login=false

[Bruce Steele]

Holm Oak mast has begun. I raked up about 100 lbs.of nuts this afternoon. Hard to tell the amount until you sort out the leaves and gravel. There are still lots of acorns in the trees.
I have been collecting acorns from a Calif. Live oak in my front yard this year also. It has nice big acorns but leaching time increases by about double. I also collected some Tan oak acorns last year.Tan oak acorns are very large and the flavor is pretty good also. I have been making flour from the tan oaks for the last couple months.
This years crop of holm oaks acorns are larger sized than last year. Last year there were lots and lots of very small holm oak acorns, a questionable bounty. They are still in storage and soon headed to the pigs to sort out.
 I was twice hit today by falling acorns, they plunk off car roofs and the assorted RVs parked under the trees.  On the next windy day they will drop in volumes. I met the arborist in the RV park where I collect acorns. We talked about traditional uses of acorns and he was happy the acorns were feeding some pigs. The pigs are happy too. And raking acorns is fun, and easy and very dependable year after year. So I wonder why we walked away from including them in our diets ?
I had a bag of acorn flour processed from Tan oaks and the arborist was willing to taste some. There are many ways to turn acorn flour into baked goods but somehow the Oak tree, to acorn, to flour needs some effort at creating a circle of recognition and desire.

 

[Bruce Steele]

There is a picture in this article with a round table filled with some of this seasons crops and pictures of my grubby hands. Walnuts, acorns, two kinds of corn, tarbais beans, cactus, buckwheat, amaranth, soft white wheat and hard red wheat, purple barley, jet barley, pears, persimmons , sunflowers. No fossil fuel used except to drive to forage acorns and walnuts.
 I have been thinking of each crop as a process to know how to grow, how to harvest and dry, how to process into a flour , and then how to use each make something that tastes good. I made buckwheat soba noddles, baklava with honey from hives wintered here, foraged walnuts, and whole-wheat philo made from hard red wheat I grew.
 Drought years make for very good drying conditions so my acorn stash is already sun  dried and ready to put inside the shed. We are eating acorns in stews , acorn persimmon cookies, and using the acorn starch for chocolate pudding.
https://www.independent.com/2025/01/08/from-gourmet-pork-to-subsistence-farming

[Neven]

Thanks for a really interesting and well-written article, Bruce. My wife and I hope to do 'The Challenge' one day as well. We come close for some summer weeks, and a little bit closer each year, but it's not the real thing.

[Bruce Steele]

Neven, Getting close is important ! I don’t think I will ever repeat the austerity of the first year when Organic SU , my wife and I started in without preparations . It is so much easier if the summer beforehand you squirrel away some kind of dried grain crop(s) and nuts. Also the variety of multiple dried crops and various preparations makes for tastier meals .
 The weird sugar withdrawals were worth the austerity just so I know that sugar represents an addiction. Not just to know that sugar is an addiction but feel the pull of it.
 I am glad your wife enjoys the garden efforts, some day you will try leaching some acorns ?
 Well if you had to you would for sure. Just identifying the various oak trees is a start.
   I raked up a couple hundred pounds today in about an hour.
May your garden grow well this year.

[etienne]

Great article for great achievements. It's a little bit sad the way the story of your pigs ends.
I'm not even getting close, and this year the slugs destroyed so much that I am even behind the last years. My wife is sick, it doesn't help either.
Well, it will soon be the time to start again.

[Bruce Steele]

Etienne, I think about the pigs a lot . There have only been five boar lines of Swallowbelly Mangalitsa ever imported into North America. I kept four of those lines here on my farm for a dozen years , so far. My farm represents the largest herd of these rare genetics in the US so it is kinda my responsibility to make sure their genetics have a good a chance at survival after my farming days are done. I exported three lines to Canada and from there the bloodlines were exported to Mexico.Over the last two years  I  trailered about twenty young boars and gilts to Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota . Others have gone to Oregon and Washington.  I delivered a couple boars to another ranch today , genetics that will really help their herd, and I still have several that need to find new homes.
 I am a stockman but getting old means getting out gracefully and leaving anyone who isn’t a stockman with a big herd of pigs isn’t kind to the pigs … or your relatives. So although I am getting smaller I will still have some pigs around. They are the only organic cure I ever found for Kukuya ,Crab grass and Morning glory . They just dig till they have eaten Everything!  Then you move the pigs, flatten out all the giant holes they dug, apply compost , and replant pasture and then a garden again.
 There have been two people ( gardeners ) who called after the article came out. One lady who will visit tomorrow figured out I was a minimalist and wants to see the farm. She is into biodynamic gardening. The other call was from someone who was interested in growing dried staples and had some experience in growing them “ back East “ . 
 I have tons of oak leaves and woodchips from a landscaper but it hasn’t rained a drop to get the pile to cook . It is freaky dry right now. Last year the compost pile got enough rain to work but this year I am going to need to water it . We are expecting a hard freeze next week , the  winter garden may get whacked. Everything is good in the garden for now .
 I think I did OK by the pigs. I enjoyed their company.

[El Cid]

...I will still have some pigs around. They are the only organic cure I ever found for Kukuya ,Crab grass and Morning glory . They just dig till they have eaten Everything!  Then you move the pigs, flatten out all the giant holes they dug, apply compost , and replant pasture and then a garden again.

...

That's great! That's what they do in Nature, that's their job and joy. That's how we should integrate animals into farming. Let them do what they like to do, we only need to steer them to places where we want them to work. All would be happy.

Great job Bruce, congrats!

[oren]

Very nice pictures Bruce. Sorry I lack the time to read the whole thing though seems well written, but had to comment on the visuals.

[Florifulgurator]

(...) They are the only organic cure I ever found for Kukuya ,Crab grass and Morning glory . They just dig till they have eaten Everything!  Then you move the pigs, flatten out all the giant holes they dug, apply compost , and replant pasture and then a garden again.
 (...)

I love it. My dream... They are almost a total herbicide. Plus some fat bug larvae as a special treat. And the tail happily totates. Seen it at a friend's organic farm here in Bavaria: The only plant that remained was one Sorrel (Rumex acetosa). Else all black and clean.

[Bruce Steele]

https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-farmers/

This is an amazing series about how wheat was produced and used . It is written from worldwide historical accounts and delves into how subsistence farmers produced and used grains . Subsistence farms were small and provided for family groups , parents ( with the most strength to do the work ) grandparents, and children.
It also covers sharecroppers, and the larger landowners who used oxen or horses and sold grains into the cities.
Subsistence farmers didn’t sell their crops , or sold very little as what they could produce with hand labor limited size of what they farmed. They also needed to hedge their bets and plant a variety of crops to help insure against failure. Large farms could mono crop the most valuable crop and buy what they needed otherwise on the market.

Maybe nothing ever changes. It seems to me the subsistence farmers were the freest of all but lived always with a need to prepare for and avoid famine/ hunger. So they were free to make choices about crops and timing but one built on generations farming the same way, in the same place.
I think this freedom to make choices about personal survival brings with it a sense of pride that somehow history books written by city folks never captures. History often says merchants were kinda looked down on , and bankers, and this series gets into some of the reasons why. But yes the subsistence farmers too, looked down on them although nowhere explicit in this series.