Eating Cycads
Feb. 26th, 2020 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith ... can require a tremendous amount of effort. They contain toxins -- some species and parts more than others, according to some other sources I've seen. Since cycads are very well adapted to conditions that will expand along with climate change, knowing how to eat them could make the difference in survival. Again.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-26 10:15 pm (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-26 10:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-26 11:07 pm (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2020-02-27 12:22 am (UTC)* Our pollinators are crashing.
** This could wipe out a third of global food supply.
* The climate is changing.
** ... away from what our food crops like.
** ... back toward what cycads like.
As these trends progress, it is likely that our current food crops will diminish while cycads increase. Since cycads are edible if extensively processed, we had damn well better preserve that process while we still can, or the starving survivors will get to reinvent "trial and deadly error" hoping they figure it out before they all die.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2020-02-27 01:29 am (UTC)It's amazing how many plants are "mash/grind it up, leach with lots of water until it runs clear". Sago, cycads, manioc, etc.
The result is usually flavorless mush, but it's at least a source of starches and some other nutrients. Fry it up as flatbread or do other things like are mentioned in the article.
Also with the "extensive leaching required" stuff, if I had the spare pots and fuel, I'd be tempted to collect the leachate and concentrate it. I know that rotenone is what you get from doing that with manioc, dunno about sago or cycads, but it's worth trying.
fish "poison" can be useful if food is short.
ps. poison ivy is edible if boiled in several changes of water (this is known due to a bet some outdoorsmen made). Dunno how nutritious it is, and the taste is apparently "not much", but...
Re: Well ...
Date: 2020-02-27 02:06 am (UTC)>> It's amazing how many plants are "mash/grind it up, leach with lots of water until it runs clear". Sago, cycads, manioc, etc. <<
That's true. The trick is now much washing a given food requires to become safe.
*ponder* I would also try fermenting. Digestion by microbes makes many things more edible.
>> The result is usually flavorless mush, but it's at least a source of starches and some other nutrients. Fry it up as flatbread or do other things like are mentioned in the article.<<
Flavorless mush is great if you have other things to mix with it. This is greatly preferable to foods that are edible but bitter or off-flavored.
>>Also with the "extensive leaching required" stuff, if I had the spare pots and fuel, I'd be tempted to collect the leachate and concentrate it. I know that rotenone is what you get from doing that with manioc, dunno about sago or cycads, but it's worth trying.<<
Point.
>> fish "poison" can be useful if food is short.<<
There are other uses too. See "Rhododendron Honey."
>> ps. poison ivy is edible if boiled in several changes of water (this is known due to a bet some outdoorsmen made). Dunno how nutritious it is, and the taste is apparently "not much", but... <<
O_O I'm not sure that would be edible for someone allergic to poison ivy, which is most but not all people. Useful in an emergency for the non-allergic perhaps.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2020-02-27 04:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-27 04:03 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-27 05:18 am (UTC)I agree, that's a great idea.
>> As suggestions, I'll offer acorns, hosta plants,<<
I didn't know you could eat hostas!
>> mice, <<
Pigeon ya roast, rat ya boil.
My grandfather used to talk about eating "roof rabbit." (Cat.) I'm not sure how serious he was, but it's been done.
>> most animals excluding polar bear liver, <<
Note that herbivores taste better and are safer to eat than omnivores or carnivores.
>> termite grubs, <<
Many insects are edible in some form.
Crickets can be used to make flour, although I was unimpressed by the texture of the cricket energy bites we tried. I could've eaten more if I was hungry enough though.
>> sorrel, clover, and dandilions.<<
I love sorrel. I'd have to be damn hungry to eat dandelions.
But my reaction to seeing clover sprouts in the store was "Clover! That I do not have to spend all day digging and washing and seasoning! I can just buy some!"
You can take the caveman out of the cave, but you can't take the memories out of the caveman. LOL Clover sprouts used to be such a delicacy. I am so planning to throw these in a salad some time.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-27 05:33 am (UTC)I don't know if it is edible raw, all the instructions are for cooking. Apparently it is sometimes eaten in Japan.
I one had the experience of explaining to someone that they should not talk about eating cat in my country (America) and if they did, people would think they were "dangerous crazy." (The person was originally from what I suspect was a really 'financially disadvantaged' background in Haiti.) It was specified that they do /not/ eat pets. This was a particurally... interesting... topic given that my cats are basically my babies.
I'll also submit for consideration the idea of stretching food through /preparation/: soups, stews, broth, stir-fry, and pretty much any ideas you can jury-rig from cuisines used in impovershed or overpopulated areas. (Some methods, like making broth, can use parts that would otherwise be discarded, like bones or veggie peels.)
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-27 05:39 am (UTC)In fact this is a planned phase after the Big One. Blues Moon does presentations on "Yes, You Can Eat That!" for things like beet tops that people usually throw away. Losing most of its produce in one fell swoop for 2016 requires T-America to make maximum use of the surviving and jerryrigged food supplies. By all means prompt for this if you wish to explore the idea. :D
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-27 05:51 am (UTC)Maybe Aiden could do something with wildcrafting or famine foods as well. (I bet Drew would like to learn about wildcrafting and food forests. Maybe he -and/or Cas- could help Cook with the demos, too.)
Maybe something about how to butcher a kill safely, as well. I remember there was something in the Strange Family thread...
Speaking of vegetable peels, sid you know you can make a nice little oil lamp from a fresh citrus peel?
1 Cut fruit in half along 'equator'.
2 Remove flesh. And juice.
3 You should have a little nub of tough skinlike tossue sticking up in the middle. Put a tiny twist of paper towel in it - this is the wick.
4 fill with a little olive oil.
5 Light! And don't forget the fire safety.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-28 06:56 am (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-28 06:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-02-27 04:31 am (UTC)This is how potatoes went from being pig food to fit only for royalty in under a year (they put the potatoes under a royal guard, and thus introduced them to Europe.)
Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-27 05:11 am (UTC)Actually, this could work for any food that is reasonably acceptable. Probably easier with something like a vegan food than crickets though.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-27 05:40 am (UTC)If you want people to eat crickets, try disguising it (cricket powder or paste) and/or mixing it with a more palatable food as a filler (chocolate-cricket protein shake). Then again we eat lobster (giant sea bugs) and clams (oceanic drain filters), so why not try for bugs?
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-02-27 05:41 am (UTC)