Feeling like an idiot
Mar. 8th, 2007 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenI've been slowly reading through _Earth Magic_, by Frances Hitching (1976). It's on megaliths, and was pretty groundbreaking, as he did research on the archaeology, the history of what people thought they were -- both scientifically and otherwise, etc. Info about the various early cultures gets mentioned, as part of showing how advanced - or not - a people were. One thing I came across today was what is now called "multi use conservation".
He quotes from Peter Farb's book _Man's Rise to Civilization_:
"The Eastern Archaic peoples used 275 species of plants for medicine; 130 for food, 31 as magical charms, 27 for smoking, 25 for dyes, 18 in beverages and for flavoring, and 52 others for various purposes. No animal or any particular group of animals was singled out for exploitation..."
So, by adapting to their surroundings and being open to using/consuming a wide variety of plants and animals, they didn't tax their environment. Pretty cool, huh?
So, here's where I feel like an idiot. I've been planning on growing more veggies and stuff this summer, canning some of the extra for sure, and maybe freezing stuff if we can get an energy star freezer for not too much, and drying apples, and other things from the farmers markets (since I don't have an apricot tree and no place to put one here anyway).
Not once have I considered growing and drying peas or beans of any type. They're really quite a logical thing to grow and store. They store more compactly than canning or freezing does, and don't need refrigeration (just need to be kept dry). So why didn't I consider them? Because I don't know how to cook with dried peas, beans, lentils, etc. *sigh*
So, I guess I need to poke around cookbooks and stuff, and find out how to cook the darn things... I know I like lentil soup, at least. The rest of it.... I have no idea if I'll like them or not. But variety is a good thing, better for one's diet and better for the environment, so I'll at least try it. Oy.
He quotes from Peter Farb's book _Man's Rise to Civilization_:
"The Eastern Archaic peoples used 275 species of plants for medicine; 130 for food, 31 as magical charms, 27 for smoking, 25 for dyes, 18 in beverages and for flavoring, and 52 others for various purposes. No animal or any particular group of animals was singled out for exploitation..."
So, by adapting to their surroundings and being open to using/consuming a wide variety of plants and animals, they didn't tax their environment. Pretty cool, huh?
So, here's where I feel like an idiot. I've been planning on growing more veggies and stuff this summer, canning some of the extra for sure, and maybe freezing stuff if we can get an energy star freezer for not too much, and drying apples, and other things from the farmers markets (since I don't have an apricot tree and no place to put one here anyway).
Not once have I considered growing and drying peas or beans of any type. They're really quite a logical thing to grow and store. They store more compactly than canning or freezing does, and don't need refrigeration (just need to be kept dry). So why didn't I consider them? Because I don't know how to cook with dried peas, beans, lentils, etc. *sigh*
So, I guess I need to poke around cookbooks and stuff, and find out how to cook the darn things... I know I like lentil soup, at least. The rest of it.... I have no idea if I'll like them or not. But variety is a good thing, better for one's diet and better for the environment, so I'll at least try it. Oy.
