Guest guest Posted December 8, 2011 Report Share Posted December 8, 2011 http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/living-with-phytic-acid The above mentions preparation of the hickory nut. I'm reading the book 1491 which was praised by Salatin, excerpt below: ********** Between these fields was the forest, which the Indians were subjecting to parallel changes. Sometime in the first millennium A.D., the Indians who had burned undergrowth to facilitate grazing began systematically replanting large belts of woodland, transforming them into orchards for fruit and mast (the general name for hickory nuts, beechnuts, acorns, butternuts, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, and chestnuts). Chestnut was particularly popular – not the imported European chestnut roasted on Manhattan street corners in the fall, but the smaller, soft-shelled, deeply sweet native American chestnut, now almost extinguished by chestnut blight. In colonial times, as many as one out of every four trees in between southeastern Canada and Georgia was a chestnut – partly the result, it would seem, of Indian burning and planting. Hickory was another favorite. Rambling through the Southeast in the 1770s, the naturalist Bartram observed Creek families storing a hundred bushels of hickory nuts at a time. " They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserve the most oily part of the liquid " to make a thick milk, " as sweet and rich as fresh cream, an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and corncakes. " Years ago a friend and I were served hickory milk in rural Georgia by an eccentric backwoods artist named St. EOM who claimed Creek descent. Despite the unsanitary presentation, the milk was ambrosial – fragrantly nutty, delightfully heavy on the tongue, unlike anything I had encountered. Within a few centuries, the Indians of the eastern forest reconfigured much of their landscape from a patchwork game park to a mix of farmland and orchards. Enough forest was left to allow for hunting, but agriculture was an increasing presence. The result was a new " balance of nature. " From today's perspective, the success of the transition is striking. It was so sweeping and ubiquitous that early European visitors marveled at the number of nut and fruit trees and the big clearings with only a dim apprehension that the two might be due to the same human source. One reason that Bartram failed to understand the artificiality of what he saw was that the surgery was almost without scars; the new landscape functioned smoothly, with few of the over-reaches that plagued English land management. Few of the over-reaches, but not none … Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 8, 2011 Report Share Posted December 8, 2011 Read that book!!!! On 12/8/11 3:39 PM, " calcitanium " <calcitanium@...> wrote: > > > > > > http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/living-with-phytic-acid > > The above mentions preparation of the hickory nut. I'm reading the book 1491 > which was praised by Salatin, excerpt below: > > ********** > > Between these fields was the forest, which the Indians were subjecting to > parallel changes. Sometime in the first millennium A.D., the Indians who had > burned undergrowth to facilitate grazing began systematically replanting large > belts of woodland, transforming them into orchards for fruit and mast (the > general name for hickory nuts, beechnuts, acorns, butternuts, hazelnuts, > pecans, walnuts, and chestnuts). Chestnut was particularly popular – not the > imported European chestnut roasted on Manhattan street corners in the fall, > but the smaller, soft-shelled, deeply sweet native American chestnut, now > almost extinguished by chestnut blight. In colonial times, as many as one out > of every four trees in between southeastern Canada and Georgia was a chestnut > – partly the result, it would seem, of Indian burning and planting. > > Hickory was another favorite. Rambling through the Southeast in the 1770s, > the naturalist Bartram observed Creek families storing a hundred > bushels of hickory nuts at a time. " They pound them to pieces, and then cast > them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserve > the most oily part of the liquid " to make a thick milk, " as sweet and rich as > fresh cream, an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and > corncakes. " Years ago a friend and I were served hickory milk in rural Georgia > by an eccentric backwoods artist named St. EOM who claimed Creek descent. > Despite the unsanitary presentation, the milk was ambrosial – fragrantly > nutty, delightfully heavy on the tongue, unlike anything I had encountered. > > Within a few centuries, the Indians of the eastern forest reconfigured much of > their landscape from a patchwork game park to a mix of farmland and orchards. > Enough forest was left to allow for hunting, but agriculture was an increasing > presence. The result was a new " balance of nature. " > > From today's perspective, the success of the transition is striking. It was so > sweeping and ubiquitous that early European visitors marveled at the number of > nut and fruit trees and the big clearings with only a dim apprehension that > the two might be due to the same human source. One reason that Bartram failed > to understand the artificiality of what he saw was that the surgery was almost > without scars; the new landscape functioned smoothly, with few of the > over-reaches that plagued English land management. Few of the over-reaches, > but not none … > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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