Re: Re: traditional fermentation (was: oxalates/oxalic acid)

[Guest guest]

>Now I know what to do with all those damned seal flippers that keep

>stacking up.

I went on my annual " cow hunt " Monday and spent the evening

with a farmer who used to work on a supply run to the Inuit.

He described their favorite " party food " ... you take a seal skin,

skinned in one piece off the seal, leaving the fat intact. Then you

catch little birds, and put the whole bird inside the seal skin,

adding birds during the summer as you catch them, until the skin

is full. The skin is sealed and buried. Then at party time, they pull

out the fermented birds, suck out the insides out of the feathered

skin.

Then, the feathered skin is saved to use as insulation in jackets etc.

He said they keep just fine, no need to do further processing.

He didn't try any himself though. He did try muktuk, whale blubber,

said it tasted just like regular beef fat to him.

He said they got their entire year's supply of food in one run, and

all they got was white flour, sugar, and one other thing (coffee maybe?).

Mostly they were still living off the land and sea at that point. Which

is interesting, because there is no way that the flour and sugar would

be their *main* source of calories or nutrition at that rate, so any

health decline they suffered would be more than simple lack of

nutrients.

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

Heidi-

>Then at party time, they pull

>out the fermented birds, suck out the insides out of the feathered

>skin.

What does that mean, that the birds have liquified inside their skins?

-

[Guest guest]

>>Then at party time, they pull

>>out the fermented birds, suck out the insides out of the feathered

>>skin.

>

>What does that mean, that the birds have liquified inside their skins?

>

>-

That's what it sounded like to me. He said they spit out the bones, so I

guess the bones don't liquify. He was kind of acting it out, putting

the bird up to his lips and slurping, squeezing it out like toothpaste.

(He didn't try any himself though, he said)

Heidi Jean