Fw: Land required for vegan self sufficiency- questions & food for thought...

[Guest guest]

From discussion on veganism & self sufficiency at the alt.permaculture

newsgroup...

anybody else got any ideas or information on these issues? esp, experience of

growing/cropping nuts in less than ideal (ie, not sunny south of England)

conditions...

 

Cheers

 

Graham

 

 

-

Graham Burnett <grahamburnett

Newsgroups: alt.permaculture

Thursday, November 01, 2001 3:24 PM

Re: Land required for vegan self sufficiency- questions & food for

thought...

 

 

>

> Fran <maura wrote in message

> news:9rq01q$va3ll$1.

> > " Janet Baraclough " <janet.and.john wrote in message

> >

> > > The implications for self sufficient vegans relying on a steady

> > > annual crop of nuts and sunflower seeds for protein are obvious;

> >

> > Wouldn't nuts and suflowers be pretty important for vegans for the

> necessary

> > fat content given that most of us get the bit we need from other sources

> > which vegans don't use? Iirc, children need much more fat for (brain???)

> > development than adults do.

> >

>

> Hi Fran,

>

> My Vegan Sources Of Nutrition wallchart lists the following 'essential fat'

> sources (just pops through to the kitchen...) " Vegetable oils, esp. soya,

> corn, sunflowers, avocados, nuts, olive oil " . It also mentions hemp and flax

> oil. So we've got a mixture of things there, some can be grown in the Uk,

> some not. There's not anything there that it would make sense to try and

> grow or process on any sort of self-sufficient scale IMHO though. Some have

> potential for development, which might be a good project for somebody in the

> permaculture movement....

>

> I've just dug out Permaculture magazine (UK) issues 15 & 16 which have a 2

> part article on growing nuts in Britain by Ray Brown of Nutwood Nurseries, a

> couple of extracts on the issue of climatic tolerance & possible potential

> read;

>

> Hazel; " Worldwide, hazels are very adaptable and some species grow within

> sight of the arctic circle. in China, Canada & The UsA, these hardy species

> have been used used in breeding programmes with high yielding varieities to

> extend the range of hazel nut production. Wild cold hardy species like

> Corylus americana have been crossed with commercial varieties to produce new

> cold tolerant varieties... "

>

> Chestnuts; " ...grow well in the southern half of the UK, particularly on

> slight acid soils. In general they require a warm summer to produce useful

> size fruit. extensive stands of seedling trees in Norfolk, Staffordshire,

> Gloucstershire and many other counties produce small but acceptable nuts

> most years........ Various hybrids of the European, Japanese and American

> chestnuts have been introduced to try to improve disease resistance, nut

> size and extend the useful range of these trees. "

>

> Walnut; " The european walnut (Juglans regia) originated in Asia Minor and

> evolved in 2 directions. The so called Persian Walnut........ requires hot

> summers. The Carpathian walnut however, migrated through the Catrpathian

> mountains of Hungary & poland. It is much more cold tolerant, and was

> introduced to Canada where it has been selected for productivity, relatively

> small size and self fertility. "

>

> In the second part of the article he lists some less usual nuts which have

> the potential to be more productive in the UK, and would offer sources of

> protien, essential fats, calcium and other nutrients in the vegan diet,

> including;

> Almond; Monkey puzzle; Hickory; ginkgo balbao; Pine Nuts & yellow horn.

>

> Then there are also Beech nuts (too fiddly to be arsed with in my opinion as

> a food source, but might make sense to harvest on a larger scale for their

> oil) & Acorns (I've harvested & used these- rather glutinous & better mixed

> with other nuts in roasts etc in my opinion, also their (oak) cropping habit

> is unreliable, giving worthwhile yields only in 'mast years', although in

> 'Permaculture In a Nutshell' Patrick Whitefield writes of an oak that yields

> a sweeter acorn and may have potential to crop more reliably (I don't have

> the article to hand however)) .

>

> There's an article (not in depth) on nuts in the UK from a vegan perspective

> at http://www.btinternet.com/~bury_rd/nuts.htm

>

> When I'm a bit richer I'd love to take out a sub and buy a few more

> Agroforestry Research Trust publications...

>

> In a way I think from a permaculture perspective the question shouldn't be

> so much " how do we grow such & such a nut in the UK " , more " how do we find

> as many diverse ways as possible of providing x, y & z nutritional

> requirements for human health & well being in the most sustainable,

> earthright & self reliant methods possible " , which opens up a much wider

> range of possibilities for all of us, vegan or not. ('multiple back ups for

> all functions' principle...)

>

> BTW, what does iirc mean? I think I worked it once but now I've

> forgotten....

>

> Cheers for now

>

> Graham

>

>