Nuts & Seeds

[kmguru]

People do not like to eat variety of rice or wheat etc directly. For example, you could have bought short grain, medium grain and long grain rice say 15 years ago. Now, you can only buy long grain in the local store. It is the Wal-Mart effect where Wal-Mart only stores what is bought at the top of the list and drops the product that comes in second or third.

So, the variety gets smaller and smaller. One solution is that, use the variety to blend or otherwise produce final products. Such as use different Mangos to make the juice. Or use various grains to extract protein.

That way we can maintain the diversity. But who is going to promote this?

 

[Myles]

Small spread, but a small house too so there's room to plant.
I've managed to squeeze in about 20 fruit trees and six eucalypts, some of my faves, I planted a Sydney bluegum ( shit name for a majestic tree), it grew at 3 metres a year through a wicked drought and I could climb it to a height of 4-5 metres after only a few years. I have a spotted gum which grew even faster and has finally got its spots after 5 years.

These are spotted gums from local forest, incidentally, the fernlike guys in the foreground are the cycads ( Macrozamia communis) which has the poisonous nuts.

My Scribbly gum is yet to get its scribbles but my ironbark is irony ( no particular irony in this comment except that if there was any it would be lost on me anyway) and my peppermint gum is fully pepperminty and my West Australian flowering gum is a mass of deep crimson right on Christmas.

That looks great. I just hope you have enough room for a few tons of potatoes.

 

[Orleander]

are spotted gums part of the sycamore family? We have some here and the bark looks the same.

 

[S.A.M.]

Millet was once more inportant than at least wheat (comparable to rice) but is labor intensive to harvest. Some foresighted people working in the Indian agriculture area are trying, with modest success, to get millet returned to the commercial market - mainly via "health food stores," where the higher price will be accepted as millet is more vitamine and mineral rich than wheat. - All in all, millet is a superior cerial food, except for the slightly higher production cost.

We eat millets also as a matter of tradition. e.g. with some vegetable, we like to eat bajra or jowar rotis (breads).

Bajra aka Pearl millet

Recipe for bajra roti

Jowar aka Sorghum

Recipe for jowar roti

Next to the Wiki text, quoted above, are several photos. One shows the small round light-tan balls (seeds) I speculated were millet in prior "bird post." Now I am sure that millet is the best tasting of about 15 different seeds, if you are a Cockatiel. I will try to get some for testing how they taste to me.

I love the taste of bajra roti, it has a smoky sweet flavor and goes marvelously with garlic chutney or simply with yoghurt.

I also love love love the taste of green jowar, the best way to eat it is pick it fresh, and roast it dry over a slow fire. Or just eat it fresh.

 

[Orleander]

are cattails part of the millet family?

 

[S.A.M.]

I think the cattail is a flower, but I may be mistaken

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Are spotted gums part of the sycamore family? We have some here and the bark looks the same.

Gum trees are eucalypts. There are three genera of eucalypts, Eucalyptus itself, Angophora and Corymbia. "Spotted gum" can refer to four different species of Corymbia.

Gum trees or eucalypts comprise three genera in the immensely prolific order of myrtle trees, which has thousands of species spread over 150 genera. Eucalypts are characterized by aromatic oils, and are called gum trees because many species copiously leak thick sap when wounded. They have evolved to occupy every climate zone and ecological niche in Australia, and in fact no other continent is so well defined by a single type of tree. I'd call them the marsupials of the Plant kingdom.

In most of the world "sycamore" is a name applied to either the giant maple or one species of fig, but in North America it refers to the dozen or so species of the genus Platanus, or "plane trees," of the magnolia order. Magnolias and myrtles are only distantly related.

 

[Myles]

Hey! Why is your cockatoo in my nuts?!

This is a nut/seed/drupe thread.

A cockatoo has no place here. We should be talking about canaries, particular like your husband who eats all those seeds. Do you put a cover over him at night to keep him quiet ? I bet you call him Tweetie Pie, ha, ha

 

[Billy T]

Hi SAM:

Thanks for the photos and millet related lnks.

I had assumed from fact that in the English translation of the ingredients list of my commercial bird seed bag that has "millet" as the first listed ingredient and fact that the little round* light-tan spherical seeds in bag were most numerous seed there that they were "pearl millet" seeds; however, photo at your link to pearl millet does not show these round spheres. Also the color in your posted sorhgum (aka jowar) photo is nearly the same as my bird's favorate seed.

Is sorhgum a form of millet? both are in the same "family level" (Poaceae)

It seems clear you eat sorhgum raw: " also love love love the taste of green jowar, ... Or just eat it fresh."

Can /do you eat bajra (aka pearl millet) raw too?
------------------
*Not exactly spheres - slightly like an American foot ball in shape, but no flat spots as in the link's photo of "pearl millet."

 

[S.A.M.]

I had assumed from fact that in the English translation of the ingredients list of my commercial bird seed bag that has "millet" as the first listed ingredient and fact that the little round* light-tan spherical seeds in bag were most numerous seed there that they were "pearl millet" seeds; however, photo at your link to pearl millet does not show these round spheres. Also the color in your posted sorhgum (aka jowar) photo is nearly the same as my bird's favorate seed.

Its very rare for me to have an opportunity to eat raw fresh jowar, like raw fresh wheat, its a luxury that mostly farmers can avail of. Usually we get the flour, when I was younger, we used to buy the seeds and get them milled near our home, now we buy the milled flour in commercial packaging.

Bajra flour turns bitter on keeping and is best used immediately after milling.

Here is a close up of bajra seeds

Jowar is also available as phaunk, which can be soaked and rehydrated

Fresh paunk can be served as is but the more popular way is to mix it up like chaat, with some red chilli powder and some salt, a dash of lemon juice, garnished with some spicy sev and cilantro.

Is sorhgum a form of millet? both are in the same "family level" (Poaceae)

Yes.

http://indianfoodrocks.blogspot.com/2007/10/take-chance-on-this.html

 

[Asguard]

Fraggle Rocker i never realised gum trees existed anywhere else except by introduction

Did you know that gum trees are highly dangirous for 2 reasons
1) they have a habbit of droping limbs for no reason. NEVER set up a tent or park a car under them, they are called "widdow makers" or "widdow trees" for a very good reason.
2) in a bushfire they EXPLODE, the oil in them burns VERY hot which makes them a dangor to everyone fighting them

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Fraggle Rocker i never realised gum trees existed anywhere else except by introduction

Eucalyptus are only native to Australia and a few nearby islands no farther away than the Philippines. But they have been introduced to every continent except Europe and Australia. China and India cultivate them for timber. They thrive in the American Southwest with its Australia-like terrain and climate. Southern Arizona and southern California are covered with them. That inscrutable line in the Eagles' anthem "Hotel California" about the "warm smell of calitas" that people have been trying to interpret for thirty years? I always thought they were saying "eucalyptus" with their Texas accent. I always sang it that way and nobody complained.

Did you know that gum trees are highly dangirous for 2 reasons
1) they have a habbit of droping limbs for no reason. NEVER set up a tent or park a car under them, they are called "widdow makers" or "widdow trees" for a very good reason.

They were the only big trees around our house in Arizona when I was little. They did occasionally drop a branch. I don't know what species they were but they were very tall and straight without a lot of branches so when one fell it wasn't too heavy. The eucalyptus in California do more branching.

2) in a bushfire they EXPLODE, the oil in them burns VERY hot which makes them a dangor to everyone fighting them

I never thought about that but it makes sense. If you call something a "gum tree" it's probably full of "gum"

I thought they were also poisonous and only koalas could eat their leaves. That's why if you get close to one he smells like a giant cough drop.

 

[Asguard]

they are poisiones but they do make great tea

you boil a billy over the coals with a gum branch and a couple of tea bags, its DELIOUS

As for gums droping branches, they do and they can kill. The worst of it is that they will drop for no reason. Even if its dead still a gum could drop its branches

Have you ever herd the myth of the drop bear?
Its something we tell tourists in order to scare the shit out of them and then we tell them all sorts of nonsience like they have to put vegimite behind there ears to protect themselves and what not. The point is however that the rought of this myth comes from a way to stop people camping under gum trees. It seems every year we here about some nutcase who has set up shop under a gum tree only to have it drop a branch on his head (and by branch i dont mean a couple of twigs, they snap off at the trunk)

Oh and about that "gum" all plants have sap. Its just that the gum trees comes out like a sticky amber. However if you have ever seen tea tree oil (another australian tree) or eucalyptus oil burn you wouldnt forget it. Its VERY flamable, so much so that you can actually put green leaves from the eucalyptus and green branches from the tea tree directly onto a camp fire and they will burn (and burn HOT, i have actually seen flames 1.5m high from a normal sized camp fire because some idiot dumped leaves on it). In a bush fire once the fire gets into the leaves of the gum trees it becomes a fire storm leaping from tree to tree and buring incrediably hot. However its when the trees start exploding your in REAL danger. This is why we sent the US fire fighters a couple of years ago, because the yanks couldnt contain the californian bushfires (they had got into a gum plantation aparently) so we lent you some volenteers who had experiance dealing with gum fires

Oh and if you think im pulling your leg ask bells or james or any other aussie here.

 

[Billy T]

In Brazil it is illegal to cut down a live native tree. (No problem if you want to get rid of one but next year will be OK - just cut deep grove in it all the way around near the base - trick I learn form my hired man when I had ~ 100 acre cattle farm) A poor ignorant man, who stripped bark from one to make a tea for his sick wife actually went to jail - sentenced by a judge who was less lucky than most as he was exposted for making millions by selling light sentences to drug dealers etc. (In Brazil - you should steal millions to spread around if you want to be sure not to be punished. Latest scandle is the private use of government's charge cards - they have been used for throwing parties, buying suits of clothing, vacation trips for family, etc. - no one will go to jail for that as all are doing it. Yes, that man with the sick wife was ignorant!)

The eucalypts is not a native tree. Huge numbers of them now exist. I own stock in Aracruz, world's largest, (I think) supplier and cheapest (I know) producer of eucalypts fiber pulp (for news papers, cardboard boxes, etc.)

Aracruz has developed them genetically to grow straight up with few branches at the top (height increases two or three meters each year on life time average) and harvested in about 6 or 7 years is economical now. Fiber yield per acre has been doubled in less than two decades. I bet they have taken most of the "gum producing genes" out of their propagation seed stock.

To SAM. thanks again. I ate about a dozen seeds raw. They do taste good, but I am not as skilled as my bird. It spits off two hemispheric very-thin skins. I had to eat all, but the roughage is good for me. At least twice each day I need to blow away these thin skins covering the top of his seed bowl. I actually hold it at arm's length and have a tube to blow thru as do not want to get in lungs or eyes the fine dust he can also make. He is very skilled with that curved beak and tounge.

 

[Orleander]

A cockatoo has no place here. We should be talking about canaries, particular like your husband who eats all those seeds. Do you put a cover over him at night to keep him quiet ? I bet you call him Tweetie Pie, ha, ha

LOL, birds aren't so odd as to eat the sunflower seed shell. He does.

 

[Spud Emperor]

. "Spotted gum" can refer to four different species of Corymbia.

The ones in the pic are Corymbia maculata, previously known as Eucalyptus maculata. They are very beautiful and can have trunks ranging in colour from green, brown, pink, white, grey, bluish grey and it seems, nearly everything in between. they deciduate their bark in patches in late spring and summer.

Here's another pic

New foliage

You can tell I'm a fan.
Some can be poisonous at various times of year.
Koalas eat exclusively eucalyptus foliage and often eat psychoactive varieties and sit around stoned out of their tiny minds all day.
They do indeed smell like a cough lollie and when you're walking through the bush and smell the telltale dung, just look up and sure enough there will be one.
The smell of Eucalypt forest has to be experienced to be believed, after rain or on a hot still day the air is completely heady and it's not hard to be feeling a little high on the scent alone. They are highly combustible and live or dead they are still full of oil and burn like crazy. A Eucalypt forest on fire, especially fanned by strong hot winds is a very scary thing. Experienced firefighters still die regularly despite protocols and precautions. Many people tell of the repeated explosions as whole trees ignite in a second.

The variety of Eucalypts is stunning. Their beauty is outstanding ( sometimes it takes years to appreciate, many new arrivals to Australia find them rangy, scraggly and dry looking), there are stark white trunked species growing in the searing outback set against deep blue skies and red rocks, gnarled, twisted multicoloured trunked snowgums in the high country, rainforest giants, ones which smell of citrus, peppermint, massive river redgums which tolerate droughts or years of inundation. Species with silvery grey foliage, species with massed blooms of red, pink or white, diverse and intriguing seed pods. I could go on.
They are a study unto themselves

 

[Asguard]

they also have the added benefits. If you have a blocked nose, crush the leaves and inhale and it will clear your head

The oil is the main ingredient in vicks and a lot of cough drops because of this ability

Also for those who think spud and i are exadurating about the bush fires look at these

These are from the sydney bush fires (1994):

 

[Orleander]

OK, what are hominy and Corn Nuts?

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

OK, what are hominy and Corn Nuts?

Corn (known by its older name "maize" in Britain, where "corn" refers to all grains) is a species of grass, Zea mays. It is the only important grain (or "cereal") native to the New World and its nutritional content is not as high as rice, wheat, and the grains that fed the Old World. It is still the largest agricultural product of our hemisphere.

It was first cultivated in Mexico sometime between 7000BCE and 5500BCE. Although squash had been domesticated earlier, ushering in the Neolithic Revolution with its permanent farming villages, even the meager protein content of corn made a qualitative difference in the number of people an acre of land could support, and the population explosion in the region began.

There are many varieties of the single species of corn and they have been hybridized extensively.

Hominy is corn kernels that have been dried and then treated with an alkali such as lye. The American recipe soaks them in lye water until the hulls can be removed. The Mexican recipe cooks them in lime water, which also removes the germ, which AFAIK is ironically a source of some important nutrients. Hominy was invented in Guatemala more than 3,000 years ago.

Corn nuts were invented in 1936 by Albert Holloway. He prepared them by soaking corn kernels in water for three days and then deep frying them until they were brittle. When he learned of a giant variety of corn grown in Peru he began making his product from this "Cusco" corn. His research led to a hybrid Cusco strain that can be grown in the USA.

Holloway renamed his product CornNuts (with no space). It is now sold by Planters, a subsidiary of Kraft Foods.

 

[Orleander]

...Hominy is corn kernels that have been dried and then treated with an alkali such as lye. ....

why??? was it a preservative?