[Scpg] a wild idea...

[LBUZZELL at aol.com]

Larry and I were brainstorming this morning about local food security and  
we thought about acorn, the freely-available, ubiquitous native protein 
source  that we waste 1000s of pounds of each year here on the South Coast.
 
There has been a lot of talk over the years on these and other lists about  
how the Chumash harvested and processed acorn (and some still do), but many 
of  us got discouraged by how difficult and lengthy the processing is and 
how we no  longer have the fresh, clean streams to remove the tannins. The 
traditional  methods seemed to require a whole community, lots of time, plus a 
pristine  environment.
 
So we wondered... what if some clever permaculture or food tech person  
could come up with plans for an updated version of the traditional process?  
Perhaps a community-owned, sustainable acorn processing facility?  Not  an 
easy technical problem, but we've put people on the moon so surely this  can't 
be beyond us if we put our minds to it?  Such a facility would also  provide 
sustainable local jobs and would qualify as what the Transition  Initiative 
folks call a "Transition Industry."  The trick is how to do the  processing 
without excessive water use -- or find a way to use the water that  
contains the tannins for another use?  And also how to turn the processed  acorn 
into products that the factory can also make or that local cooks would be  
eager to use -- for flour, in soups, baked goods etc?
 
Also, in the past, Loren Luyendyk had the clever idea of grafting  
less-tannin oak varieties onto our native coast live oaks for an  easier-to-process 
acorn.  This might allow us to do much less  processing.
 
Can we come up with a method that both respects local indigenous traditions 
 and highly productive native food plants like oak, but applies modern 
know-how  to the processing so we can once again enjoy the benefits of this 
high-protein  local food that is so productive and easy to grow in our area?
 
All ideas welcome!
 
Linda
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20090810/1b573acc/attachment.html>