Do the "lost crops" ferment to form alcohol -- as maize (corn) does?
If not, that might explain why they became "lost" -- when corn became available as an alternative...
TXnMA '-)
Posted on 12/23/2019 7:33:54 PM PST by BenLurkin
Writing in the Journal of Ethnobiology, Natalie Muellert, assistant professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences, describes how she painstakingly grew and calculated yield estimates for two annual plants that were cultivated in eastern North America for thousands of years—and then abandoned.
Growing goosefoot (Chenopodium, sp.) and erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum) together is more productive than growing either one alone, Mueller discovered. Planted in tandem, along with the other known lost crops, they could have fed thousands.
Archaeologists found the first evidence of the lost crops in rock shelters in Kentucky and Arkansas in the 1930s. Seed caches and dried leaves were their only clues. Over the past 25 years, pioneering research by Gayle Fritz, professor emerita of archaeology at Washington University, helped to establish the fact that a previously unknown crop complex had supported local societies for millennia before maize—a.k.a. corn—was adopted as a staple crop.
The lost crops include a small but diverse group of native grasses, seed plants, squashes and sunflowers—of which only the squashes and sunflowers are still cultivated. For the rest, there is plenty of evidence that the lost crops were purposefully tended—not just harvested from free-living stands in the wild...
Mueller discovered that a polyculture of goosefoot and erect knotweed is more productive than either grown separately as a monoculture. Grown together, the two plants have higher yields than global averages for closely related domesticated crops (think: quinoa and buckwheat), and they are within the range of those for traditionally grown maize.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
When they switched to corn they had problems because corn was missing some vital nutrients these ‘grains’ had formerly provided.
Just because we don’t know the reason they made the change to maize doesn’t mean it wasn’t valid.
I think it is a sign.
I hope you didn’t tell this dream before breakfast or it will come true.
Ah yes, goose foot and erect knot weed. There is a reason they are no longer cultivated.
Both taste like, well, not good.
Amongst other possible problems, goosefoot can cause hayfever like it’s relative ragweed.
Quinoa
ahh, finally...queeno...a name I at least recognize...
:]
Do the "lost crops" ferment to form alcohol -- as maize (corn) does?
If not, that might explain why they became "lost" -- when corn became available as an alternative...
TXnMA '-)
obviously, the commercial never left yours.
Thanks! Will link it over at the Gardening Thread! :)
PING!
Charles Nelson Reilly! What a way to make a living, LOL!
I never thought of chenopodiums as “lost”. There are several growing wild all over Wisconsin.
I am curious about the other crops mentioned.
That makes the most sense!
I can’t speak for most of the crops listed, but I do have experience with members of the Chenopodium genus. Corn is a lot less work!
The researcher in the article compared yields, but not the man-hours needed to get it from the field to the dinner table. Corn doesn’t need threshing or winnowing, and you’re a lot less likely to end up with a ton of chaff in your lungs.
Nope. Not Reilly. James Harder.
https://travsd.wordpress.com/2017/11/19/james-harder-the-man-in-the-fig-costume/
My bad! CNR was the Bic Banana pen, LOL! Got my fruits mixed up. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtwlCOOfves
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