I look around this things and I can’t let, you know, survival of a scout, a tracker. How would they make it in this place? The answer is there are just only a few of us, if they make it very well and that will be great. But if you try to have a whole village here, much less, you know, feeding all sorts of population that are nearby, and the whole large metropolitan area, you know, it is a whole different story. And one thing to consider is that when the natives did live in this area, they heavily manage it. They manage these old trees to make more berries, through various practices, largely by fire. If you did have to do it here, what would be your diet, so there would be like your transitional diet, and then, you know, there would be your ideal diet, what would you grow?
I would like to think of Permaclian system. Percales are guilds in ecological design. How would, if I did decide to live here, how would I feed myself. Most like survival is diet aren’t going to sustain you that long. They are not going to sustain generations. So let’s start out with what you got. You have this area. You have got the number one food source, acorns. That is the number one food source in the wildlife and was the natives that lived here too. And it has the highest calorie and you know, lots of nutrition. And the acorn crop here is pretty big. We have the blue oaks, we have, this year; we have some Black Oak Acorn and then the Valley oaks. Last year was a huge year for the blue and Valley Oaks. In fact, I still have some saved over from last year. It will probably last another year. We will have to see. So that is good news except that there is not really that many trees.
There are definitely more acorns and pig ears than all the animals can eat, that is one thing. Another thing we have around here is Grape Puns. And Grape Puns make a very nutritious and very delicious seed. And make it in pretty big quantities. Another thing we have are these lovely Mancinitas and these Mancinitas, especially when they are managed properly produce pretty huge crop of berries. And with Mancinitas berries it is all with processing. So I think, like, you eat them mostly when they are dry. When they are ripe, and then you can crush them until like a meal and you can make a drink out of that, which is delicious, but perhaps you could also crush it until an acorn grow, to make it, you know, extra flavor. And so, you have Singing Meadows. There are few patches around here.
They are definitely have to be enhanced and planted in another area. We have Rose so Rosehips are very valuable. Another thing that I do not really see around here but I know it does exist in the park are grapes. And grapes are not only, you know, have a lot of nutrition and can be dried fruit, raisins, but they also have seeds and that seeds you can extract an oil and they too have some protein and some nutritional value. So how would we use grape seeds? You know nutritional guild from the plants we have available.
And of course, you have black berries and Toyan berries. And there is Bay Nuts. So one of the things, you know, when I do this dreaming of this Permaclian system in this local ecologies, the thing that is missing is fat. So if I were going to stay here, and this be my food shed, where would I get my fat? Traditionally the people here, they had a lot of fat from animals. And some of that I am sure is Salmon and also the Water Fowl. Every year there would be huge migration of Water Fowl that pass over and they would render like duck fat, basically from them. And that is a great source of fat. And then there is some fat in the acorns, in the bay nuts. And I think those would be your big sources of fat. So here we have Wild Boar, the thing, you see, that is missing is like the Water Fowl, the Salmon. There is a huge missing element of the ecology.
Not only are the plants not producing as they are once were because they have not been managed, you know, for hundred fifty to two hundred years in the way that they were managed for a thousands of years by the natives here. But the animal populations are gone. For ones, we could use Elk before. There are no elk here, there are no salmon, and there are no waterfowl anymore, so all of those good sources are gone. And so we would have to figure something else out. So how would we get the fat if we did have to live here now as opposed to before? And you know, I would say, we could bring in cows, possibly. But how about goats, maybe we could bring in goats for goat’s milk. But then you will have to sort of shepherd or manage them, whatever. I think another great source of fat would be from olives. Olive trees do grow here. They grow well here and that would be great to look at. It is not just what native plants already grow here and what native plants grew here but what plants that we brought with us that we can use that really help make it sustainable. Like, there is a Ferrel apple that I saw up the hill, and propagate that. You know, apples are semi-valuable food source.
There are all kinds of things. You know if you have access to any sort of water, grow some potatoes, keep some chickens that is a very good source of proteins and calories in those foods.
Another thing, you know, you look at is digging swales in the hillside. So there is a lot of places here, there is not a lot of food production and there is not a lot of animals there. The reason is because there is no water. We get a very little rain here and when it does rain, mostly just runs down and runs off as fast as it can. So if you dug swales on the hillside, you catch that rain and you would not necessarily plant it with anything, but you could, you could plant it with, you know, oak trees, but you could also plant it with, like apples, and things that are as representing the ecology or any. So, I mean, the idea basically here is how can you make as much food as naturally as possible that sustains biodiversity and sustains you nutritionally.
What would you work to do to bring back the huge population of Water Fowl, to bring back the Salmon, and your work to bring back the Elk and so you have all those things. But for the mean time you have to figure out because we cannot bring those things over night. And I think that if we are working for those things back for food, I think it gives a lot more motivation. It does not seem so hopeless. It seems more exciting for a lot of people. But I think the most important part is that it actually connects you in a way that you are meant to be connected to those things instead of people.
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