[Terrapreta] Old native earth ovens.

[Kurt Treutlein]

MFH wrote:
>
> But I just remembered that by loading the stones and smothering the fire,
> some char results, along with the ashes. This is added later to the
> vegetable plots. Amongst all the Muumuus I've eaten I never asked why they
> did this but presumably they had worked out that this increases fertility
> and yields.
>   
I never saw this in the Western Highlands, but I was only a callow young 
lad then, loaded down by my Administrative Burdens (I was a Kiap) so I 
might not have noticed.
> The Tolais have only been in ENB for maybe 200 years. But if this cooking
> practice had happened over 1000 years, could this build up TP soils? Were
> there stones in the Amazon areas to replicate this, or even more
> tantalising, did the Amazonians bake clay "balls" and use these instead of
> stones, leaving char and pottery fragments?
>
>   
Depends on the geology of the area and the closeness of rocky areas. 
Parts of the Fly River plains have no stones at all, I believe, all just 
silt.



regards

Kurt
fondly remembering the good old days