[Terrapreta] Old native earth ovens.

[Richard Haard]

And back to John Flottvik's original posting about earth ovens in  
British Columbia ' First Nations ' peoples that were used to cook  
among other items Camas, a bulb of the lily family that was inedible  
until its inulin starch was converted to fructose units by slow, long  
cooking with acid hydrolysis by lichens added to the mix and flavored  
and colored with leaves with recipes saved by families and tribes  
reflecting their traditional knowledge. Yet when the potato came to  
them with the spanish contact and sugar by commerce the need to work  
for weeks digging camas and spending long periods as family units  
making and preserving carbohydrate food for the cold winter famine  
became no longer necessary and these skills were abandoned,

Sad but reinventing this terra preta is what is parallel to this  
conversation.

Rich
On May 28, 2008, at 8:17 PM, Kevin Chisholm wrote:

> Dear Sean
>
> Sean K. Barry wrote:
>> ...del...
>>
>> The Terra Preta found in the Amazon River basin was on a very large
>> scale.  They had to actively and continuously be producing charcoal
>> for many many years, perhaps centuries to have covered the area and
>> the depths they covered with TP soils there, I think.
>
> Has anyone ever counted up teh number of known Terra Preta Sites and
> determined their average area, to be able to estimate the actual  
> area of
> Brazil that is covered by man-made Terra Preta?
>
> Black Earth Soils occur naturally in nature. I have heard figures like
> "The area of Terra Preta in Brazil is about the same area as France."
> What percentage of teh Black Earth Soils in Brazil are naturally made
> and what percentage of tehm are actually man-made?
>
>
>> What these Tolais people may have been similar, but I suspect making
>> Amazon style TP soils would take quite a long time.  Its just a
>> thought though.  Maybe the effect could be made to happen overnight  
>> or
>> in a single growing season with one application of the "right stuff",
>> too.  Who knows?
>
> What would be the necessary features of a Black Earth Soil that would
> differentiate it from a man-made Terra Preta Soil?
>>
>> One time some one mentioned that the only hard stone like anything
>> that can be found in the Amazon River basin is fired clay.  And,  
>> fired
>> clay does not wash way like the clay mud does.  I'm thinking that
>> keeping precious charcoal and garden soil from washing away in the
>> almost daily rains of the Amazon rainforest was pretty important.
>> They built dike and swales, too, it seems.  So, I kind of thought  
>> that
>> the fired clay in the TP soils was there just to keep it from washing
>> away.
>
> Is the presence of fired clay a necessary feature of a soil, for it to
> be termed a "Terra Preta Soil?"
>
> Thanks.
>
> Kevin
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> SKB
>>
>
>
>
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