Subdood, just because polyunsaturated fats are unstable chemically it does not mean that they are unstable thermally. they all cook while retaining their chemical form. They do oxidize, so keeping exposure to air to a minimum always helps. And of course milk and eggs from pastured animals have more Omega 3 (and more vitamins E and A, as well as some minerals). About grass fed and Omega 3, the site which most everyone uses to buy grass fed products
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I’ll start a new thread so not to hijack ‘grains’.
@Steve333, thanks for the chicken info. I don’t know hardly anything about them, I just assumed you would need heat in a coop if it was very cold, especially if there are chicks. Maybe folks who raise chickens don’t hatch chicks in the winter for that reason? I have a lot of research I need to make b4 I get any of them. And, I’ve got neighbors to ask if I have any questions about it. And this forum. For now, it’s not a high priority, but maybe in the spring? We’ll see.
@glib, thanks for the link, a lot of useful info in there. Grass fed seems to be the way to go. Unfortunately, when it comes to beef or chicken meat, I suppose one would have to assume that they are grain fed, unless it’s expressly stated on the label that they are grass fed. At least I know where my eggs are coming from…
Regarding meats, or eggs, that have high o-3 fats, you’re saying they will not break down into unstable, free-radical compounds if the meat is cooked? That’s why I thought they say don’t cook with highly polyunsaturated oils, like flax or hemp because of this.
While these subjects are very interesting, I’ll try to not go into this particular subject any further, as I feel that I’ve steered @clarkinks thread into a different direction than was intended. Sorry about that, folks.
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Thanks, I just mentioned that in my last response. I don’t want to hijack @clarkinks 's thread. A “growing chickens” thread is a good idea, I’m sure there’s lots of folks on here that do that very thing, and I and others might like to learn something from them.
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what matters is the impurities, and the temperature. If you bake a fish the oils inside the flesh are not exposed to air, and go to temperatures not much above 200F. Same if you boil an egg. If you grill a steak the surface oils will oxidize some, but the oils inside the meat will not degrade.
The other thing is smoke point. Deep frying is the worst technique and people have known for a long time that fried foods are bad for you. Avocado oil, refined olive oil, and unrefined olive oil are essentially the same oil, but in descending order of purity. If you fry something in avocado oil, the oil afterwards tastes exactly like raw oil (it is pretty amazing). If you fry something in purified OO you have to do it over a low flame, and you can’t really fry in EVOO. The toxins produced by thermal degradation/oxidation are fairly powerful, and just converting some minor component of the oil (not necessarily a PUFA) is enough to disturb your digestion. The main component of all the oils, oleic acid, is stable to at least 550F.
We boil, steam, bake, and grill. I taught my daughter to cook at at as low as possible temp (for example scrambled or fried eggs). Sauteeing is done with avocado oil, which has the highest smoke point, if we had it we could also consider safflower oil, which does have more PUFA but a smoke point similar to avocado oil.
It is not on a garden scale but not on a commercial farming scale. I plant for wildlife. I bought a small Kasco 4’ no-till versadrill. Each spring I drill a soybeans with a light mix of corn (7:1 ratio by weight) in seven 1 acre plots along an gas pipeline that runs across or pine farm. When the soybeans yellow, I surface broadcast a cover crop mix of Winter Rye, Crimson Clover, and Purple Top Turnips and/or Daikon Radish. When the soybean leaves yellow and fall they act as a mulch for the cover crop. This provides year round food for wildlife in my area. I also pick some field corn by hand when young as well as turnips for my own consumption and for friends.
Typically rotation is necessary when planting monocultures. When you plant a diversity of complementary plants, it is less important. For example, the soybeans and crimson clover fix N for the corn and turnips. Daikon Radish is a for of organic tillage that adds OM to the soil. Since I don’t harvest 98% of the crop, everything that grows is either eaten by wildlife (which excretes back into the plot) or goes directly back into the soil.
Traditional tillage introduces O2 into the soil… This typically speeds the consumption of the Organic Matter in the soil. Using a smart no-till or minimum tillage (reducing frequency and depth) you can improve the soil over time making it more fertile. When profit is not a driving factor things become much more sustainable.
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My goal is to put more into the soil than I take out of it. I love projects like yours. A friend and I randomly planted parts of his farm with grain plots. I broadcast clover in my hay field regularly to improve fertility. Profit is important but ruining land is not a cost I’m willing to pay. Land is expensive so I take care of mine. They are not making anymore land.
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do you do it to bag deer, or out of respect for the land? In my experience, if you do that for a few years, that land becomes quite fertile.
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It seems like you might be suggesting those are contradictory aims. Whether or not that was your intended implication, I’ll say that I think hunting can be quite complementary to, even integral to respect for the land (and I say that not even as a hunter… not good enough at waiting patiently and being still and quiet.)
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We have a pine farm with a forest stewardship plan. Wildlife management is part of that plan as well as timber income. Our management decisions tend to be a balance between the two. Keeping deer numbers in balance with the habitat is part of that plan. Deer tend to avoid large open areas during daylight hours in hunting season when pressure is on. So, these plots that I describe are more intended to improve the quality of local deer herd. We do have a few small plots that are a quarter acre or less. They mostly have a clover base. Deer are much more likely to use these small plots during daylight hours since they are only a few bounds from cover. We use these to harvest female deer to keep the population in check. Mature bucks tend to avoid the openings except when chasing does during the rut. Recreational hunting for bucks tends to be more focused on clear-cuts, riparian buffers, and dense pine stands rather than the food plots.
Our overall goal is stewardship of the resources. This includes both plants and wildlife as well as heritage traditions like hunting.
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I was misunderstood. I should have said “to improve the soil ecosystem” instead of “respect for the land”.
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Is there such a thing as hulless buckwheat? That would be awesome. I grow it as a cover crop and for the bees and chickens but haven’t bothered trying to figure out how to hull large enough quantities to eat.
I do grow hulless barley which is pretty easy to hand-thresh, amaranth, flour and flint corns, and lots of dry beans. I’d like to try growing rice as well one day since I read about Ben Falk growing it in Vermont (though there’s the whole de-hulling issue).
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kshaun, you don’t have to dehull buckwheat to grind it for flour. Each side of the hull mostly comes through as a whole piece, so you can sift those out, and the little bit of hull that gets ground up with the flour is what gives buckwheat flour its characteristic dark color and hearty taste.
The only reason I’m interested in dehulling buckwheat is to be able to use the grain whole, but buckwheat flour is great and reason enough to grow buckwheat if you want to eat homegrown grains.
What do you do with the amaranth? How do you prepare/cook it? I want to want to grow it, but I need to gain a greater appreciation for eating and enjoying it before I’m going to be very motivated to grow it.
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It makes a good hot porridge like oatmeal with butter and honey or dried fruit. I also pop it like tiny popcorn in a dry skillet/pot and add that to cornbread or stews. My chickens eat more of it than me to be honest. Less work to just toss ripe heads to them and eat the eggs! 
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@cousinfloyd, Thanks for the tips on buckwheat. I’d be most interested in using it for flour…pancakes!
I’m glad you said this because I’ve never grown it because I was unsure how to remove the hull from it.
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Sesame seeds…
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Thought someone might enjoy this video if they were growing doybeans and wheat which discusses making soy sauce https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EMmyamL4VGw
I am interested in growing my own oats for oatmeal, and would be interested to learn more on the basics of this. Please share any good videos or tips/ reference sources on how to grow/ process oats, thanks.
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@Matt_in_Pennsylvania
Oats have an extra hull which is why i dont grow them small scale. Removing that hull around the grain is no small job. I have grown oats on a larger scale before of 5+ acres.
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