Earliest Agricultural Tools

[digitS']

Interesting article about how foraging with repeated harvesting contributed to the development of agriculture. Evidence of the plants used, barley, pistachios and apples, was found by archeologists. Genetically analysis of tissue shows that this food was growing wild but the tools found are similar to those used by the earliest farmers.

Sickles for cutting the barley — The researchers suggest that the annual harvesting of wild barley evolved into the domestication of the crop.

Steve

World's earliest traces of agriculture were recently discovered in a cave

Stone tools and wild barley grains reveal pre-agricultural crop harvesting dating back 9,200 years inside a remote cave.

www.earth.com

 

[flowerbug]

Interesting article about how foraging with repeated harvesting contributed to the development of agriculture. Evidence of the plants used, barley, pistachios and apples, was found by archeologists. Genetically analysis of tissue shows that this food was growing wild but the tools found are similar to those used by the earliest farmers.

Sickles for cutting the barley — The researchers suggest that the annual harvesting of wild barley evolved into the domestication of the crop.

Steve

World's earliest traces of agriculture were recently discovered in a cave

Stone tools and wild barley grains reveal pre-agricultural crop harvesting dating back 9,200 years inside a remote cave.

www.earth.com

think of all the weeding we'd not be doing if they'd just stuck to hunting and gathering...

 

[digitS']

But, we would never have had ..

. as abundant a supply of ..

. beer!

 

[flowerbug]

it has been a long time since i last enjoyed a good dark beer. after my old friend passed away i no longer had my once in a while beer and bratwurst (and saurkraut!) buddy to visit a few times a year.

 

[SPedigrees]

it has been a long time since i last enjoyed a good dark beer. after my old friend passed away i no longer had my once in a while beer and bratwurst (and saurkraut!) buddy to visit a few times a year.

As Southside Johnny sang, "Raise a glass to the comrades we've lost." Sorry for the loss of your friend. I'm afraid we are at an age where our dead friends begin to outnumber living ones.

 

[digitS']

@SPedigrees

A couple of years ago, I read about the very early use of wild barley as food for humans. It now seems that there is genetic evidence that it was domesticated in 3 different locations, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Really, I have no knowledge of when beer making shows up in prehistory. The notion that it may have been very early goes along with the idea that wine making played an important role in the development of civilization. You see, if you are a farmer and growing several acres of grapes, you had better have a market where you can exchange your product for the essentials. Your time and resources are tied up in a nonessential.

The winery might have more people involved in this industry. Perhaps, there was a ready market for exchanging wine for food, clothing, etc. Soon, tailors, butchers and bakers arrive with their farmer connections .

It would be quite a revelation to have evidence that farming began as an earlier step as a way to enjoy a ready supply of beer. Etymology, Barn (n.) ... from Old English bereærn "barn," literally "barley house," from bere "barley"...

 

[flowerbug]

also @digitS' it is good to remember that wine has often a good byproduct in vinegar which is a good preservative and cleaner. any crop that has more than one use is valueable. grape seed oil is also useful as are grape leaves... raisins, fresh eating grapes.

 

[digitS']

I learned recently that sweet potatoes are used for alcohol production. Oh boy, really ?

My wine making experience was supposedly geared to growing and making use of a garden product. No, I didn't want to use grapes since there is so much availability, variety and sophistication in that industry. What I came up with as something very simple and quite good was glutenous rice and sultana raisins ... that was a success but a complete failure for using anything that I was growing .

Sweet potatoes? I have grown sweet potatoes ... I quickly learned that they are fermented and distilled. Shucks

 

[SPedigrees]

also @digitS' it is good to remember that wine has often a good byproduct in vinegar which is a good preservative and cleaner. any crop that has more than one use is valueable. grape seed oil is also useful as are grape leaves... raisins, fresh eating grapes.

I use a ton of vinegar, for washing/soaking produce and, in summer, the hummingbird feeder. I wash the dogs' dishes with vinegar because if I were to inadvertently leave a trace amount it would be better than soap. And of course I use it for pickling, and as an ingredient in salad dressing. That would be a most useful product for me to make!

 

[flowerbug]

almost everything that can be grown has been used to make alcohol or fermented as food for animals.