Comments!

I sometimes forgot to check and respond to comments.  Now that I'm getting more of them (thanks and keep them coming!) I promise to get better at that. There have been some great comments recently.

In response to the article I wrote for Mossy Oak's Gamekeepers magazine, in which I said the deer that get oak trees planted for their benefit eat better than people do and in which I speculated as to why humankind stopped eating acorns after relying on them for untold millennia, thefuturefarm commented:

Bill Mollison (father of permaculture) gives another reason that we moved away from tree crops. Paraphrasing, he says that trees were getting cut down for war and building by large governments and armies, so people moved to food sources that could produce every year and avoid the risk of planting something that would take years to produce and be attractive building material for others. He gives the example of Ireland, which he claims was a forested people till England decided they needed the wood.

 I think that's absolutely true (not surprising since Mollison is a genius).  Further I also believe that governments found that forcing people to rely on annual food crops kept them busy, exhausted and easier to control as compared to a diet of acorns, which kept them nourished with a lot of free time on their hands.

In response to my post on advances I have been seeing in protecting construction site trees, Tony Salmeron of Tree Service Hendersonville NC

 Hahahaha, I loved the snippet at the end. Very funny. You're putting a hell of a lot of effort into saving them, extremely honorable. Thank you for doing a huge part for our ecosystems and environment, every step counts.

A quadruple "ha" - Thanks Tony.  Thanks for reading and stop back often.

Following my post on taste tested some Gambel oak acorns sent to me by a friend, Darin commented:

Those are nice Gambel acorns, I collect Gambel, gray, and muehlenburgii. You eat the acorns thats great, I like to grow oak trees but have not ate any yet. I can gather nice muehlenbergii acorns in Phoenix AZ and send you some. I enjoy trading acorns to grow plants but it might be fun to try to eat some.

 Unfortunately I am currently in a climate which, at a nearly constant 60 degrees with fog half the day, suits me perfectly it is not great for most oaks.  I also have limited space for growing oaks.

However Darin's comment is a reminder that I have been wanting to set up an acorn exchange for my many readers who enjoy trading acorns for both growing and eating.  Watch for a post next week!

Finally, thefuturefarm is on to me:

Sounds to me like someone is stalling from their oak gall ink post obligation :-)

 Well intentioned promises broken by overwork and short attention span are the specialty of Oak Watch!  However, I owe you guys two things:  Oak gall ink and roasted Gambel acorns.  I "promise" to do both within 2 weeks.

Everyone: thanks so much for reading.  Your comments mean the world to me.