If the oak tree is the tree that fed the world, Hickories are the tree that helped humans thrive in North America. Across eastern North America until only 300 or so years ago, hickories were the staple crop consumed most commonly.
Do you have any specific recommendations for processing bitter hickories? I have made kanuchi, nut milk, and nut butter with shagbark hickories, but when I tried to make nut milk with bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) it was still very bitter after an hour or so of boiling. I also tried adding salt which did not seem to do anything.
Also, have you given much thought to fire regimes prior to human presence in North America? I am really curious to know what things looked like in the prior interglacial (Eemian) but to my knowledge there isn’t any good data on that. However, I have got to believe that hickories and oaks were still dominant across much of the landscape without human presence, given their diversity and the number of species that depend on them. At the same time, I think that without anthropogenic fire, the fire frequency would be much reduced in eastern forests outside of the sandy coastal plain. Perhaps megafauna played a big role in maintaining oak and hickory forests, but I don’t think we have any knowledge of that. I know that during the last glacial period, oak was less prominent in a lot of areas.
Do you have any specific recommendations for processing bitter hickories? I have made kanuchi, nut milk, and nut butter with shagbark hickories, but when I tried to make nut milk with bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) it was still very bitter after an hour or so of boiling. I also tried adding salt which did not seem to do anything.
Also, have you given much thought to fire regimes prior to human presence in North America? I am really curious to know what things looked like in the prior interglacial (Eemian) but to my knowledge there isn’t any good data on that. However, I have got to believe that hickories and oaks were still dominant across much of the landscape without human presence, given their diversity and the number of species that depend on them. At the same time, I think that without anthropogenic fire, the fire frequency would be much reduced in eastern forests outside of the sandy coastal plain. Perhaps megafauna played a big role in maintaining oak and hickory forests, but I don’t think we have any knowledge of that. I know that during the last glacial period, oak was less prominent in a lot of areas.