Angels we have heard on high
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
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| For potatoes, the green color comes from chlorophyll, but these guys (the glycoalkaloids solanine and chalconine) are the toxic part. Plants in the nightshade family use them as a defense mechanism, and they ramp up production in response to stress or light. Also in response to light, they ramp up chlorophyll production, which is why the green color is associated with the toxicity. Strictly speaking, however, the green color is not required for high glycoalkaloid content. The glycoalkaloids are also bitter, though, so we can still tell when there is a lot of them without having to have any analytical equipment fancier than a tongue. |
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| Next, is there enough of the glycoalkaloids to actually do any damage? The dose commonly cited to cause toxic effects for solanine is 2 mg/kg body weight, or 140 mg for a 70 kg person. The half life in the body for humans is 1-2 months, which works out to a total steady-state body burden of 50 mg if the intake of solanine is 1 mg/day. How many potatoes would you have to eat to take in 1 mg/day of solanine? Normal solanine contents of potato tubers are about 7.5 mg/100 g fresh weight (varying widely across samples). The green parts can have more than 200 mg solanine/100 g fresh weight. For reference, the four potatoes in the picture cumulatively weigh 211 g, and the stripes on the cutting board are 1" wide. So, it wouldnt take much if you ate taters every day. Looks like well definitely continue to trim the green parts, and probably space out our potato eating a little more, too. On the other hand, most researchers seem to consider the eyes as part of the tuber, so if they arent sprouting, it seems theres no need for us to worry about additional solanine coming from the untrimmed eyes. Looks like we can save ourselves a lot of time on eye-trimming. However, if the eyes are sprouting at all, the solanine content in the tuber can go up, down, or stay the same, depending on the variety. One thing is clear, though--the sprouts have the most solanine of all, so well be staying away from them! In that case, well definitely trim more liberally, and probably make a bit of effort to ease off on our potato intake for a while once that dish is gone. Also, some solace for french fry and potato chip lovers--the frying process doubles as a high-temperature extraction (reducing the content of the solanine in the fries) because the glycoalkaloids are somewhat oil-soluble. Probably still would be good to not eat the green ones. |
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| Carrots get some green on their shoulders from the sunlight, too, but arent in the nightshade family. So, while the green color still comes from chlorophyll, the glycoalkaloids dont come along with it. The green color does still bring some bitterness, but the molecules that cause it have not been identified (or at least, they hadnt as of 2007, and we couldnt find any more recent papers). Its known that some types of molecules, including terpenoids, can result in a bitter flavor, even in non-greened carrots , but apparently in the green parts, these are not the terpenoids were looking for. One would think theyd also have looked for glycoalkaloids. But the whole carrot plant, including the top, is edible, so the green parts of the carrot roots might be unpalatable, but not likely dangerous. Similarly for onions, the greening that happens on the shoulders of the bulb when exposed to sunlight is due to chlorophyll, but not likely dangerous. It might even be beneficial due to concomitant flavonoid formation! Maybe the carrots are also making flavonoids. Of course, if the green parts of the carrots and onions end up being too bitter for us, chicken taste buds might handle them better. Guten apetit! |
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Into each set of columns, we enter recipes (copied and pasted from memory or the internet), specify the number of times per year were going to prepare them, and make sure units and ingredient names are consistent (e.g., that we dont say tomato in one recipe and tomatoes in another). |
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Then we use a pivot table (one each for supper, breakfast, and lunch) to count everything up. Its a bummer we dont know how to make a pivot table from more than one range at a time (theres probably a way), but thats ok. The workaround isnt too hard. From each individual pivot table, we create a master pivot table. From the master pivot table, we can estimate how much of everything we need to acquire during the course of the year. For example, we learn that we need about 54 dozen eggs, 49 gallons of milk, and 110 loaves of bread (assuming 12 slices per loaf). If youve been in our kitchen, you know that works out to a surprisingly accurate figure of roughly one dozen eggs, one gallon of milk, and two loaves of bread per week. And also 23 pounds of mushrooms, which sounds delicious. Model validated! |
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| More importantly (and to the point), we can estimate how many pounds of vegetables well have to grow and how many pounds of meat well have to catch to be self-sufficient. Clearly, if we want to keep taking carrots to work for lunch, well need to grow a ton. (Or, a one-fourteenth of a ton, rather). Similarly, we can see that we ought to devote a lot of our remaining garden space to tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, and greens. Of course, were going to grow a larger variety of veggies than that, but the quantities we tend to eat (and would need to find storage space for) are instructive. And honestly, well probably try to grow more winter squash, green beans, and peppers than the chart suggests. |
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| On a similar note, if we want to keep on our current diet, well need to grow another batch of chickens and catch one large deer and a quarter of a pig. (Or raise one deer and catch a flock of wild chickens. But we dont have space to raise both!) |
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| All things considered, its a pretty balanced diet, not too far from Harvards Healthy Eating Plate. Were a little heavier on the veggies, but hey! Maybe well end up being a very localized blue zone. |
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| The layers this time are bread, cubed lean beef heart meat (thanks Grandma!), cubed (blue and red) potatoes, chopped swiss chard, and colby cheese. In reality, almost any meat and leafy green (other than lettuce) will do, but the unique firmness of heart is a big plus. We havent tried fresh leafy greens, but frozen and/or blanched seems to work just fine. We precooked the taters in the microwave a bit, but in hindsight, that was probably unnecessary. We cooked the heart in a crockpot until it was tender, then cubed it up. Katie says, "Jake, you forgot to add the cheese layer before taking this picture!" Jake says, "What? Oh, um, good job Katie! You passed the noticing test!" |
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| Add a second layer, then pour over the top a well-beaten mixture of six eggs, three cups milk, a teaspoon each of salt, pepper, and onion powder, and two teaspoons each of garlic powder, dried oregano, and dried basil. |
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| Cover it up and let the whole thing soak in the fridge for several hours. |
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| Bake it at 350 °F for 50-60 minutes until middle is lightly set and cheese on top is golden brown. |
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| Salsa and sour cream (or plain yogurt) are pretty good condiments, but what it really wants is the tangy heat from a few squirts of vinegar-based hot sauce! Mmmmmm...... |
