Audubon Magazine, March/April Special Issue:
The Cycle of Food
Thanks to my friend Ginny for bringing this to my attention! This is a comprehensive look at the whole food cycle from source to cleanup, with fascinating snapshots of practices across the country! (News flash for my friends and family back in Texas: mesquite beans are edible. Check it out!)
EAT! The best food in the world 
I knew that about mesquite beans. I have quite a few mesquite saplings on my 2 1/2 scrub acres. I cleared about 3/4ths of an acre of them a couple of years ago. Now they’re back. Ranchers used to burn them out. That was before they discovered that the mesquite beans need fire to germinate properly. I plan to save a few of the larger mesquites because I also read that the sap from mesquites can be used the same as gum arabic–as a vehicle for watercolor pigments. (Gum arabic comes from an acacia). Not that I will ever actually *use* the mesquite sap for such. I just want to be prepared in every way in the event civilization collapses.
R.G.