Hello there, everyone. Just back from a three-week break back home in Kenya. I’ll blog about the mother-in-law and her attempts at diversification in the Kenya highlands in the next day or two…
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Crops, animals, wild relatives ...
Fresh Nibbles: May 18, 2012
: <- click to comment- Ancient olives not that old after all. But still attractive.
- Giving up tobacco – in favor of purple sweet potatoes?
- Kew is now as much about cooking as growing. Visit the 18th century kitchens.
- Linking small farmers to markets, video from a conference.
- The International Treaty’s SMTA made easy. Well, kinda. It would have been even easier if they had linked to the site. Good thing there’s us, eh?
Nibbles Archive: All that condensed goodness.
And easy access to the Brainfood Archive.
Featured Comment:
Mark Nesbitt knows who the Director of Agriculture is Tanzania was in 1934:
The sorghum collection – all 956 accessions – was acquired by J.D. Snowden while working on his 1936 book (still in print!) “Cultivated Races of Sorghum”. It’s a perfect example of a collection that 20 years ago would have seemed useless (old seeds, mostly dead) but thanks to new techniques (DNA analysis) suddenly looks very interesting as a record of landrace distribution before the Green Revolution.
So, any gene jockeys out there interested in extracting DNA from old seeds? Just for information, there are 1058 sorghum accessions from Tanzania in Genesys. How much can it cost to run a bunch of microsatellites on 2,000 samples?
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- May 19, 2012: Tom commented on Where do bananas grow anyway?
- May 18, 2012: Mark Nesbitt commented on Kew doesn’t store seed only at the Millennium Seed Bank
- May 17, 2012: Samuel commented on Prospects for fish (and other) farming
- May 17, 2012: Stephen Thomas commented on Glass gem corn goes viral
- May 14, 2012: Dave Wood commented on Brainfood: Bee diversity, Fodder innovation, African agrobiodiversity, Quinoa economy, Fragmentation and diversity, Rice in Madagascar, Rice in Thailand
- May 12, 2012: Dave Wood commented on Nibbles: Mapping Life, PES, Quinoa, Forest restoration
- May 11, 2012: Peterson Wambugu commented on Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter: dead but maybe not yet buried
- May 11, 2012: Jeremy Cherfas commented on Nibbles: Warm weather, Invasives, Agrobacteria, Extension, Seed sales
- May 11, 2012: Dirk Enneking commented on Nibbles: Warm weather, Invasives, Agrobacteria, Extension, Seed sales
- May 11, 2012: Dave Wood commented on Organic vs Industrial ag: lotta continua
- Kew doesn’t store seed only at the Millennium Seed Bank
- D Landreth not so important to seed diversity
- Finding your way in the agricultural spatial data jungle
- Mapping nutrition research
- Brainfood: Bee diversity, Fodder innovation, African agrobiodiversity, Quinoa economy, Fragmentation and diversity, Rice in Madagascar, Rice in Thailand
- Glass gem corn goes viral
- Mapping some life
- Arnold Arboretum goes mobile
- Feral or relict: you decide
- Highest altitude sheep
- How grafting a plum tree led to an obsession
- Not all Andean tubers are potatoes
- Using data to inform nutrition security policy
- CGIAR research on Cassava Brown Streak Disease
- What causes famines?
- How endangered are Shropshire sheep?
- FAO says Save and Grow
- Yoghurt seeds and other unlikely alliances
- Where will the protein come from?
- Katherine’s monkey’s peanut
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I was surprised to find tree tomato juice on sale in a Nairobi restaurant a couple of years ago. Would be interested to hear how tree tomatoes got from the Andes to Kenya.
Bohs (1989) has the answer to my question.
Seeds had come to the Cape from the Botanical Gardens in Jamaica. How tree tomato reached Jamaica is not clear, but it was well established there by 1884 (but, interestingly, is seldom seen there today).
Lots more information and a map showing dispersal routes around the world:
Bohs, L (1989) Ethnobotany of the Genus Cyphomandra (Solanaceae). Economic Botany, 43(2), 1989, pp. 143-163
We also have tree tomatoes in Papua New Guinea. There is a jam company in the Highlands that makes a professional quality (albeit with too much pectin) mixed ‘wild fruits jam’ containing tree tomato. Raw fruit are on sale in the major markets here in the lowlands, but they are very bitter and acidic, even when you remove the skin.
I am currently a passion farmer. please advice on how to plant tree tomatoe, I am interested.
passion farmer, i throw away lots of passion seeds, let me know if u would like, i also want to plant them, i need practical advice, i think tree tomato came from south america
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