- A drug company is almost ready to go with a pain reliever from the Peruvian rainforest, based on Acmella oleracea, “also known as toothache plant”. Clues, wherever you look.
- Why biodiverse beehives do better. It’s partly down to biodiverse bacteria.
- Producing blood oranges anywhere. I’ll enjoy my Sicilian ones more, now I know why only some are bloody.
- A hymn to the diversity of fermented milk products.
- Interview with Melaku Worede of Ethiopia; “we are still losing diversity at an alarming rate”.
- Rajiv Shah, administrator of USAID, explains what it is all about.
I just bought a “Morro” Blood Orange tree yesterday- I live in Silicon Valley California (San Francisco Bay Area), and this variety is said to grow well here in our maritime- influenced climate (in fact, citrus is very popular in home gardens all over the SF Peninsula). A vendor at our farmer’s market sells them, and they grow them inland from the San Francisco area. So the article referenced in your Nibbles says that they only grow reliably near Sicily, but perhaps Northern California will be the new blood orange source? Although a grower did tell me that Morro has been crossed with other oranges to get a larger fruit, thus diluting the intoxicating berry-like flavor; a shame.
thanks for the heads-up on the article!
I hope that tree grows well and gives you all you expect, and more. The article seems to be saying that it needs some cold during the winter; whether you’ll get enough cold where you are, I cannot say. Even the ones from Sicily are patchy, some like garnets, others pale amber.
Thanks Jeremy, actually we get some good chill hours in our area, and fruit trees that require chill do well here. It’s true that year to year there can be variations, though.
I found the video very interesting too- got me wondering if introducing the Ruby gene for the particular anthocyanin to a sweet orange (as they suggest) might affect the taste? Would you expect to get the rasberry-like flavor of the blood orange by transferring just the Ruby gene? I can see how it may bring health benefits associated with the anthocyanin, but I’ll count on my Morro to get that that unique flavor and lovely aroma.