Author: Jeremy Cherfas

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“Warty vegetable comes to the rescue”

It looks like a wart-covered zucchini and has an equally unappetising name, but experts say it could help rescue the world’s population from malnutrition and disease.

You can’t always trust a journalist to get it absolutely right, but the above quote does seem to be heaping the manure on just a bit too high. The new boss of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center is in Australia talking up his book, which includes the bitter gourd or bitter melon, Momordica charantia. He’s full of sensible advice to Australians, to whit:

“The take-home message for Australians is to eat as many varied vegetables as you can – different colours, orange, green – and make sure you have them in balance with the rest of the diet. … cut back on some of the meat consumption, have less carbohydrates and increase the fruit and vegetable intake, then you will live a longer and healthier life”.

But what kind of a lede would that make?

Thanks Dirk for the tip.

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Bush wild tomatoes

Someone called James Sultana emailed us to ask: “Where can get some bush wild tomatoes”.

I was forced to reply in pedant mode:

Could you be a little bit more specific? What do you mean by a “bush
wild tomato”? A wild relative of the tomato? Or some other species
(maybe Australian?) that goes by that name?

Alas, Jim hadn’t entered his email correctly in our contact form, so my reply bounced right back. So, if you’re reading this, Jim, answer the question and we’ll do our best to help. And the rest of you, what might a “bush wild tomato” be?

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A neck bred for biting

Quick, what do you think of when I say “Transylvania”? Right. And where do vampires generally bite? Right again: on the neck. So, what are we to make of a breed of chicken called the Transylvanian Naked Neck? That is was bred to be bitten?

Transylvanian Naked Neck rooster
Transylvanian Naked Neck rooster
I think not. Naturally I was more than piqued when I saw Transylvanian Naked Neck in the subject line of a mailing list Luigi hangs out on. Ugly buggers, we both agreed, but one fancier swears that “over a dozen hens have chosen Turkey-Neck ((That’s him over there on the left.)) as their heart-throb. We think this is because he’s gentle with girlfriends and very stern with younger, oversexed roosters.” The condition is apparently the result of a single gene that “affects the arrangement of feather-growing tracts over the chicken’s body”. Indeed, it reduces the density of feathers all over the chicken, “but this is not evident until the bird is handled”. The lack of insulation means that naked neck breeds should be given extra protection against low temperatures, but that “does not detract from the utility of the bird”.

As for the original discussion, it ended with reference to a paper Prospects for conserving traditional poultry breeds of the Carpathian Basin in which the Transylvanian Naked Neck is just one of the breeds considered. There’s a bunch of stuff in there about why the breeds are valuable and how they’re being conserved, and lots of pictures. But not an answer to the fundamental question: What (if any) evolutionary value does a naked neck give its holder? Probably none. And if they suffer more in cold weather it could even be harmful, but at least some people, and not just photophobic immortals, find them attractive. Which is a good enough reason to conserve them. Luigi reckons they probably taste good too.

Photo by Flint-Hill, used with permission.