Author: Luigi Guarino

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Nibbles: Spinifex industry, Tsiperifery pepper, Pacific taro, Coffee double, Guadeloupe genebanks, Cucumber history, Gourmet maize, Peruvian cuisine, Heirloom rice

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Squashing that old old squash seeds story

As the story goes, some six years ago, during an archeological dig on the Menomonie Reservation, a clay ball was unearthed. It was clear that there was something inside of this clay ball and, when opened, what was found were squash seeds, carbon dated to 800 years old. Some of these seeds were planted and they grew and bore fruit.

You may remember that from an article we Nibbled last summer. Well, sadly, it ain’t so.

It’s a great story, said Kenton Lobe, an environmental studies professor at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And though Lobe can attest to the size of the squash as grown for the last three years by his students at the university’s farm, the rest of the story is untrue, he said.

But the real story is still pretty cool.

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Organic boost

Interesting news for everyone interested in organic agriculture, whatever exactly that might be.

In India, the ministry of agriculture has decided to set up a research institution devoted to the subject, the National Organic Farming Research Institute (NOFRI).

Setting up the institute in Sikkim assumes significance as it is the only state in the country which has adopted organic farming on a universal basis (as a fully organic state).

Meanwhile, half-way around the world from Sikkim, a couple of organic food companies, Organic Valley and Clif Bar & Co., plus local philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge, have established a $2 million endowment at UW-Madison’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It funds the US’s (the world’s?) first endowed chair focused on plant breeding for organic crops. The first incumbent is famous maize breeder and agronomy professor at UW-Madison, Bill Tracy.

Tracy said the funding will establish the first permanent graduate program for plant breeding of organic crops and create an incentive for other professors to teach more courses specific to organic farming.

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Nibbles: Wild tomatoes, Wild Allium, Early burials, Organic carrots

  • “By fitting gold wires to the back of individual whitefly and measuring the electro-chemical signals as they fed on the plant sap, the team found the insects spent more time ‘roaming’ and less time feeding on the wild varieties than those which settled on the commercial plants.”
  • New Iraqi plants includes onion wild relative.
  • Early farmers couldn’t stop fiddling with the bones of their dead.
  • “That message has come through clearly. Flavor is a priority because if people don’t want to eat carrots, they’re not going to buy them.”