Really, who’d be a livestock keeper these days? In Mongolia, Russia, or Pakistan.
LATE: Ok, maybe in Canada?
Local leafy greens go viral in Kenya
I continue to be amazed by the progress being made by — or, better, the resurgence of — indigenous leafy greens in Kenya. You can now buy managu (Solanum scabrum?) nicely packaged in supermarkets. Although it is also sold loose on the street.
And this is what the plant looks like.
I found it in my sister-in-law’s homegarden in Limuru, along with Amaranthus. She didn’t grow either of them until a couple of years back. Progress. More holiday snaps here.
Fruit diversity in SE Europe
Fuad Gasi tells us about an interesting effort to document the diversity of fruits in the former Yugoslavia.
A new regional collaboration between the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Sarajevo and the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb has been established in the field of fruit (including Vitis) genetic resources. This collaboration is being strengthened through the SEEDNet project (South East European Network on Plant Genetic Resources) financed by SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency). So far, we have had a publication on apple genetic resources in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of this collaboration. We are currently preparing a similar publication on plum genetic resources that will present results of a study made on autochthonous plums from B&H, Croatia and Serbia, focusing mainly on different synonyms of Pozegaca, but not exclusively (molecular and morphological data, as well as some food processing qualities). Similar work has been done on the chestnut and is currently being done on the pear.
Itadakimasu!
Just before digging in, whether it be a seven-course dinner or a sample at a supermarket, it’s polite to say “itadakimasu” (I will receive).
In Japan that is. But does it really just mean “I will receive”? According to my source on all things Japanese a fuller rendering would in fact be:
Thank you to everything and everyone involved in providing this food to me — the sun and the earth and the water for making it possible, the plants and animals that grew to be the food, the farmer who grew them and the person who took it to market and the person who sold it in the market and the person who bought it and the person who prepared the food and the person who laid the table, and everyone who enabled these people to play their part.
Does any other culture heap praise on the whole food system in this way at every snack and meal?
Manihot esculenta, I presume?
A blog post from Kew’s archivists on the Zambesi Expedition of 1858-1864 led me to Dr Livingstone’s papers, among which I stumbled on this wonderful letter to Joseph D. Hooker:
Hadley Green Barnet 11th July 1857
My Dear Dr Hooker
I beg to return you my hearty thanks for your note and the trouble you have been at in deciphering the mere fragments submitted to you. Your willingness to examine anything botanical will certainly make me more anxious to secure something for you in Africa more worthy of your time. We get meal of a kind of millet in Londa which I think is the lesser bird seed. It grows on a high stalk in this way. The seeds are small & a {slight tinge} of slate colour on the outer scale. What is the botanical name for it? It is so extensively cultiv-{ated} in Africa I think you must know. The Holcus Sorghum is the most general article in use. We speak of it as Caffre corn. Is that correct?
There are two kinds of Manioc. One sweet the other bitter & poisonous they are both mentioned in a work by Daniel on the West Coast but I have not that work nearer at hand than Linyanti so I beg to trouble you to tell me the proper names of the two species of Manioc, the Jatropha Manihot and –
As I am boring with questions. Have you the proper names for the melons which form such an important article of support on the Kalahari Desert and of one there which has the flavour of an apple. What is the name of the Palm which when the leaves are broken off gives the idea of it being triangular The ends of the leaf stalks stick on and give it the appearance referred to. A fruit mentioned at the end of Bowdich’s work with by the name Masuka was found by me in very large quantities. It is good. As it seems know can I have the proper name. Now please just attend or not to these questions as it is convenient – though I send them it is not because I think I have any claim on your time or attention – I am only putting you in the way of doing an act of charity to yours &c David Livingstone
Now, how to find the reply?
And with that, dear reader, I take my leave of you for about three weeks, which I will spend not too far, relatively speaking, from where Stanley found Livingstone. In fact, I should already be there…