Archaeology

Nibbles: Heirloom rice, Kava traditions, State turnip, Japanese paper, Potato Day, Madagascar invasion

There’s Carolina Gold in them thar hills. Latest in a long list…
Kava in the Pacific, island by island.
A really ugly heirloom turnip is Vermont’s state vegetable. In other news, there are state vegetables.
This video will make you want to make your own paper, I guarantee it.
Oh come on, we missed Peru’s National Potato Day?
Crop remains confirm Malagasy origins. But was Carolina Gold among them? Here’s the paper.

How to look for stuff in Chile’s genebank.
How colonial Americans gardened. And later built stuff out of produce.
How Romans ate.
How Armenians are (still) making wine.
How to figure out where your coffee comes from.
How the Pacific is saving its crop diversity.
How organic agriculture delivers benefits, and how it does not.
How GMOs deliver benefits, and how they do not. By the same person as the above.

“Friends don’t let friends make bar plots.” Of course they don’t.
Friend also don’t let friends hype the carrot and cassava genomes.
“The food of the true revolutionary is the red pepper. And he who cannot endure red peppers is also unable to fight:”  chili con China.
Salvatore Ceccarelli, who should know, on the centrality of seed. And the guys from Experimental Farm Network would agree.
Yes, you can now have organic tej.
“In theory…the undoubted value of these natural treasures should be reflected in their price, which should rise steeply as they become scarcer… In practice, natural assets are often hard to price well, if at all.”
A “Himalayan solution” for pomegranate breeding.
Nutsedge definitely needs a new name.
First formal record of the baobab in Uganda.
Wind-resistant tree germplasm for the Pacific. Much needed.