- Vavilov does radishes.
- “How would you describe the smell and taste of a fresh white truffle?“
- “The gene … is in an identity crisis.”
- “The basic roll-with-a-hole concept is centuries old.”
- “He slid her gently into a nylon sack and hung her from a scale on which she clocked two kilograms, then slid her out and into the V of a varnished plywood measuring board, where she lay quietly, like a metre-long slab of tenderloin.”
- “Activists” buttonhole Obama.
- The Afghan pomegranate to hit supermarket shelves.
Nibbles: Food, Potatoes, Medicine, Bees, Beer, Food miles, Fungi, Fruits cubed
- “Food is the most cost-effective intervention.”
- Peru promotes potatoes.
- The Importance of Biodiversity to Medicine. Anyone got access? Any mention of nutrition?
- EU Says bees should rest. Problem solved.
- Extreme beer. All problems solved.
- Eat local? I don’t think so.
- Itchy Italian gourmands gutted over climate change-caused truffle troubles.
- Mulberry trees pay the price for immodesty.
- While fig trees planted by Jesuits survive. It’s a funny old world. Fruit tree trifecta in play.
- And it comes in! Today’s saving-the-frigging-English-apple story comes to you from The Guardian. Enough already, the English apple is going to be fine.
Nibbles: Spuds, Water, Fungi
- Potatoes from seed. Anyone (with a garden) can do this.
- Orwell on irrigation.
- Edible phonebooks (some assembly needed).
Discourse for dinner
This is not just any blog. It is a local blog. Or at least you could pretend I live in your street, and shop in your mall. Does that makes this post more palatable?
It seems to work that way with food. At least where I come from, a dish that is “from our own garden” is supposed to be of high quality, not a sign of poverty. Chad Nilep, in an elegant post on the Linguistic Anthropology blog reflects on the Japanese preference for “naichimai”, Japanese grown rice ((Ed.: Coincidentally, there’s more on Japanese crops over at Vaviblog today.)):
Thus (I thought to myself this afternoon), while consuming naichimai, Japanese consumers enjoy not only the material element of the rice itself, but also the melancholic discourses of national nostalgia, imagined though they may be.
But you could also imagine that I live in a far and exotic place where we produce and eat food that you can only envy. Europe is full of that tradition: ham and cheese from Parma, bubbly wine from Champagne. You name it.
Ask for the main discourse the next time you are eating out.
Nibbles: US, Wheat, Drylands, Cacao, Fast food, Cheese, Dogs
- USDA goes to the closets.
- Brazil to teach Tunisia how to grow wheat. Exchange of germplasm involved.
- ICRISAT DG makes a pitch for dryland farmers. And aquaculturists?
- A plan for cacao sustainability in Africa agreed. Germplasm not involved?
- Americans eat a lot of corn. A lot.
- The romance of cheese-making. Romance? These people should get out more.
- Peru offers Obamas a “cute” puppy. I still prefer the Mexican version.