Cooking – Page 156 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

October 28, 2008October 28, 2008

Nibbles: Nibbles, Nibbles, Nibbles

October 27, 2008October 27, 2008

Nibbles: Creole cooking, Cattle, Greenhouses, Cartograms

Seychelles’ “living botanical herbarium of Creole Culture.”
Kerala tries to save Vechur cattle.
Terra Madre day 3: Tom ♥ Vandana.
Pix of how intelligent greenhouses can be used to grow huge vegetables. I wonder if these technique can be applied to regenerating accessions in genebanks
Don’t you just love cartograms?

October 25, 2008October 25, 2008

Nibbles: Cereal, Bushmeat, Aquaculture, Olive oil

Neolithic parboiled bulgur wheat.
Applying “catch shares” to bushmeat.
The pros and cons of fish farming in Latin America.
“It’s a masochistic business. Masochistic.”

October 24, 2008October 24, 2008

Nibbles: Bananas, Avocadoes, Slow Food, Chilli, Sweet potatoes

Red bananas: one man’s story.
Avocado mayonnaise: one woman’s story.
Terra Madre, Day 1: one man’s story. Almost like being there.
Indoor hot pepper: someone’s grandad’s story.
Sweet potatoes: several people’s stories.

October 23, 2008October 23, 2008

Nibbles: Milk, Capsicum, Beef, Fruits

Adventures in Food No. 1: Camel milk chocolate.
Adventures in Food No. 2: Hawaiian Chili Water.
Adventures in Food No. 3: Beef.
Adventures in Food No. 4: Fruits from abandoned orchards.

1. Ancient farmers didn’t have to wait for the genetic diversity that made domestication possible. They selected from variation already present in wild plants, including the ancestors of rice and maize. Domestication was as much about spotting (or happening upon) useful differences as creating new ones.
2. English colonists in America called Indigenous dogs “wolves,” revealing as much about colonial perceptions as about the animals themselves. This history of Indigenous dogs shows how unfamiliar animals were classified through peculiarly European ideas about wildness.
3. Austria is bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life. Saving old varieties in genebanks is one thing: getting people to grow, sell and eat them is another, but it can be done. Or at least tried.
4. Jordan’s olive-oil heritage centres on traditional varieties such as Nabali and ancient Rumi trees, but most production is consumed locally, leaving exports limited and making provenance, cultivar and harvest date important indicators for buyers. Compare and contrast with Austrian apples.
5. Small island developing states have distinctive food cultures and ingredients, but face particular challenges in building sustainable and resilient food systems. FAO’s A Taste of SIDS explores the connections between island food, biodiversity and culinary heritage. Nice to see diversity within crops considered, though a few local variety names would have been nice.
Published on October 21, 2026