Fruits and nuts

April 20, 2009January 21, 2020

Nibbles: Pepper, Persimmons, Prosopis, Bio-banking

Is Kampot pepper the best in the world?
How the Japanese deal with persimmons.
Making the Atacama bloom. Sort of.
Bio-banking is all well and good, but will it be applicable to agrobiodiversity as well as orchids and pandas?

Wouldn’t you know it. That Kampot pepper link has rotted away. But you can still find the original thanks to The Wayback Machine.

April 17, 2009June 28, 2009

Nibbles: Taro, NTFP, Maca, Perils of new crops, Nabhan, Cockfighting, Old wine, Maya nut, Cassava Brown Streak Virus

University of Hawaii’s work on taro summarized.
Watch out for FAO’s new NWFP-Digest. Non-timber, non-wood; what’s the difference?
The transition of maca from neglect to market prominence. Free download.
Maize and malaria in Ethiopia.
Gary Nabhan interviewed. Again.
NPR on the limits of the Green Revolution.
Cocks still fighting in India.
The early Egyptians “…were very aware of the benefits that natural additives can haveâ€”especially if dissolved into an alcoholic medium, like wine or beer.”
Brosimum alicastrum to the rescue.
Uganda’s biofuel hopes dashed by virus? Say it aint so.

April 16, 2009April 16, 2009

Nibbles: Drugs, Horticulture, Nutritional composition, Health, Rice, Coconut

“Coffee and cocoa yes, coca no.”
1st All Africa Horticulture Congress.
Carotenoid and vitamin content of Micronesian atoll foods: Pandanus (Pandanus tectorius) and garlic pear (Crataeva speciosa) fruit.
A Family Year: a 5-part television series focusing on the health and environmental threats facing families in Russia and Central Europe.
Natbar Sarangi: one man Indian rice genebank.
Climate change “might hinder coconut production“.

April 14, 2009

Nibbles: Spuds, Bees, Strawberries

Miss Hathorn plants true potato seed. Good luck.
In the US? Got space? Grow sunflowers and count bees. Via.
George Orwell clones Fragaria.

April 7, 2009April 7, 2009

More complex, more interesting, more hopeful

There is simply no way to summarize Willie Smits‘ Ted Talk. It is a masterful description of putting the complexity in an agricultural ecosystem to work to solve the problems of humans and orang-utans. Just astonishing. And so much more intellectually satisfying than a simplified system. Luscious.