For some reason or other, there’s been a lot in the news lately here in Kenya about sandalwood and its over-exploitation. There was a piece in the TV evening news just the other day when a huge consignment of the stuff was found in a warehouse owned by an MP. Now here’s an article from The Nation, reproduced by the excellent allAfrica.com.
British landraces
Maria Scholten has written to us with some interesting websites about British landraces. She says that as Brussels prepares a new directive on the conservation of agricultural landraces, it is important to have some idea about the landraces that still survive even in countries like the UK with a highly industrialized agriculture, and the efforts underway to conserve them.
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an English native red clover landrace marketed by a local British seed company
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a barley, probably introduced by the Vikings, being researched for marketing potential on Orkney
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a group of organic growers on Shetland working to maintain Shetland “aets†and bere barley, the historical cereals of Shetland
Thanks, Maria!
Wild food plants of Zimbabwe
According to this article in the Harare Herald, the Kellogg Foundation will be supporting research by University of Zimbabwe scientists into “wild and famine plant foods, their preparation and preservation (and) nutrient analysis … to enhance livelihood security.”
Veggies
USAToday looks at how farmers in the US are turning to “unusual” or “ethnic” vegetables to satisfy the palates of immigrants. Meanwhile, both local and exotic vegetables seem to feature in the urban gardens of Caracas.
Pharaonic medicine
Not much detail in this press release from the University of Manchester, but the idea to document what plants were used – and how – by the ancient Egyptians for medicinal purposes sounds great.