The whole of GAIA’s March issue on biodiversity conservation in protected areas is freely accessible online! Will take a while to go through that little lot. But while you’re at it, why not also check out a recent paper on how urbanization will affect protected areas.
Nibbles: Medicinal rice, Dairy, Dates, Food, Cuba, Mango
- Red rice extract prevents heart problems.
- Got milk?
- Marrakesh date palms in trouble. But back in 2002 Gary Martin was doing something about it, I thought.
- “Diet for a small planet” revisited.
- Cuba’s urban agriculture revolution.
- “The Mango Mela, an agricultural fair dedicated to the fruit, … featured only 20 varieties, compared with more than 100 last year.”
How to build a keyhole garden
Via Hills and Plains Seedsavers, a video from Send a Cow, the people behind the keyhole gardens of Lesotho. To every thing, there is a season, clearly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjcjCCx3BWYI’m going to quibble, just a bit. Not one of the veggies given a namecheck in the video could be considered local. Are there really no nutritious and neglected species that the people of Lesotho could be growing? I couldn’t find any.
And don’t miss the extended comment on my original post from Jack C, a retired Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho. His view:
If the outside world wishes to play a role in improving Lesotho, they need to be ready to put up real investments that open up non-agricultural means of economic development. Short of that, the Basotho themselves need to implement the educational, social, and land reforms necessary to give those struggling keyhole gardeners the option of leaving the land. Praise of their industriousness is welcome, but what they truly need are choices. The land can longer support them.
Salutary.
Nibbles: Taste, Guano, Breeding squared, Satellites, Subsidies, Harakeke, Pomegranate
- Who put pepper in my shiraz? Human diversity meets grape diversity meets pepper diversity.
- High-priced fertilizers bring guano back. No shit. Via.
- Rebsie breeds a unique red-podded pea. Gregor repeats, “You go girl.”
- Another backyard breeder bares all. Mass crosses, mass selection.
- Eye in the sky informs on crop performance. No comment (yet) from Larry and Sergei.
- Understanding the US Farm Bill. Questions?
- Things to do with Phormium tenax.
- Popular as a pomegranate? Via.
Where to find seeds
This just in:
Thanks for putting Semilla Besada on your list of seed suppliers. I noted your comment that you could not find a list of seeds, and I am writing to explain why:) As our seeds are heritage or heirloom varieties, they are not on the EU approved list, so it is illegal to make them available for sale. So we have created a Heritage Seed Library, and are offering the opportunity for people living in dryland environments to swap seeds, so that we can keep the genetic biodiversity going, and extend those climate adapted varieties that suit dryland conditions to similar environments. Anyone interested should simply email us through the website. In the meantime, I will put up a link as Seed Swap Club so people can see more clearly how to contact us.
all the best,
Aspen
You can find Semilla Besada among the many links on our Seeds page. And if you know of sources that aren’t there, please share.