Caveman Forecaster is a blog about “the art and science of time series analysis and forecasting.” There was a post about a month ago about bedbugs that really piqued my interest. It seems that bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) were virtually eradicated in the US fifty years ago, but are making a comeback. That has even led to the organization of a National Bedbug Summit, which took place last month. The post was mostly about using Google search data to monitor and predict the seasonal outbreaks and longer-term trends. But it got me looking into the reasons for the resurgence, and wikipedia has a reasonable summary of that, with plenty of references. Basically, genetic diversity studies suggest that there was never complete eradication, but that the pesticide-resistant populations moved to alternate hosts, “have slowly been propagating in poultry facilities, and have made their way back to human hosts via the poultry workers.” So here’s another example of a human pest which can also hang out with agrobiodiversity, and jump back and forth.
Visualizing agrobiodiversity in markets
I’ve just come across two Flickr groups which are intensely interesting from an agrobiodiversity perspective. Flickr is a photo sharing site, and I have in fact blogged about it before here, for example on how it could be used to map crop diversity. The two groups bring together photos taken in markets, with a lot of fruits and vegetables featured. As with my previous post on tomatoes, have a look at the mapping option in particular. A great time-waster, but I bet it could be used to look at geographic patterns in vegetable diversity in markets.
So much, much more than a weed
According to self-described “cultivator” David Randall in The Independent, it’s going to be a bumper year for dandelions in the UK.
Yet not everyone is clapping their hands with glee. According to reports in less ecologically sensitive newspapers, keen gardeners and lawn obsessives see dandelions as trouble, blemishes to their idea of contrived perfection, the removal of whose deep taproots can rick the sturdiest of backs. To them, dandelions are the enemy, insurgent forces of nature, forever pushing aside the “real” garden flowers, and taking over. They are thus condemned, in that most loaded of horticultural terms, as “weeds”.
This word, to those of us who have been gardening with dandelions for years, is not only wrong, but hurtful. Taraxacum officinale, as we cultivators call it, is a much undervalued addition to any plot. Not only do its golden rosettes brighten the dingiest corner, but you can use it to construct a salad, make an acceptable table wine, or even, when it runs to seed, tell the time. And you can’t say that about all those bloody purple alliums of which Chelsea’s show gardeners are so fond.
Quite right. Dandelions have a long history of use in medicine, yes, but also food. Although they do take some preparation. And of course there’s wine too. All this, plus an interesting taxonomy, and an endangered endemic relative. What more can you ask for? Weed indeed.
“Edible Expeditions” exhibition excites exceedingly
The Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, “North America’s oldest existing public conservatory,” has an exhibition on until November called “Edible Expeditions.”
It’s a chance to see food in the wild as visitors take a discovery journey of edible plants from around the world. Arranged in lush demonstration gardens, Edible Expeditions highlights the many delicious products that we enjoy from tropical countries like chocolate, vanilla, coffee, rice and spices galore. Interactive demonstrations help visitors understand how their food goes from vine to dine. And families will enjoy the many hands on Edibilicious activities that allow children to explore tropical roots, fruits, leaves and seeds with their senses.
Sounds great, but we’d like to hear about it firsthand. If anybody out there goes, let us know what you thought of it. Via.
Nibbles: Savannah
- “Experimental botany, murderous pirates, secret tunnels and an all you can eat buffet; there are very few places where these things can all be found together.”