Mainstream

January 7, 2009January 7, 2009

Eating Fluffy

Check out this longish meditation on Peru’s main source of protein. Recipe included. Delicious!

And while we’re on the subject of protein on the hoof, as it were, the BBC has a great series of photos of the season of cattle crossings along the River Niger in Mali.

December 15, 2008December 15, 2008

Nibbles: Cheese, Seeds, Elephants

Never mind big-auto, bail-out for big cheese.
Millennium Seed Bank (still) pleading poverty.
Kimani avoids crops, one day at a time.

December 12, 2008May 3, 2010

Micronesian bananas on display

Lois Englberger of the Island Food Community of Pohnpei tells us that “Dana Lee Ling is doing some exciting work on conservation and promotion of Pohnpei banana varieties, along with his teaching at the College of Micronesia-FSM.” The College has an ethnogarden, which includes 14 banana varieties, among many other things.

December 12, 2008December 12, 2008

Nibbles: Frogs, Noni, Cassava etc, Commons, Starch, Aurochs, Oats

Frog porridge.
Noni in excruciating depth.
Caribbean seeks food security, turns to “cassava, sweet potato, bananas, yams and many others”.
Uncommonly interesting article on commons.
Nice summary of the amylase-gene-copy-number-and-starch-in-the-diet story.
Dutch aurochs survived longer than thought.
Yes, we have no oats.

December 11, 2008December 11, 2008

Colonial farming brought to life

Slate reporter does stint as historical re-enactor at the living museum that is the Claude Moore Colonial Farm in Virginia — and waxes lyrical about some of her colleagues:

I was particularly entertained by the turkeys. These were not the tasteless, denatured modern grotesques bred to be so short-legged and heavy-breasted that they can no longer mate, but a heritage breed, Black Spanish.

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