Category: Neglected species

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Where are those haskaps anyway?

A friend was excited to see a recent Nibble about the edible blue honeysuckle berry, or haskap. Alas, as she politely pointed out, “the link goes nowhere”. Which is weird because it obviously went somewhere when we wrote about it. On checking, though, and much searching, it turns out she is right. It seems like the source was what we in the trade call a splog, a blog that is effectively nothing but spam, and I cannot find anything on the web about the 1st virtual international scientific conference about those blasted berries. So, I’m removing the link from the Nibble, but leaving the text, and adding here a couple of genuine haskap links.

There’s Haskap Canada, which has a blog, and the Plants for a Future database entry. And those links are guaranteed not dead. And if you know more about that conference, we’ll be happy to include a genuine link in future.

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Fair deal for rooibos

Before fair trade, small-scale farmers like Hendrik lived close to the breadline as prices for rooibos were squeezed by the market. But fair trade has tripled the farmers’ income. Plus, with the extra money they now get for the tea, Hendrik and his friends can invest in their future, buying their own farming equipment and their own tea court where the raw rooibos leaves are chopped and dried.

“Hendrik” is Hendrik Hesselman, from the Cedarberg region of South Africa. He’s one of 5,000 farmers from Cedarberg who produce the world’s supply of rooibos (or redbush) tea.

Mr Hesselman is a founding member of the 50-plus strong Heiveld Cooperative, which was established in 2003 — with backing from UKaid from the Department for International Development — “to get their tea recognised as Fairtrade, and to get a fair price for it.”

There are also photos, and a video on the community’s attempts to adapt to climate change. One of the things they’re doing is evaluating different “wild types” of rooibos for tolerance of drought conditions. I can’t find any reference to ex situ conservation activities, alas.