Category: Neglected species

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Smell this

Will perfume smell more delicious if the labdanum in it has been scraped off the beards of Cretan goats?

Ah, how I love to meander the byways of economic biology. Who knew that Cretan rock roses (Cistus creticus) produce a resin called labdanum? That labdanum, among many other uses, is a base note in perfume not unlike the fabled ambergris? Or that the best quality labdanum is gathered adventitiously, as it were, by goats grazing on Cretan herbage (rather like that civet-cat coffee)?

I didn’t either. But now you can too, thanks to the Human Flower Project.

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Land of silk and honey

We’ve had another enquiry about silk-making in Kenya, which is one of our most commented-on stories, so I was prompted to go and look for more information. I hadn’t really taken in before that the reason the projects promote bees and silkworms together is that (some?) African silk moths eat the leaves of Acacias, whose flowers are a source of nectar for bees. Win-win.

Anyway, back to the search for further information. There really isn’t that much. Luigi had already pointed to UNDP’s project, which doesn’t look as if it has changed much since then. New Agriculturalist had an article on sericulture a little more than a year ago, Kambogo Women’s Group is raising silkworms and feeding them on mulberry leaves, somewhat different from the wild silkworms feeding on acacia that are the focus of UNDP and IFAD efforts in Mwingi District. I also turned up some rough TV news footage here; it is unedited and pretty blurry, but it gives a rough idea of some of the things being done.

IFAD’s funding seems to have ended in 2004. People in Kenya clearly want to know more. So why isn’t more information available? And just what is the current state of the silk business in Kenya?

One of our readers must know more. Share, please.

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Poor man’s corn

To those who dont know, sorghum and millet are the poor man’s corn, very difficult to process into a digestible (eatable) form. Sorghum and millet were considered in my time as forrage, animal feed, unfit for human consumption.

Interesting perspective, from a water engineer, no less. Of course, one of the advantages of sorghum and millet might be that they don’t need water engineers quite as much as corn.

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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=XjcjCCx3BWY

I’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.