Not particularly inspiring at first glance, but then I googled “tule,” a word I hand’t come across before. I figured cattails would be some kind of Thypha. Tules turn out to be types of sedges, although some people seem to use the words interchangeably, or indeed together. Anyway, tules have an interesting ethnobotany in the American Southwest, along with other geophytes.
Nibbles: Diversified farming, Appropriate crops, Alcohol, IPR
- “Sangeeta also runs a farm-field school to teach farmers about vermin-compost, mushroom farming, bee keeping and dairy farming.”
- For the majority of Afghan farmers and sharecroppers, poppy cultivation is no less than a desperate survival strategy.
- “… human fondness for alcohol comes from our past seeking of energy rich plants.”
- Geoff Tansey, one of the authors, talks about the patenting of life at the launch of the IDRC book The Future Control of Food.
Nibbles: Food, Organic, Halophyte, Aromatic, Botanical garden, Coffee, Verroa mite, Pastoralists
- What’s good here? I love globalization.
- An organic oasis in Egypt.
- Today’s crop of the future: Salicornia.
- English lavender?
- Florida botanical garden collects plants threatened by climate change.
- “Los Delirios is a blend of Caturra, Typica, and Bourbon beans grown near Esteli, Nicaragua.”
- Fungus to help honey bees fight mites.
- “During our grandfathers’ time there were different types of grasses here, some for the cows and others for the goats and sheep. Now there’s no grass, the land has become barren.”
Nibbles: Flax, Pomegranates
- Irish linen returns.
- Evil Fruit Lord praises Pomegranate book.
Roman capers
Couldn’t resist this shot the other evening. Those are capers clinging to the remains of the Ponte Rotto in Rome. Wonder if anyone ever collects them. Not so much hidden harvest as hard-to-reach harvest.