Nibbles

Nibbles: Robin Graham RIP, Fred Bliss award, Seed production, Chile spuds, Indian goats, Ancient bread, Horner Bier, Cheap food, Vigna, Singing dog, Fungal diversity

Remembering Robin Graham, prophet of biofortification.
Honouring plant breeder supreme Fred Blisss.
Need to produce seed of all those new varieties that breeders come up with.
And save the stuff they will replace: The Economist does the potatoes of Chiloé.
Hey, it’s not just about the crops: conserving goats on farm in India.
The experimental archaeology of bread thrives under corona. And if you were intrigued by the potato detoxification reference, find the details on Bill Schindler’s website. And not only bread and potatoes, also beer…
Like Mozart’s oat beer? Which was apparently killed off by lager back in Austria but is now available in Denver.
Food shouldn’t be cheap, it should be affordable, and not only for those who consume it. Ancient Egyptian bread will be exempted.
No way Kenyan coffee can be described as cheap. h/t Jeremy’s newsletter: have you subscribed yet?
I don’t know how cheap mungbean is in Myanmar, but it seems to be very valuable.
The PNG singing dog is not extinct in the wild after all? Priceless.
Combination of key and photo guide to the identification of European fungi. Worth its weight in truffles. Source.

Vavilov in Spanish.
Song about the potato Solanum ajanhuiri from Aymara to Spanish to English.
Using blockchain to trace biofortified seeds. Maybe.
Vincent Lebot on the opportunity that Covid-19 represents for traditional Pacific crops. Silver lining.
Botanic gardens to the rescue. Wouldn’t that be cool.

All-Africa Summit on Diversifying Food Systems with African Traditional Vegetables to Increase Health, Nutrition and Wealth. New dates! 25-28 January 2021.
“How do you like Cocoa and Coffee? Saving crops, protecting culture, sustaining livelihoods.” Online event, 8 September. Register here.
How the US prairies got wheat, a soil classification, tree shelter belts and weeds from the Russian steppes, thanks to Mennonite farmers and emigre Jewish scientists. Entertaining podcast on what sounds like a fascinating book. Oh and there’s a video too. Nice Vavilov anecdote.
History of Spices 101.
Quick summary of coconut research and development in Tanzania.
A genebank gets off the ground in Jordan.
How the mosquito Aedes aegypti got domesticated. Yeah, domesticated.
Texas and Georgia move into jamón ibérico: acorns off the menu, “pecans, peanuts and sunflower” on. Hilarity ensues.
The USDA National Plant Germplasm System gets a new database. Go crazy.
Meanwhile, Cultivariable publishes his latest evaluation data on the USDA potato germplasm (see “Evaluation Year”). Will it find its way into the above-mentioned database?

The results of the 2nd International Quinoa Research Symposium are up on YouTube.
I was today years old when I learned there’s a quinoa in Taiwan.
REALLY old English Greening apple tree dies. Sad: “When you reach your new home in the wilderness, should you ever think of me, plant these seeds.” Not all gloom, though, so do read the whole thing.
Coming conference on the medieval agricultural revolution.
Results of a dialogue on the registration of farmer varieties in SADC. Long way to go, alas.
Talk about adding value to agricultural products! But were weird local barley landraces harmed in the making of this whisky?
High value agricultural products, among other things, were used as gifts by 18th century merchants in Yemen. Not whisky, though, right? Well, actually…

Not-so-suffering sassafrass.
Another seed library, this one in Canada.
Fruit breeder Dr David Cain gets 2020 Wilder Medal from American Pomological Society.
PowerPoint on plant breeding. Dr Cain unavailable for comment.
Which species can you bank anyway? With video goodness. Which I agree is not all that unusual these days, but still.