This EU-funded project has looked at all the national parks and reserves in Africa and assessed the contribution each makes to conserving biodiversity as part of the overall system of protected areas. Really an incredible job. Mainly dealing with animals, however, so I wonder if something similar could be done with things like wild crop relatives or something. Also, could these techniques be applied to in situ crop conservation?
Latin cooking
This piece on the polyphenolic content of yearba mate (llex paraguariensis), a tea-like drink traditionally consumed in South America by pouring boiling water onto leaves held in a seasoned gourd, led me to this interesting-sounding book on Hispanic foods in general. Polyphenols are antioxidants and the food industry wants to add them to juices and teas.
Olive oil tourism
National Public Radio has a nice piece on making and tasting olive oil in Italy.
Cabbage capital
Here’s a candidate for “World Capital of Cabbage”: Bijeljina, in Bosnia.
World crop capitals?
The post a couple of days back about horseradish got me thinking about the whole “Capital of the World” thing. And of course it turns out Wikipedia has a long list of cities that call themselves the world capital of something or other. Here are the ones for crops (and one domesticated animal):
- Almond Capital of the World – Sacramento, California, Chico, California, USA
- Apple Capital of the World – Wenatchee, Washington, USA
- Apricot Capital of the World – Patterson, California, USA
- Artichoke Center of the World – Castroville, California, USA
- Avocado Capital of the World – Fallbrook, California, USA
- Blueberry Capital of the World – Oxford, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Broccoli Capital of the World – Greenfield, California, USA
- Carrot Capital of the World – Ohakune, New Zealand
- Cherry Capital of the World – Traverse City, Michigan, USA
- Date Capital of the World – Indio, California, USA
- Garlic Capital of the World – Gilroy, California, USA
- Grape Capital of the World – Lodi, California, USA
- Horseradish Capital of the World – Tulelake, California, USA
- Kiwifruit Capital of the world – Te Puke, New Zealand
- Mule Capital of the World – Columbia, Tennessee, USA
- Pear Capital of the World – Kelseyville, California
- Raisin Capital of the World – Selma, California, Fresno, California, USA
- Strawberry Capital of the World – Oxnard, California, USA
- Winter Strawberry Capital of the World – Plant City, Florida, USA
You’ll notice something of a disagreement over horseradish! Anyway, unsurprisingly perhaps, most of these places are in the US, and indeed California. So I was thinking: what would be the real Avocado Capital of the World, for example? I would vote for Antigua in Guatemala, where a couple of important varieties originated. The California Avocado Society (I think) put a plaque in the central plaza some years back commemorating the contribution of the area to the California avocado industry. The famous plant explorer Wilson Popenoe had a house there. Here’s a history of the avocado. And here’s an interesting account of avocado collecting in Guatemala. Any other ideas? What would naming a city a world capital for a crop do for the conservation of that crop?