Wild relatives of apples, cherries, almonds and grapes are to be found in this landscape, apparently. More later on my trip.
Kebab and apple strudel
A speaker at the International Scientific Symposium Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets alerted me to the existence of the EuroFIR (European Food Information Resource) project.
EuroFIR aims to provide the first comprehensive pan-European food information resource, using state-of-the-art database linking, to allow effective management, updating, extending and comparability.
Sounds pretty dry, but the stuff on traditional and ethnic foods is actually rather fun.
Nibbles: Apple Diversity, Sorghum, Ugandan organics, Cows, CABI, Giant pumpkin, Nutrigenomics, SOTW2
- Apple diversity on display at Terra Madre.
- A drought-resistant sorghum for Karamoja. Read the script of a radio programme.
- CIAT advises Ugandan farmers: produce what you can sell, don’t sell what you can produce. Hmmmn.
- Local cow breeds and Protected Designation of Origin cheeses. There’s a conclusion here struggling to emerge, but I can’t recognize it. Help me.
- CABI pushes for crop diversification. Get in line!
- Where giant pumpkins come from.
- Nutritionists should get to grips with human diversity.
- 2nd State of the World’s PGRFA launched by FAO to much fanfare. And usual incorrect figures on genetic erosion. Oh I give up.
Nibbles: Milk-drinking, Diversity and stability, Indian sheep, Development of the African savannah, Teaching rice, Silk, Diverse diet, Huge phallic inflorescences
- Der Spiegel does its usual impressive number, this time on the Völkerwanderung. Via.
- Diversity and stability in grasslands. Yes, there’s a connection.
- Sheep breeds in India deconstructed.
- The future of the Guinea savannah. Probably not that great.
- IRRI teaches Singaporean cityslickers to grow rice.
- Silk beginning to fade where it was born.
- The diverse benefits of an agrobiodiverse diet. Should someone tell rich Indians?
- Tales of two giant inflorescences. What are the odds?
Giant southern curled mustard in the Traditional Croplands
I couldn’t identify one of the plants in the Traditional Croplands exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian, but a quick post on their Facebook page solved the puzzle. Here’s the plant.
It turns out to be Giant Southern Curled Mustard, which GRIN suggests is Brassica juncea subsp. integrifolia var. crispifolia. This is described as an “old southern favourite,” or words to that effect, by many of the heirloom seed merchants I consulted online. There is also an ethnobotanical record online of the species being used by Native Americans, but only as a medicinal, at least in the book I was able to consult. Perhaps it is a relatively recent adoption.