Vegetables

July 8, 2009July 8, 2009

Obligatory photos of agricultural biodiversity in Thai floating market go online to stifled yawns

I’m very ignorant about SE Asia, so I assumed that the famous (or infamous) “floating market of Bangkok” would be in Bangkok, rather than over 100km away. I also didn’t really expect it to be quite the tourist trap it is. Oh well. But they do sell a remarkable variety of fruits, vegetables and other assorted agrobiodiversity there. Go to my Flickr page and leave as many identifications as you can.

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July 2, 2009July 2, 2009

Nibbles: Grains, Cuba, Wine, Raspberries, Film, Bio-char, European market regulations

Perennial grains need your help.
“In Cuba no one is helpless or dying of hunger.”
Biodiversity in wine champion. But what about other cultivated species?
“It’s called Ukee and it is a very special red raspberry“. Jeremy says “BTDTGTTS.”
A sceptic evaluates “Food, Inc.”. Jeremy says “we shall see”.
“I hope that the charcoal fever passes and the zealots and rent seekers move on to the next big fantasy”. May they pyrolize in Hell.
Welcome, “curly cucumbers, crooked carrots and mottled mushrooms“!

June 25, 2009June 25, 2009

You know you have a Kikuyu in the house…

…when you find the pumpkin (kahurura) plants defoliated to colour the mashed potatoes.

June 24, 2009

Nibbles: Granaries, Scotland, Heirlooms, Argan

World’s oldest granaries. Storage predates cultivation.
Scots go nuts for forested agriculture.
“I pity the poor servers whose duty it will be to describe not only the vegetables’ provenance, but their pedigree as well.”
All about argan.

June 20, 2009June 21, 2009

Chile pepper domestication investigated

I haven’t read the paper on Capsicum annuum domestication by Seung-Chul Kim and colleagues in the June 2009 issue of the American Journal of Botany, but the EurekAlert piece on it is definitely intriguing. I was particularly struck by the finding that genetic differentiation between geographically distant populations is higher for the cultivated than for the wild species. That may be because people don’t move pepper seeds nearly as far as birds. Also, it seems this particular pepper should be included in the lengthening list of crops that were probably domesticated in more than one place. Need to get that pdf.