Organic space lettuce

Fresh food grown in the microgravity environment of space officially is on the menu for the first time for NASA astronauts on the International Space Station. Expedition 44 crew members, including NASA’s one-year astronaut Scott Kelly, are ready to sample the fruits of their labor after harvesting a crop of “Outredgeous” red romaine lettuce Monday, Aug. 10, from the Veggie plant growth system on the nation’s orbiting laboratory.

And I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to watch them do it.

As for Outredgeous, you can buy it online. It was bred by Frank Morton, as Matthew Dillon of the Organic Seed Alliance told me on Facebook:

The varieties that University of Wisconsin researchers recommended they grow were bred by Frank Morton, an organic farmer with no formal training in genetics, but one of the more successful vegetable breeders of our time. Farmers as seed innovators, even in space.

You can find his story online in various places.

His varieties are grown in many countries and even in space: Outredgeous, one of his most popular lettuces—so named for leaves so red that the botany students who first saw it didn’t recognize it as lettuce—is being grown on the International Space Station. (It grows quickly, has a high concentration of antioxidants, and is highly bacteria-resistant—a concern for astronauts eating raw food.)

But why not let him tell it?

My education as a plant breeder has been through several stages. The first one, just described, was based primarily on direct experience with the repeated life cycles of plants and their insect cohorts. I also read the twenty volumes of Luther Burbank’s life and work, which does not really qualify as an education in breeding these days (“Can you learn anything reading those?” one well known breeder asked). But Burbank was inspiring beyond belief, and made me believe anything was possible, given enough tries. Persistence pays.

Nibbles: Conservation genetics, African fish farming, Ecological intensification, Elderly diets, Organic breeding, Conference tweeting, Mexican maguey, African PBR

Agrobiodiversity illustrated then and now

There really is nothing like photos of agricultural biodiversity to set the pulse racing. Well, at least in our weird little corner of cyberspace. It’s been crazy over on Twitter and Facebook, what with frenzied sharing of, and commenting on, a couple of stories about, of all things, watermelons. Well, it is summer, I guess: they don’t call it the silly season for nothing.

To recap for those who do not follow us on other media, ((And why don’t you?)) people seem to have really been impressed by the photos which accompanied a story on the sequencing of the watermelon genome. Although it dates back to three years ago, for some reason it resurfaced again last week.

Flesh diversity from undomesticated to domesticated watermelon. These watermelon plants were grown at Syngenta Woodland station in CA.
Flesh diversity from undomesticated to domesticated watermelon. These watermelon plants were grown at Syngenta Woodland station in CA.

It may well have been resurrected because of a Vox.com story on how James Nienhuis, a horticulture professor at the University of Wisconsin, is using Renaissance paintings of watermelons and other produce to illustrate the changes that have been wrought by modern plant breeding. The story was later taken up by others, and bounced around a lot. And all long before National Watermelon Day. And also before the AoB post on watermelon origins.

Albert Eckhout 1610-1666 Brazilian fruits

Well, let me add to the hysteria. Courtesy of my friend Dr Yawooz Adham, here’s another fantastic agrobiodiversity photo, of tomatoes this time.

11806841_837035336415287_1712742186_o

The farmer’s name is Shiek Jamally Karbanchi ((He’s on Facebook!)) and he lives in a village near the town of Chamchamal, between Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. He tends 22 different tomato varieties, and is clearly incredibly proud of them. Though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t charge Euros 20 each for them. I don’t know if they’re all commercial varieties or whether there’s a few local heirlooms in there, but either way it’s damn impressive.

Nibbles: Summer holidays, Tajik bread, Farm to pizza, Västerbottensost, Diverse bananas, Banana wine, Chinese agroforestry, Peak coffee, Responsible oil palm, Model chickens, Damn you NS

Ghana to develop vegetables, but which ones?

A new regional laboratory in Ghana is seeking to develop the vegetable industry through research, development and innovation to improve food and nutritional security in West Africa. It will do this through increased use of indigenous vegetables…

Well, that’s interesting. But which indigenous vegetables? Garden egg? Bitterleaf? There are plenty, and they’re really important in the preparation of Ghanaian dishes.

Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, director of WACCI, says the laboratory will develop framework for accelerating the development of the tomato and vegetable industry in Ghana and West African sub-region.

Ah, ok. As you were.