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January 13, 2015

Nibbles: Domesticating grasses, Svalbard, Explaining genebanks, Australian edibles, Carolina African Runner, Whale ball beer

Grasses with bigger seeds and fewer stems make better crops. Genebanks are just the start. Wait, what’s a genebank? How much bush tucker is in genebanks anyway? Bringing back the Southern peanut. Smoked whale testicle beer for you, sir?

March 22, 2014March 23, 2014

Nibbles: Peanut history, Capsicum history, Sequencing history, Globalized rice, Sustainable salmon, Women & agriculture, Climate change & yields, Forest conservation, Bumblebee conservation

Lots to catch up on, strap yourselves in. The South’s original peanut is the Carolina African runner, and it is in need of help. Saudi Aramco World does its usual class number, this time on chili peppers. And, in a similar vein, more than you probably want to know about Tabasco sauce. The evolution of …

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May 29, 2012May 29, 2012

Digging up the early history of an early peanut

I recently learned in a throw-away comment during the Q&A after a talk about the Vavilov Institute (VIR) genebank that until just a few years ago a single accession was the main source of early maturity in peanut, a line called Chico. And that variety supposedly traced back to Russia, not a place I for …

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January 14, 2015January 14, 2015

Nibbles: American goats, Ancient dogs, Colorado sheep, Beer vs Wine, Vitis breeding, Southern cooking, Pennsylvania farming, Cherokee seeds

A distinctly US flavour to Nibbles today, for some reason. A map of every goat in the US. Texas is the goat hotspot. Not there with dogs yet, but at least we now know when they arrived. How about sheep, though? Interestingly, there are more wineries than breweries in Texas. Saving the winegrape, molecule by …

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