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Access to Arabic farming handbooks

The question of how farming originally spread across Europe continues to exercise scholars, although I reckon a fair conclusion today is that the farmers (and their crops and livestock) moved, rather than just their technology (and crops and livestock). At least, that’s true for pre-history. For more recent times, it is clear that knowledge travelled, and one way it did so was in a series of texts in Arabic known collectively as the Kutub al-Filāḥa or ‘Books of Husbandry’. This fantastic historical resource is now available online at the The Filāḥa Texts Project. Alas, there doesn’t seem to be a feed of any kind to tell me when new material is posted, but it is possible to join the project network. I have nothing to offer but my interest; I hope that’s enough.

And thanks to Rachel Laudan, where I learned of the project. She has already raised the fascinating possibility that light will in future be shed on how Arabic influences travelled from Spain to Mexico.

Stop Press: Razib Khan at Gene Expression explains how farmers conquered Eurasia between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago.

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Refocus Afghanistan’s agriculture

We’ve occasionally, and perhaps too timidly, mentioned the futility of attempts to eradicate Papaver somniferum in Afghanistan. The crop is ideally suited to the terrain, and the product lucrative and in short supply globally. Also, illegal, at least in Afghanistan. But not in France, India or Australia. Over at Lawyers, Guns and Money, a group blog, Charli Carpenter makes a well-linked and well-argued case for reframing Afghanistan’s poppy problem (or, perhaps more accurately, the West’s problem with Afghanistan’s poppies) as an opportunity to improve global public health. One thing she doesn’t mention — and why would she? — is that poppies would probably be a lot more sustainable than most of the alternatives, needing less water and less land than, say, wheat or vegetables, and almost certainly displacing less local agricultural biodiversity.

h/t Sam Zeitlin

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Brainfood: Processing, Berries, Bush tomato, Rwanda, Bean erosion, Agroforestry seed, Trees, Rice nutrition

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A different substitute for coffee

Personally, I’m not much in favour of ersatz anything, but sometimes the short word is as good a signifier as anything. Vegetarian burgers, for example, tells you, very roughly, what you’re getting (not much). So too with various substitutes for coffee, many of which are promoted precisely because they are caffeine free. Coffee, in this case, I suppose means vaguely bitter, brown, hot beverage, possibly refreshing. Even before coming to Italy I had been aware of Caffé d’orzo, “coffee” made from ground, roasted barley (though not the extent of the marketing surrounding it). A fellow blogger, however, introduced me to a new Italian “coffee” that had been in danger of extinction and is now more widely available.

MikeH shares his discovery of Altrei coffee, made from Lupinus pilosus, grown by the villagers of Altrei near the Italian Alps. And as he says:

A nitrogen fixer with an amazing blue flower that gives us a coffee substitute. It doesn’t get much better than that. Even if the coffee doesn’t cut it, we still have a spectacular nitrogen fixer that the bees in the orchard will love.

In the interests of science I need to see whether I can find that coffee here in the city. And the SeedZoo that MikeH mentions might repay study for those of you looking for a little horticultural diversity for your plot (though I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t bemoan the lack of proper botanical names).