Here is a video about the life and work of Carlos Ochoa, the recently deceased potato man. By the Televisión Nacional del Perú, in Spanish. From his early days in Cusco, resisting a father that wanted him to become a lawyer, to the agony of an approaching end, with so much of his life’s work unfinished. Watch, listen, admire, and shiver.
Ex situ conservation of endangered plants of the US
An interesting post on the Denver Botanic Garden’s blog led me to the Center for Plant Conservation‘s ((Hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri.)) database of the National Collection of Endangered Plants of the US, which I’m ashamed to say I knew nothing about. It is interesting to us here because it includes crop wild relatives like Helianthus species. There’s also lots of information on how to fight invasives, which has been the subject of some discussion here in the past few days.
Orange revolution
Sweetpotatoes come in different colors and tastes (and sizes). The “yams” eaten in the United States are sweet and have orange and moist flesh. The staple of parts of Africa and the Pacific (and pig feed in China), is typically white-fleshed and not very sweet nor moist (notwithstanding variations like this purple variety.)
Anyway, the orange fleshed sweetpotato is stacked with beta-carotene, the stuff you need to eat for your body to make vitamin A. Many poor people have vitamin A deficiencies, which leads to stunted growth and blindness. So why don’t the poor sweetpotato eaters eat orange fleshed varieties? In part because they simply do not have them, or know about their health benefits. In part because they do not grow well in Africa (decimated by pests and diseases). And also because they do not taste right: too sweet for a staple.
The International Potato Center and partners have been trying to fix all that. Now they have made a nice video about getting orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes into the food-chain in Mozambique. The orange revolution:
https://vimeo.com/2278794I wonder if they also promote mixing more sweetpotato leaves into the diet — even of white fleshed varieties. The leaves are a very good source of micro-nutrients, including beta-carotene! More fodder for the biofortification discussion.
Seed exchange is evil
That’s not my view ((Obviously. Ed.)) but it seems to be what a commenter called Cassandra is saying.
If I could bring myself to be an “evil” person I would offer tons of my “HOMEGROWN” seeds to them and even ship them for free. That way I could get even with all the idiots that are happily transporting their “noxious” weed seeds along with their lovely and so prized Pansy seeds.
It’s time for the United States Dept of Agriculture to step up to the bat and start fining these idiots that are polluting the earth with weeds, among other things.
How about the lady that bought four trees off of a seller on that four “****” letter internet auction site, lovely trees they were. Nice full rootball with plenty of dirt still attached. Little did she know that she was also buying an entire family of “Fire Ants” . Have you ever tried to rid your property of “Fire Ants”?
Those are indeed shocking examples of bad consequences of ignorant seed and plant exchange. Myself, I’m not too sure how you would miss a fire ant nest in a rootball, but then almost all the trees I’ve planted have been bare-rooted dormant specimens. As for weeds among the seeds, again, I tend to sow all seeds in trays or pots, especially those I am experimenting with, maybe growing for the first time. That gives me a chance to select among the seedlings and to discard anything untoward. But I do that regardless of the source of the seeds; public, private, large, small — makes no difference to me.
Cassandra does have a point, but I also think that her ire is misplaced. The kind of people who would use seed exchanges to broaden their experience of agricultural biodiversity probably have a wee bit of indigenous knowledge. Is there any way to stop the spread of invasive weeds? I doubt it. All we can do is be vigilant. And careful.
So if your truly interested in some “AWESOME†Dahlia seeds, they have been in my family for generations please just ask me for them. Be prepared to have your request denied. I don’t even know you and care more about the wellness of your state and property than you do.
Actually, I’ve never grown a dahlia from seed, so yes, Cassandra, I would be interested. You can use the contact form to let me know how I can get in touch, as you forgot to leave an email.
Micronesian bananas on display
Lois Englberger of the Island Food Community of Pohnpei tells us that “Dana Lee Ling is doing some exciting work on conservation and promotion of Pohnpei banana varieties, along with his teaching at the College of Micronesia-FSM.” The College has an ethnogarden, which includes 14 banana varieties, among many other things.