Pollenatrix

Damsons in distress

Here's an interesting article from the UK's Telegraph about a very rare variety of plum, or "Damson", called "Blue Violet":

An amateur horticulturalist is nurturing what are believed to be the last wild-growing examples of a rare damson tree.

The Blue Violet has long been a rarity, even amid the celebrated orchards of the Lyth Valley, Cumbria.

But in the last century their numbers have declined to what experts suspect are a mere five - two of them in official "museum" orchards, and one other clinging to life in a pot.

The Blue Violet are apparently bigger, juicier, prettier, and harvest much more easily than other varieties of Damson, and the horticultural world is very excited by the find.

Damsons originated near Damascus, and were introduced to England by the Romans.

Wikipedia: Damsons

Westmoreland Damson Association

You'll find it in a garden

Watch this wonderful video describing how permaculture turned around a barren, salt-poisoned plot of land in Jordan near the Dead Sea: "Greening the Desert".

This man makes one of the wisest statements I've heard in a long time...

"You can solve all the problems of the world in a garden."

Amen to that.

Happy Easter.

Just in Thyme for the bees

According to a BBC article, the U.S.'s $2.5 billion almond industry depends mightily on the health of the humble honey bee. And those honey bees are in short supply because of a mite problem.

The mighty mites have developed resistance to chemical solutions, and now scientist have come up with a new solution, in the nick of thyme:

Developed by Vita Europe, the thymol-based treatment is derived from thyme, and vapours from oil extracted from the herb have proved useful in killing the varroa mites.

...In tests, thymol had been able to knock out more than 90% of the mites in a colony, said Dr Watkins.

It's kind of satisfying to know that in this day and age, the captains of industry owe so much to bees and a common herb.

cool shots

I saw this on Boing Boing today... some truly remarkable pictures of farm animals and their keepers.

Have I ever mentioned that I like pigs?

And this one's a heartbreaker...

Check this out

A blog worth checking out:

Rural Life 2.0

It focuses on American rural life, farming issues, organic gardening... lots of interesting stuff.

Banana blues

Popular Science asks the burning question, "Can this fruit be saved?"

It's an article that is actually quite interesting... about bananas. Did you know that 99.9% of the bananas sold commercially are clones of just one variety, called "Cavendish"?

That sameness is the banana’s paradox. After 15,000 years of human cultivation, the banana is too perfect, lacking the genetic diversity that is key to species health. What can ail one banana can ail all. A fungus or bacterial disease that infects one plantation could march around the globe and destroy millions of bunches, leaving supermarket shelves empty.

A wild scenario? Not when you consider that there’s already been one banana apocalypse.

A banana apocalypse? oooo, they should make a movie about that!

My new epithet

Massive cow manure mound burns for third month:

"a dung pile measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite Herculean attempts to douse it."

That's one big pile of smouldering poo.

Anything is possible

Apparently, agribusiness won't be satisfied with anything less than world domination of the agricultural seed trade. A few days ago, I wrote about their influence in enacting laws in Iraq that will prevent farmers from saving and re-using their own seed. Well, a similar situation is now playing out in Canada.

In Common Ground, "Farming Threatened" discusses

"...the current push by the big, bad biotech companies to have the laws guarding Canada’s seed system to be changed in such a way that farmers would lose many of their inherent rights regarding seed use and have those rights turned over to large corporations."

The proposals they are pushing are disturbingly one-sided, and it's hard to believe that the government could be influenced by such a blatant drive for control by private interests. However, if the courts can rule against Percy Schmeiser (a Saskatchewan farmer who was forced to pay Monsanto royalties for genetically modified seed that blew in and grew on his land without his knowledge), anything is possible.

Citizen science for vegetables

For those of you lucky enough to have a vegetable patch, the seed catalogue season is about to begin!

But first, check out this very cool site: Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners.

It's described as a "Citizen Science Program from Cornell University's department of horticulture", and the concept is neat.

Gardeners visit this site and report what varieties perform well - and not so well - in their gardens. Other gardeners visit to view the variety ratings and read the reviews to decide which might work well for them.

... Asking gardeners to partner with researchers by collecting and sharing their own observations via the web could prove to be a winning combination for all.

...Research on the performance of vegetable varieties is often limited to commercial production for many reasons. Home gardens may be overlooked, in part, because visiting thousands of home gardens to collect data would be an overwhelming task.

Agribusiness conquers Iraqi Farmers

As though the situation isn't already bad enough for Iraqis, American business interests have declared war on farmers there with new laws that will prohibit Iraqi farmers from saving their own crop seeds. The laws go further than anywhere else in the world; farmers will be forced to buy or pay fees to use the seed of any variety of plant hybrid that a breeder claims as his own, not just "patented" varieties.

The ramifications are ominous. Currently, 97% of Iraqi farmers grow from seed they have saved from the previous year's harvest.

"When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by transnational agribusiness corporations."

"Bremer's order makes it especially hard to work as a farmer in Iraq, and makes a convenient incentive for Iraqi farmers to sell their farms to American interests."

The spin is in some cases, quite disturbing, portraying the delivery of tons of seed to Iraqui farmers by the American military as an exercise in humanitarianism. The picture it paints instead is of an unequal battle on a new front, one conceived and funded by U.S. corporations from their comfortable offices and carried out by naive soldiers against unsuspecting citizens. Oh wait... isn't that the whole story of this war? It's very sad.

U.S. soldiers helped deliver 156 tons of wheat seeds on Oct 19 to a central distribution point for farmers near Taji, Iraq. This was the beginning phase of Operation Amber Waves, conducted by the Arkansas Army National Guard's 39th Brigade Combat Team, attached to the 1st Cavalry Division.

Farmers collecting their seeds did indeed seem happy as they waited their turn to load 110-pound bags onto their vehicles.

"We really appreciate this wonderful gift from U.S. soldiers," said one excited farmer who went on to note that receiving the seeds during the time of Ramadan made it especially thoughtful."

Poor, poor buggers. They have no idea that they'll be paying for this gift for the rest of their lives.

Many Americans are enraged. Protests are arising in the most surprising places, like this one published in The Daily Texan:

"This decision to place the interests of a powerful American industry above the basic necessities of Iraqis illustrates why so many Iraqis are so desperate to kick the American invaders out of the country and why it is vital for all Iraqis they succeed."

More:

National Public Radio (NPR) report

Grain.org: A declaration of war against Iraqi farmers