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Jeremy

Alexander the Great visits Siwa oasis

February 2, 2010

Michael Woods, the historian, traced the footsteps of Alexander The Great to Siwa oasis for a BBC documentary. In Siwa, the priests welcomed Alexander as the Son of God, which was nice. Not a lot of biodiversity, but the pictures show Siwa today.
See an extract on YouTube.

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Couscous just about everywhere

January 15, 2010

The late editor of a prestigious science journal once remarked to me that “being a journalist in Washington [DC] was like trying to take a sip from a firehose. Possibly not original, it applies in spades to life on the internet. There are massive torrents of information, and you can get hosed. Dabbling around for [...]

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Fermented wheat in North Africa

January 13, 2010

Vavilov’s throwaway remarks led me to seek more on the history of couscous, in which I promised to return to his note that “fermented wheat is sold at every market in Tunisia and Algeria under the name of ‘cous-cous’”. I turned to Charles Perry, scholar, historian, and all around good egg. He said:

The Arabs do [...]

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Couscous investigated

December 21, 2009

Vavilov closes his remarks on collecting in Tunisia by noting that the locals prefer their traditional hard (durum) wheat, as opposed to the French, who like bread made of soft wheat. He describes how they use it:

After threshing the wheat and setting aside a part of it for seeding, the rest is usually preserved in [...]

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Anticipating Abyssinia

December 18, 2009

Vavilov’s general observations on agriculture in North Africa bring his journeys through the Maghreb, though not around the Mediterranean, to an end. Next stop, Abyssinia. Before we join him there, early in the new year, we have to chase a hare he set running with his description of “cous-cous”. That will appear next week.

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Now then, where was I?

December 9, 2009

Be prepared. I’m about to give in to the temptation to rant, something I’m sure a person as well-mannered and gentlemanly as Vavilov would easily have been able to resist.
In an earlier post, I cagily placed Vavilov’s location at El Djem, based on his mention of an amphitheatre. But he also talks about being “on [...]

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Esparto grass

November 27, 2009

Vavilov says that Stipa tenacissima, which he calls alfa grass, “is utilized only in a wild condition”. It isn’t clear whether he is referring only to Morocco, because in Spain it certainly was cultivated. A proposal for a plant micro-reserve in Valencia mentions the traditional cultivation of Stipa tenacissima as having been responsible for the [...]

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The unknown ancestor of the broad bean

November 9, 2009

Vavilov had clearly been strongly influenced by his host in Algeria when he wrote that “Here it is to some extent possible to solve the riddle of the origin of some cultivated plants. It was just here that Trabut found the interesting wild bean mentioned above, Vicia pliniana (Trabut) Muratova, which undoubtedly is genetically especially [...]

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Grapes in Algeria

November 4, 2009

Apropos Vavilov’s remarks about the vineyards he saw on the way from Algeria to Morocco, T.H. Kearney noted in his appreciation of Louis Trabut:

The numerous Algerian varieties of the grape have been investigated and selection has been made of those which seem most promising. One of of these, popularized by Trabut and known to the [...]

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Apples: a long journey

October 21, 2009

Vavilov’s fascination with the history of the apple is still alive today as academics, enthusiasts and conservationists all try to understand the apple’s convoluted story and its relevance in the modern world.
BBC news kicked off with a slideshow dedicated to Kazakhstan’s wild apples last Monday.

This picture shows some of the surviving wild apple forests in [...]

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