History of Heirloom Plants in the United States + I am being Fascinatied looking at web pages for Dr. Jeffrey Nekola and Linda Fey. & Jeff & Linda's Kitchen of Diversity. They are teachers at the upcoming national Heirloom Expo Sept 9,10,11, 2014 Santa Rosa.

Date:   7/31/2014 10:08:38 PM ( 10 y ago)

History of Heirloom Plants in the United States

Heirloom vegetables have gained popularity across the country because they speak to our hearts as well as our palates. These are plants that our great-grandparents were growing, and it is possible to buy or trade seeds of plants from cultures around the world. Vegetables have been cultivated for thousands of years. As people traded seeds and moved across the world they interbred different varieties in order to improve or develop specific flavors, colors, yields and the plants' abilitiy to survive in a particular climate. Unfortunately, mass producers of vegetables decided to improve transportability and shelflife at the expense of flavor and quality. This mass production has led to decreasing diversity of vegetable varieties, with farmers planting mono-cultures of tomatoes and other crops. At the same time the traditional family vegetable plot has mostly disapeared. Some varieties have already gone extinct because there was no one left to plant them. A growing interest in personal history and gardening has led to the preservation of many of our heirloom treasures. Native Americans, Amish and Mennonite groups have long collected and preserved vegetable seeds and now there are many others collecting and trading seeds as well. The Seed Savers Exchange and the Native Seeds Search are organizations that have been instrumental in preserving vegetable biodiversity by collecting, growing, and trading seeds.

http://sev.lternet.edu/~jnekola/Heirloom/

The author is a speaker at the National Heirloom Expo, Sep 9-10-11 2014

http://theheirloomexpo.com/speakers/

Jeffrey C. Nekola - Curriculum Vitae

Department of Biology
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131
(505) 277-6270 (Office)
(505) 277-0304 (Fax)
jnekola@unm.edu


Dr. Jeffrey Nekola and Linda Fey
Jeff has a PhD in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has a passion for biodiversity in its many forms, whether it be plants, butterflies, and land snails in the wild or crops grown in gardens, orchards and fields, or the use of those foods as expressed by the entire range of humanity’s cuisines. You can learn more about his vocation and avocations at http://sev.lternet.edu/~jnekola.



Linda’s first and finest childhood memories are of helping her mother and grandmother in the garden and then bringing in freshly picked produce to the dinner table. She also learned how to make bread, gather wild foods, and improvise simple but nutritious home-grown meals. As an adult, she has over 20 years of experience in market gardening and teaches middle-school English at the Albuquerque Institute for Math and Science, one of the top 50 middle and high schools in the country. Visit http://lindafey.com/ to view her writing about food and life.


http://www.lindafey.com/blog/


The garlic conservation project has been a big part of my life for the past 7 years. For more information on the project and the collection see http://sev.lternet.edu/~jnekola/Heirloom/garlicFAQ.htm



This blog is the next step in an exploration of food, gardens, biodiversity and how to live a good life.

HOW ToMAKE MISO

http://www.rareseeds.com/soyfoods-miso/

Baker creek twitterfeed
https://twitter.com/rareseeds/




 

Popularity:   message viewed 988 times
URL:   http://www.curezone.org/blogs/fm.asp?i=2192572

<< Return to the standard message view