Neglected and underutilized crop book series

[andyb]

I found a series of short books by Biodiversity International, formerly IPGRI, called "Promoting the conservation and use of underutilized and neglected crops." These are a good complement to "The Lost Crops of the Incas" and "Lost Crops of Africa" that Kevin8715 pointed to here. The one on cilantro is an excellent reference that I go back to over and over.

As a teaser, here are some links (all are big pdf files):
Chayote
Coriander
Oregano

You can see a list of all 25 on the Biodiversity International web site: biodiversityinternational.org

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Your right, the cilantro one was interesting. I was immensely pleased that it mentioned that it's oils are used extensively in soap manufacture. Which is why I hate the taste of anything that has cilantro in it. People think i'm crazy when i tell them cilantro tastes like soap. I find it to be a vile disgusting plant that should be wiped off the face of the earth. (Or at least left out of my food). But I must admit that I enjoy disliking it to some degree. Coriander on the other hand I have no problem with.

[flowerweaver]

I grow Chaote, Coriander, and Oregano. They are popular foods down here, so close to Mexico. All are readily available at our grocery stores year-round. I also grow a lot of chenopodiums.

[andyb]

I encourage people who don't like cilantro to emphatically plant zero cilantro plants in their gardens each year.

I have a couple of cilantro breeding projects going and was chatting with a friend about them. She can't stand the flavor and asked if it would be possible to breed a variety that didn't have the soapy taste. I replied that it might be possible but, since I don't taste that soapy taste, she'd have to try a leaf from about a hundred plants each generation and rank them in order of awfulness. She declined.

[andyb]

Flowerweaver, can you maintain a line of chayote in your area of Texas, or do you have to buy new fruits to plant every season? The short book I linked to talks a lot about how difficult it is to maintain ex-situ germplasm collections, since the seeds aren't viable without the fruit and the fruits can't be stored for a significant length of time.

I haven't grown them myself but might try them next year.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

This year I recruited a helper to taste test the tomatoes for me... I still tasted some fruits from the best and the worst, just to confirm that I agree with the general gist of her analysis.

[reed]

Cilantro is a self seeding weed in our garden like dill except the cilantro is less reliable in that regard. I love the dill, I hate the cilantro but the woman likes it so there it is. I don't even like the smell of it when weeding or working around it. I can tolerate it in the salsas she makes as long at she only puts in a little.

[flowerweaver]

Andy, I've heard some people experience a soapy taste when eating cilantro, but I don't taste that at all either. (And just for the record, I did once have my mouth washed out with soap in 3rd grade for back talking to my teacher!) I use it in both Mexican and East Indian cooking. I think it's just amazing how different coriander from the seed tastes than the leaf. I like it just as much, and I suspect those same folks probably don't like it.

I haven't yet planted my chaote out. It over wintered in the greenhouse so I can't answer your question yet. I had intended to plant it out this spring, but we had a lot of crews working on roofing repairs from last summer's tornado and I figured it would get destroyed. I'll likely over winter it one more time, then plant it out next spring and see what happens. Sure would like to get my hands on one of the white ones. I suspect if the polar vortex reaches down here again it will freeze back to the ground.

[steev]

I also wish some white chayotes would show up, but as they say: you can wish in one hand and (whatever) in the other and see which fills up first. While frost might kill chayote, heavy mulch might prevent that (being removed when frost is past); when perennialized, the plant is incredibly productive, both of fruit and greens.

I enjoy cilantro; it's important in my wheat/barley, tomato, cucumber, scallion salad; I can use parsley, but it's inferior, in that use, IMHO. Let us give thanks for our differences of opinion/taste lest we all want the exact same things, to its depletion and ours.

Soapy? Well, one may wish to cleanse one's palate; I do wish cilantro weren't so ephemeral; my grain salad and tacos just aren't the same without it, and not in a good way.

[andyb]

I've seen some relatively large and spiky chayotes at asian markets here in Seattle but no white ones. Odd things pop up occasionally, so I'll keep my eyes open.

I'll start a new thread for my cilantro breeding projects, but one of them is an attempt to get a good tasting and slow bolting variety by using some particularly slow bolting accessions from GRIN. I currently have some seed-borne disease issues, so I don't want to share any seeds, but once they're clean I'd be glad to send out some F2+ seeds.

[templeton]

slow bolting cilantro? I don't believe it! I've grown out about 4 named varieties, and can't discern any difference. Are the soapy-tongued members also put off by the perennial coriander Eryngium foetidum? Haven't tried it myself...
T

[templeton]

Just out of interest, and to tickle steev's ... fancy, has anyone come across Bifora testiculata? Came up as a weed in my vege garden a few years ago.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Oct 2, 2015 0:28:43 GMT -5 templeton said:

Just out of interest, and to tickle steev's ... fancy, has anyone come across Bifora testiculata? Came up as a weed in my vege garden a few years ago.

I had a few packets of Clitoria ternatea, but lost them during my recent move.

[templeton]

The Bifora is a coriander look-alike, and has a similar odor, but has a weird sort of bitter coriander taste. the seeds are very similar to coriander, but are fused into pairs, thus the specific name. Took me a while to eliminate it from the garden after i let it self seed, thinking it was a strange coriander mutant.

[cletus]

Sept 13, 2015 0:38:13 GMT -5 andyb said:

Flowerweaver, can you maintain a line of chayote in your area of Texas, or do you have to buy new fruits to plant every season? The short book I linked to talks a lot about how difficult it is to maintain ex-situ germplasm collections, since the seeds aren't viable without the fruit and the fruits can't be stored for a significant length of time.

I haven't grown them myself but might try them next year.

I've heard you can remove the seed from the fruit to germinate it by itself. But the seed loses viability if not store the fruit? Thats interesting, I wonder if viability is a matter of time or if its the conditions inside the fruit.