Nibbles: Genomes galore: beans, sheep, citrus, Breeding from “weeds”, Talks, Old wheat, Adaptation, Popped sorghum, Managing BXW

Can’t move for genomes today. First off, Phaseolus vulgaris. Next up, sheep: one genome, three stories: Wool. Not goats. Rumination. And citrus diversity: “Citrus has incestuous genes. Nothing is pure.” But there is other stuff too. How weeds could feed billions. Not by eating them but by breeding from them. Are crop wild relatives really …

Let there always be Pane Nero di Castelvetrano

It all started with a photo of “tumminia bread” on Instagram. It looked yummie, but I’d never heard of tumminia. A picturesque hamlet? A time-honoured though back-breaking mode of preparation? Some ancient grain hanging on precariously on the outskirts of encroaching modernity? A treasured local variety of wheat nurtured by gnarled rustics? I had to …