Once, when my son was about 10, he asked me what I was reading. I told him I was reading a book about the history of almonds, for work. This delighted him to no end. Now the running joke in our house is that I do the “history of almonds radio show.” Recently I got involved in another “history of almonds” type subject at work. This time, seeds.
Seeds, dear reader, are fascinating. And here are some of the things I learned while producing this week’s show:
- Kamut (arguably the oldest grain in the world – let’s not fight about einkorn, ok?) was reintroduced via a mysterious man with a coffee can of it at a state fair in Montana more than 50 years ago.
- The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (otherwise known as the Doomsday Vault) houses seeds from every country in the world – almost one million varietals. It sits deep in a mountain above the Arctic Circle on an island that has more polar bears than people.
- There is a village in Oaxaca that grows a particular corn that has the ability to get its own nitrogen from the air, no need for fertilizer. It is covered in mucus, and around the office we called it “corn snot.”
— Charles