Monday, August 31, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Plant Diversity & Symbiotic Relationships
Plant Diversity & Symbiotic Relationships
Crystal Stevens
Joseph Simcox, the 'botanical explorer', travels the world finding rare and even new plants. He believes that plants are our future, and passionately teaches universities, children and adults the importance of symbiotic relationships between us and plants for us to live well on this planet.
Joseph Simcox, 'The Botanical Explorer' is a seasoned ethnobotanist who has an intrinsic fascination with inherent wonders in nature. One of the keynote speeches Joseph has given, entitled; 'Cavemen, Kings and Cannibals' highlights some of the ways in which civilizations before us held reverence for food, speaking not only of the nutritional components of food, but also to the multitude of other historical relationships of humans to food, including food as power, food as a status symbol, food used as a tool for influencing others, as well as the roles food play in extravagance, spirituality, ritual sacrifice and survival. One could spend hours listening to Joseph’s stories of adventure and world travel. He speaks candidly of his trials in tracking down rare seeds, and they were not limited to linguistic barriers!
Searching and asking questions is second nature for Joe. He grew up in an ambiance where his parents fostered his inquisitive disposition from a very early age. Joseph was no ordinary child. His early life was immersed in science, exploration, and books. Rather than play with toys he found greater solace exploring the world around him. He grew plants, searched for stones, cataloged seashells and insects. His passion for insects intensified his love of plants as he realized the mutualism between the two. A budding botanist by the age of 12, he took pride in his impressive anthology of orchids, begonias and African violets. He lived vicariously through his specimens imagining the astounding places they must have come from resolving to one day see them in their native lands. Unbeknownst to him at the time, these collections would later define the very essence of his life’s work… to ultimately increase awareness and appreciation of biodiversity of the plant kingdom by traveling the globe to identify, collect, grow and distribute seed from some of the rarest species known to man.
Joseph lives in gratitude of and has an overwhelming passion for the natural world and the symbiotic relationships that thrive in nature. His insatiable quest for tracking down plants and promoting languishing species keeps him searching by way of land, sea and sky. The great majority of plants are fascinating to him, but some shout out louder than others. All plants deserve respect he says, and some more viscerally than others. Joe has been humbled by the sheer deadliness of some - he has been poisoned, blistered and scarred by their toxicities.
When he is not travelling, he continues to study. Joseph is enchanted by the myriad of untold secrets veiled within nature and in awe of the delicate beauty and intricacies within the anatomy of plants. Joseph contends that plants are our future. That we must learn how to create symbiotic relationships with them in order to live well on this planet. He invites us all to strengthen our affinity toward plants, to take part in repopulating dwindling species, to plant native species to attract pollinators, to grow and save seeds from rare fruits and vegetables to reduce our reliance on large corporate farms, and to spread the word to others on a daily basis.
His fearless dedication to ecological preservation fuels his unwavering ambition. Joseph is a steward of our earth in its truest sense. He dedicates his existence to bring awareness of the marvels of the plant world to as many people as possible. He hopes that by communicating his message he can incite a paradigm shift that changes the way we see and live with plants. Joseph holds onto the notion that, “The world is a lot more resilient than we believe it to be.” He believes that plants hold the keys to so many unanswered questions and that if we look to nature for solution based models to follow suit, the world hunger issues would be few and far between. There are endless examples from his expeditions ranging from food producing plants that grow in barren sandy soil in hot deserts to frigid rocky mountain tops. The biodiversity at our disposal for eventual food production is so immense, they obliterate the arguments touted by corporate industrialized agriculture for feeding the world.
Joseph’s response to Monsanto’s claim to feed the world is; “These institutions manifest a scenario that benefits the corporate and economic systems they helped create… that has very little to do with real and legitimate strategies for creating a food secure world.”
Joseph speaks at conferences all over the world. His talks range from the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Corporation in Shanshua, Taiwan to the Central Tuber Research Center in Bhubaneswar, India, to the California Rare Fruit Growers Annual Festival of Fruit Conference to the ECHO conference in Fort Myers, Florida. He is a guest lecturer at universities, with this year’s itinerary including the likes of Trinity College, Harvard and the University of Hartford.
Joseph is also a leader of botanical expeditions that span the globe. His work represents history in the making as he changes the way the world perceives botanical diversity and how we stand to feed humanity in the not so distant future. Joseph’s lively and exuberant presence captivates audiences wherever he goes. His passion is infectious. He speaks to people and conveys equally well to children and professors. His passion is heartfelt and contagious.
He and his brother Patrick, also a botanical explorer have been fortuitous enough to discover several species of plants new to science…they are still waiting to be named! The brothers maintain a personal photo archive of almost 200,000 photos of edible plants from their travels, one which must rank among the largest self-acquired of its kind in the world.
Joseph is co-founder of The Rare Vegetable Seed Consortium, which has a collection of rare species of food producing plants that is one of the largest private collections in the world numbering now over 15,000 accessions. According to Simcox, “The Rare Vegetable Seed Consortium works to actively promote season to season cultivation, seed saving and sharing of its holdings of rare, non GMO, heirloom genetic material”.
Joseph is also the founder of the Gardens Across America Project which works with gardeners in North America to promote seed preservation and encourage special seed grow-outs. In this project, individuals or organizations can apply to be a host site for a few varieties of rare seeds in which they would grow, harvest, save the seed and return half of the saved seeds to Joseph and his team for further promotion.
On Joseph’s team is his strategist Irina Stoenescu, brother Patrick (botanical explorer), daughter Alicia (botanical explorer), brother-in-law Jason Piper (logistics), sister Susan (growrareseeds.com), photographer and videographer Anthony Rodriguez and Chief of Staff, Christine Chiu.
His latest expedition to the Amazon was in search of rare fruits and vegetables native to the Peruvian rainforest. Filmed by Anthony, it will be edited and condensed into several short films and a 45-60 minute documentary narrative about food plant diversity in the Amazon.
Joseph’s work will be featured in Seed: The Untold Story, to be released in late 2015.
When asked to name his favorite plants from various world expeditions, Joseph says that it is a tough question to answer. I had the opportunity to pin him down on this and he shared some of the following:
In Asia & Oceania
– Amorphophallus in Borneo (below)
– Pandanus connoideus, red fruit found in S. Central New Guinea
– Prainea limpato, a gorgeous edible tart and sweet fruit found in Malaysia, Borneo, and New Guinea
– Willughbeia elmerii, a rare fruit found in the jungles of Borneo
Americas
– Lewisia species, Bitterroot in the northwestern mountain states
– Oplopanax horridus, Devil’s Club in the Pacific Northwest
– Solanum gilo, the scarlet eggplant from Brazil
– Dendroseris litoralis, the cabbage tree, is a perennial flower in the Asteraceae family that has been revived from near extinction. It is native to the Juan Fernandez Islands near Chile
– Diospyros texana, a black persimmon tree native to Texas and the southwest United States
– Peniocereus greggii, a cactus native to the southwestern United States, has a root that weighs more than eighty pounds. These cactuses only bloom for one night each year, typically in June or July
– Opuntia basilaris a spring flowering cactus in the Mohave Desert
– Lomatium latilobum, Desert Parsley in Moab
– Pholisma sonorae, a rare perennial herb called sandfood in the Sonoran Desert (below)
Africa
– Gnetum africanum, a vining plant with medicinal and edible properties found in Africa and farmed in Cameroon
– 'Oromo dinich', a mint family tuber bearer in Ethiopia
– Monodora myristica, a fruit tree in Cameroon
– Coccinia abyssinica a nutritious tuber bearing plant in the cucumber family in Ethiopia
– Cucumis humifructus, the rare aardvark pumpkin which grows underground, one of the only plants with subterranean fruits, in Southern Africa
– Cucumis metuliferus, the African horned cucumber found in the Kalahari Desert
– Tylosema esculentum, the Maramba bean found in the Kalahari Desert (below)
– Acanthosicyos horridus, the Nara melon only found in Namibia
– Telfaria pedata, the Oysternut found in Africa
– Dolichos fangitsa, an edible root that tastes like a watermelon found in Madagascar
Europe
– Russian Taiga berries, Hippophae rhaminoides (below)
– Cynomorium coccineum, a parasitic flowering plant that has been used historically for its medicinal benefits (found in Europe and Asia).
His present Holy Grail, one he has spent the last decade searching for and yearns to track down, is the Hydnora africana,with ripe fruit. This plant lacks chlorophyll and does not perform photosynthesis. It is unique in that it takes upwards of two years for its fruit to ripen with the fruits growing underground. Finding this would allow him to add yet another marvel to his 'have eaten it' life list, a list which already numbers in the thousands. If only for what this man can tell us about food plants, Joseph is an individual we can all be fascinated in while listening to, because he knows it (food) like few of us ever will.
For more information about Joseph and his adventures, visit http://explorewithjoseph.com/
Crystal is the assistant head-farmer and communications specialist at La Vista CSA Farm where she manages the greenhouse, designs and updates the website, and writes for the newsletter.
Find out more about La Vista CSA Farm at www.lavistacsa.org
Crystal blogs for Mother Earth News, www.wildfirestreet.com and her personal blog, www.growingcreatinginspiring.blogspot.com
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Yarn Bombed
The Morgantown Tree is a cooperative installation of crochet work completed by Carol Hummel , community members and students at West Virginia University. During a month-long period, more than 100 people in Morgantown came together to help create a symbol of unity for their community. Each contribution to the project is as unique as the person who created it, but when stitched together, form one spectacularly unified artwork. Artwork by the people, for the people!
Monday, August 24, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Summer Vacation 2015
Summer Vacation 2015
July was the month of the
travel vacation for me starting on the first day of the month. I left for Cove, Oregon from the South Lake
Tahoe foothills. It was 104 degrees when
I left. I covered my garden with some
lacy fabric to act as shade cloth so
that, hopefully, something would still be alive when I returned back home and
it did all survive nicely.
The first leg of my trip
took me through the back country of where I live. It was a fantastic unfoldment of farms and
woods winding northward over rivers and gaining in altitude until I turned onto
the major freeway taking me over the top of the majestic Sierras and down and
through Reno, Nevada on my way to my evening destination of Winnemucca.
The weather was in the
triple digits everywhere except the highest elevations. I had packed snacks in a large cooler and
would move some foot out of it and next to the drivers seat at each baking rest
stop that I frequently stopped at.
In about four hours I was
checking into my motel room. At the time
three planets were snuggled in the twilight together; the moon, Venus and
Neptune. I went across the street to a
casino and won $20, had dinner and came back to soak in the tub and relax. It had been a hot day and the air
conditioners were humming in all the rooms.
The next morning I filled
my thermos up with hot coffee and took off with a full tank of gas and drove
directly north to cross into southern Oregon and head n/e into Idaho. Leaving Winnemucca, until I reached Jordan,
Oregon, I was driving up a valley floor between two long mountain ranges that
seemed about twenty miles away on either side.
The road was well-paved
but a small two-lane highway without any curb area or pull-outs. Cars had to pass one another. There were wide farms all along the way until
we hit the Oregon border. Then it was
unmarred by man, excepting the road, until the outskirts of Jordan, where I
again filled up the gas tank.
Being from California I’m
used to filling my own gas tank so it took me by surprise that an attendant
helped me out.
I put some new snacks in
the front seat and took off to soon enter an isolate Idaho with wonderful hill
formations and then a long curve ride down, down the hills into Idaho farmland
surrounding Boise. From there I found
the freeway taking me back up to the east side of Oregon. The weather outside
was 104 degrees and I passed a road crew resurfacing part of the freeway. Somehow that seemed inhumane. Hope they got extra pay for that.
I was getting really sleepy and watching for
signs for food and lodging and pulled off the freeway to find a real coffee
shop. I had a vanilla latte and was
ready to finish the drive which was actually about to happen after driving five
hours already.
I had seen a lot of
countryside that day that was mostly blond with dry grass but had just driven
up a steep grade of pine covered mountains, and now was in a large valley of
farmland. The GPS lady guided me off the
freeway and through the farmland toward the mountains in the east.
As I saw the town of Cove,
population 552, I was in wonder as it looked like a German village snug up
against and in the shadow of 7,150 foot Mt. Fanny and built into it’s lower
curving base on the eastern slope of the Grand Ronde Valley. The houses had pointed roofs and many streets
were covered with gravel. It had a
charming air about it.
I finally pulled into my
brothers driveway and was able to stretch and give and get hugs. Two days and ten hours of driving was a lot
for me to do by myself and I was very happy to be there to finally see my
brother Dan and sister-in-law Maureen’s house and small farm.
Cove is where cherry trees
grow and I have arrived to help pick the trees.
Each tree has to be cleaned of the succulent fruit or the authorities ask
that you cut the tree down to prevent infestation affecting the other
orchards. Dan has six trees, three large
Lambert cherry trees, a Queen Anne tree and a couple of smaller trees, one with
sour cherries for making pies. We picked
the sour cherry tree first and Maureen made the most delicious cherry pie made
perfect with a touch of almond extract.
Last year was a much larger harvest than this year. Two hundred and fifty gallons of cherries were picked as compared to fifty gallons this year. We even helped a neighbor pick a tree to get that many.
Last year was a much larger harvest than this year. Two hundred and fifty gallons of cherries were picked as compared to fifty gallons this year. We even helped a neighbor pick a tree to get that many.
We used tall ladders that
were shaped like little Eiffel Towers that had a third pole to keep it
steady. I made it up to the fourth rung
while Maureen was on the top if not in the tree itself. We put the cherries in cut-off plastic milk
jugs and then dumped them into a large cooler.
We used a pitting device
on many of the cherries so that we could dry them in a couple of
dehydrators. I was given a couple of
huge bags of fresh cherries and dehydrated cherries to take home and share.
Another highlight of my
trip was suiting up and helping Maureen check on her bees. I was wearing a hat with netting that tucked
inside my clothing, gloves, and socks over my pant legs while timidly standing
beside Maureen while she pulled out slabs of honeycombs stacked sideways in the
boxes. She showed me the queen and the
larvae, as without gloves on her hands.
Maureen will be selling her bee’s honey at the next Cherry Festival in Cove this August. She is going to have Dan help her build a shack beside the gravel road to sell jars of honey as well. We visited a nearby shack that sold vegetables and spruce tip salt and vinegar. I bought some of the flavored salt and put my money in the slot of a mailbox-like box with a locked lid.
Maureen will be selling her bee’s honey at the next Cherry Festival in Cove this August. She is going to have Dan help her build a shack beside the gravel road to sell jars of honey as well. We visited a nearby shack that sold vegetables and spruce tip salt and vinegar. I bought some of the flavored salt and put my money in the slot of a mailbox-like box with a locked lid.
There were also a couple of apple trees that were covered in clusters of small fruits. We filled a bucket of apples we thinned out of a tree for the resident critters: two alpacas, two furry goats, two sheep and several chickens.
Maureen had planned
several outings for us. The first was
going to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center to see a concert and a museum. The concert was amazing with historical
references and information. Did you know
that cowboys sang to the sheep so they would stay calm and not stampede, which
could be deadly?
Then we had a picnic at
Anthony Lakes high up in the Malheur National Forest where Dan had taught
beginning skiing for awhile. Nearby
Grande Lake was smaller and encircled by fishermen on outcrops. It was an image that made me smile and one
that I would see at other lakes we visited.
Another day we went to the
farmers market in Le Grande and then had a picnic lunch by nearby Morgan
Lake. Food tastes better when you eat it
outside.
We also went to Joseph
City in Wallowa County. I have always
like Chief Joseph from the Nez Perce tribe and was happy to be in the valley
that they had lived in before they were forced off the land illegally by the
American government. We visited a
memorial of Chief Joseph’s father who died there and was touched by the simple
items that people placed around the decorative tombstone.
We went to artisanal
stores in Joseph’s quaint downtown and then on to Wallowa Lake. We took a tram up to the top of Mount Howard
and looked down on the lake and the valley below. It was less scary going down in the tram
after having a champagne mimosa to relax while on top.
All in all, during my stay
in Cove, we had good food, played board games, drank iced-coffee and homemade
currant wine, watched the distant fireworks show across the valley at sunset
(which took place at 10:00 PM), watched my brother build a foundation for a
pool/spa, helped work around the farm and went on great field trips. Not bad for a wannabe farmer.
It was time for me to
leave and go back to California and I wanted to go a different route in order
to see more of the countryside. I drove
through the middle of Oregon and then down toward California. After driving on a curvy mountain road for a
couple of hours through the Whitman National Forrest I thought I was getting a
little dizzy as the fallen logs between the majestic trees began to resemble
large lizards and dragons.
I decided to pull over to
a café and have some coffee and spice cake and rest a bit before taking off
again through a high valley to my evening destination at a hotel in Lakeside,
Oregon. While driving through the valley
I was mystified by the small clouds that seemed to be dancing around distant
volcanoes. Then there was the hugest,
darkest black cloud that I called the “mother ship” that I had to drive beneath. I was really hoping it wouldn’t decide to
dump it’s load of rain on me when I felt a hundred miles away from anywhere, by
myself. I probably only saw four cars
pass me in this long highway so far.
In the distance I could
see streaks of rain falling at the edge of the large cloud and it made it look
like an underwater scene with sun streaks pouring through. I half expected to see some fish flying by in
the sky. (What was in that spice
cake???)
Just before arriving at
Lakeside I drove beside a beautiful lake.
It looked so beautiful I had to stop and take pictures.
After spending the night
at Lakeside I re-entered California and continued enjoying the mountains and
valleys until I reached another brother’s home high up in Quincy. I spent a few days there enjoying his family
and left to visit another brother at the bottom of the mountain in Oroville,
following the magnificent Feather River all the way down. It was by far the best river of the many that
the highways I traveled seemed to run along.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
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