Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Garlic Renaming

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Karen Sutherland <ksutherland AT hampshire.edu>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Garlic Renaming
  • Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 18:24:40 -0400

Greetings to all,

I have been alternately frustrated-amused-horrified by our societal reverence for science and our willingness to accept the things it knows how to measure as the things that are important. Garlic DNA seems to be one more example of a "scientific" approach giving measurement answers that are not consonant with the experience of experienced observers. Could it be that DNA is not the be-all, end-all of what makes different characteristics/performance? Just because something is "good science" does not mean it is the best or only basis for making good decisions about complex subjects. What we can not measure -- and must "know" in different ways -- is often more important than what we can measure exactly and consistently.
All best wishes from hot, dry zone 10,

Karen Sutherland
Roots Farm
Organic Fruits, Roots, Vegetables & Herbs
Cockrane, Dominica


Alliums wrote:

Hi, Folks!

Allan wrote:

<< Let me ask you this: If all Porcelain is genetically identical, why do some 'porcelains' out perform others...even on the same soil? >>

As someone who has several Porcelain strains and dropped MUSIC because
GERMAN EXTRA HARDY outperformed it, I'd love the answer to this question,
too. Stern was pretty adamant that it didn't matter -- he says that the
MUSIC I dropped had identical DNA to the GERMAN EXTRA HARDY that I've
maintained.
I suspect that there is more going on in subtle protein differences, mineral
availability, etc that we just don't know yet. I'm hoping that Gayle Volk,
like lots of government researchers, will be putting all of her research on
a website so we can all read it in detail and discuss it among ourselves --
if I find out the URL, I'll post it here.

For those of us who have trialed varieties and maintained collections, there
are a lot of unanswered questions here and I think we need to do the
research and questioning needed to get some answers. . .

Dorene

Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth

A mission of St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460


_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm









Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page