This article originally appeared on FoodPrint.
Like most children, Lane Selman didn t like the bitter bite of radicchio growing up. I m from Florida originally, and it s not popular in Florida at all, she says. My mother ate a lot of radicchio, with cranberries and walnuts, but I was always like What is this thing? I didn t eat it.
Today Selman, an agricultural researcher at Oregon State University and Director of the Culinary Breeding Network, is a bonafide radicchio cheerleader. Part of her work includes identifying ideal varieties of vegetables for the region, including radicchio, and as co-founder of Sagra del Radicchio, an annual radicchio festival, Selman is often found praising the oft-overlooked winter vegetable. It brings joy to my life: to make salads with it and bring color into this time when it s kind of dreary. Even looking in my garden, I have several rows of the pink radicchio and it s beautiful, she says.
Margaret Roach, The New York Times
Published: 19 Dec 2020 05:45 PM BdST
Updated: 19 Dec 2020 05:45 PM BdST Roasted pumpkin seeds, Oct 15, 2019. Food stylist: Barrett Washbourne. David Malosh/The New York Times
Resilience: It’s a buzzword in the vegetable-seed industry, and a mission to breed genetically resilient varieties that stand up to pests, diseases and the rigors of a shifting climate. );
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Each resilient variety becomes a tiny, critical ingredient in a resilient seed system that supports agriculture, the foundation of a resilient food system.
And in the tumultuous 2020 seed-catalogue season, resilience proved a valuable human trait as well, for seed company staff and their customers. Insights gleaned from that chaotic year of record sales can smooth the ground for the 2021 garden season, which officially begins this month, as new catalogues start appearing in mailboxes and online.