FERN’s Friday Feed: A Twinkie-eating fungus?
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
The case of the mummified Twinkies
NPR
When fungi scientists Brian Lovett and Matt Kasson learned of Colin Purrington’s mummified Twinkies, they had to have them. “The researchers immediately thought some kind of fungus was involved in attacking the 8-year-old Twinkies, because they’ve studied fungi that kill insects and dry them out in a similar way,” reports Nell Greenfieldboyce. “They reached out to Purrington, who was only too happy to mail them the Twinkies immediately. ‘Science is a collaborative sport,’ he said.”
The ‘mysticism and alchemy’ of Sandorkraut
Aeon (video)
From a policy analyst in New York City to a global fermentation evangelizer in Woodbury, Tennessee, Aeon distills the journey and philosophy of Sandor Katz. “All of these processes are thousands of years old, and definitely each batch is unique and individual,” Katz says. “Broadly speaking, fermentation is the transformative action of microorganisms … Certainly humans didn’t invent fermentation, and I would even argue that humans didn’t discover fermentation. Because fermentation happens spontaneously … The human cultural accomplishment is that we created vessels and make these processes happen kind of on our own terms.”
Atlanta’s Black-run farms struggle to find stability
Scalawag and Canopy Atlanta
In the summer of 2016, Jamila Norman scraped together $18,000 for a “1.2-acre corner lot … five minutes from her house” in Atlanta’s West End. “‘There’s no way on God’s green earth I would be able to buy that [today],’ she says. Four years later, Patchwork grows vegetables, fruits, and herbs that are distributed to restaurants and consumers throughout Atlanta,” writes Adjoa D. Danso. “But ownership success stories like Norman’s are rare for West End’s Black-run farms … Even when they’re lucky enough to find land, a lack of resources can threaten their longevity and the community’s legacy.”
What happens when the phosphorus runs out?
National Geographic
“Phosphorus occurs naturally in soil and is a critical nutrient for plant growth. For centuries, farmers have added extra to their fields to boost harvests, but [Roger] Sylvester-Bradley [a crop scientist] and his colleagues are studying ways to produce food using less of it,” writes Julia Rosen. “The reasons are twofold: First, phosphorus runoff from farms contributes to widespread water pollution. Second, we don’t have phosphorus to waste.”
The food that fueled, and still fuels, the civil rights movement
Gravy
“[Georgia] Gilmore’s dining room table served several purposes,” writes Safiya Charles. “It was a secure meeting place for talk that had to be kept quiet. King and the Montgomery Improvement Association leaders could move and speak freely; hold private meetings with public officials even, as was the case when King once brought President Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy to Gilmore’s home.The unsanctioned restaurant fed and nourished. In the physical sense and in the cultural and political sense.”