A rare chilli in northern India provides the ‘Seed Detective’ with inspiration for a book about remarkable vegetables and where to find them.
Adam Alexander's pursuit of rare and endangered fruits and vegetables started in the late eighties and has taken him to countless farms around the world since then. The sun was rising through the dusty haze of a city waking up with a collective hangover: the result of a day of kite flying followed by beer and a night sky filled with ascending lanterns.
Accompanied by my guide, Narendra Chitawa, we drove to the village of Begas, an hour west of Jaipur. The farms in this region form a patchwork of small fields — in winter, green with barley and mustard crops just coming into flower, others standing empty after the millet harvest. Giant stacks of straw the size of mud huts stood by stately neem trees. Alongside a bumpy track, rows of vegetables, including tomatoes, grew under billowing lengths of fleece as a protection against frost.
Much of Rajasthan receives less than 500mm of rain a year, and the challenges facing farmers in the semi-arid areas near Jaipur are considerable. Winter, when farmers are busiest, is always dry. This means that the seeds farmers save have been selected and bred to flourish in a very challenging climate.
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