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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 11, 2015 17:57:58 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Oct 12, 2015 13:31:41 GMT
Thanks so much for reviving this dormant thread. I like it just as much the 2nd time around!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2017 21:09:56 GMT
Due for another revival as this is one of my all time favorite threads on here in every way.
I am going to order the book that Jazz recommended pronto.
While having coffee with my friend this morning we chatted about rugs. I brought up the topic of cochineal and she knew all about it.
She cited the fact that the very same bug thrives here in NOLA.
Now I am excited about the prospect of encountering one. I know just where to look too.
(I am such a "cheap high", all amped up about crushing a bug.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 9, 2017 23:24:47 GMT
Yaay! I recently found that book in like-new condition at an attractive price. I've only just started it, but it moves along in a sprightly way, full of fascinating history.
It's bizarre to think of such a dedicated gardener being happy about mealy bug, but at least you'll be smushing it.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 19:11:03 GMT
I just encountered another book on this topic that was published this past February. Red: The History of a Color by Michael Pastoureau. I'm going to check Amazon and see if I can acquire it at a cheaper price than the one I saw in the bookstore here. The photos are incredible, lavish and brilliant.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 19, 2017 22:22:48 GMT
The NYTimes has a story today about the rug weavers of Oaxaca and their natural dyes. This prompted me to renovate this thread, which had fallen victim to photobucket having pulled the rug out from under its users. Please note that the first picture in the article shows pericón, which the caption lazily identifies as "a type of marigold". If you magnify the photo, keen gardeners will recognize that marigold as Tagetes lucida: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagetes_lucidawww.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/science/mexico-textiles-natural-dyes.html
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Post by questa on Sept 20, 2017 10:39:33 GMT
Eastern Australia had a terrible problem. In the 18th century the military, wanting to keep their red uniforms, set up cochineal farms and introduced lots of what was called prickly pear.
The prickly pear went ballistic spreading over huge swathes of land spreading at a million acres a year. Then the cactoblastis beetle arrived and the pear and cochineal bug started to disappear.
It took to the 1930s for the last areas to come under control and a special monument/ memorial was built to honour the cactoblastis. They say it is the only monument in the world dedicated to an insect.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 20, 2017 17:08:06 GMT
Fascinating, Questa! I knew that nopal cactus/prickly pear had naturalized in Australia, but had no idea of the history behind it. I looked up the cactoblastis beetle -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactoblastis_cactorum -- and it appears it can be a saint or a devil. Certainly it would be disastrous in Mexico, where nopal is also a food crop. Re: "only monument in the world dedicated to an insect" -- up until you told me about Australia's beetle monument, I thought the only monument in the world dedicated to an insect was this one: www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2384
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 21, 2017 7:24:44 GMT
Another fascinating fact!
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 6, 2018 16:56:37 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 2, 2018 12:39:46 GMT
The Secret to That Bright-Red Drink? Little Bugs <-- click John Troia, a founder of Tempus Fugit Spirits, in San Francisco, uses cochineal in two products. He finds it curious that people would object to imbibing insects. “The funny thing is, alcohol is technically a poison to the body,” he said. “I think the focus is a little odd, the things people fixate on.”
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 2, 2018 12:55:23 GMT
People are weird about insects. Will the Reader's Digest calm people about it?
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