Dec 27, 2016

Johnny’s hosts Culinary Breeding Network’s Lane Selman

Johnny’s Selected Seeds hosted Lane Selman, founder and director of the Culinary Breeding Network (CBN) in Portland, Oregon, as guest speaker at its Research Farm in Albion, Maine. Present at the day-long series of presentations, culinary tastings, and discussions, were employee-owners of Johnny’s, along with local chefs and farmers, as Selman shared her story about how the Culinary Breeding Network developed in the Pacific Northwest.

Selman’s initiative in founding the Culinary Breeding Network stems from her position as organic farming researcher at Oregon State University, where she has trained her focus on organic systems and participatory breeding.

Working principally with vegetable trialing and breeding, Selman described the goals and results of the partnerships’ efforts with solanaceous crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes; cucurbit crops such as cucumbers, melons, summer and winter squashes; corn, carrots, and chicory (which she predicts to be “the next kale”); and numerous others. Through the Culinary Breeding Network, Selman has additionally been investigating distinctly improved varieties of herbs such as ‘Macedonian Lanceleaf’ parsley, cilantro and shiso varieties, as well as barley for such applications as mugicha–based beverages, leavened and unleavened baked goods, and agnolotti.

Selmen walked the audience through the mission and goals of the Culinary Breeding Network across the Pacific Northwest. The CBN’s MISSION is to bridge the gap between breeders and eaters to improve agricultural and culinary quality, and the goals are to:

• Increase communication and collaboration between plant breeders, seed growers, farmers, chefs, produce buyers, food journalists, and other leaders in the food community in order to develop more relevant and desirable cultivars.
• Identify cultivars and traits of superior performance, flavor, texture, culinary attributes, and overall quality.
• Promote and expand awareness of cultivars created by public and independent plant breeders using traditional plant breeding processes for organic systems.
• Provide greater access to organic seed and open-pollinated cultivars.

Following Selman’s presentation, Johnny’s research staff briefed the group on Johnny’s own outreach efforts and goals, whereafter the group participated in a blind tasting exercise of six carrot, six winter squash and four cayenne pepper varieties. While many attendees have spent entire careers tasting vegetables at a professional level, many others were novices in the art and science of flavor characterization.