Tuesday 30 October 2012

ND, MN Farmers Develop Farming App


Two farmers have developed a mobile phone application to help with farm management.



Jacob Fannik grew up on a 2,000-acre farm in Max, planting small grains such as oats and barley. When his friend, Ryan Raguse of Wheaton, Minn., approached him with the idea for Virtual Farm Manager, he knew from experience it would be useful for producers.

“The spark behind this came from growing up on a farm,” Fannik said. “A farmer has to get in and out of the tractor, get into the house, make a bunch of calls, be so many places at once and still be behind the wheel of the tractor.”

Farmers can download the app to their phone and then register on the company’s website, www.virtualfarmmanager.com.

The app uses the phone’s GPS to track and map as equipment goes up and down the fields planting or spreading fertilizer. Everything on the phone is synced with their web account.

With the app, farmers also can store past yield records and compare them. They can keep notes. If there are multiple workers in the field, they can all view it on their cell phone at the same time.

“Rather than running around with notebooks all the time, the farmer can just send it back to the computer,” Raguse said.

“I have cattle to deal with and I’m farming from about March to October,” Fannik said. “I definitely understand what it’s like to be out there at 6:30 in the morning until 1 o’clock.”

Raguse said there are many variations of this management technology but he doesn’t know of any that allow farmers to access it on a cell phone.

The app will be coming out for Android phones on April 15. An iPhone version will follow shortly after. The cost for the first month is $1; after that, it is $65 a month.

“Farmers can do a lot of what the high tech, high dollar products do on a smart phone,” Fannik said.

Raguse said other systems such as Connected Farm require spending several thousand dollars on hardware and software on top of a monthly subscription cost. Other management software is available for computers he said, but it doesn’t offer the mobility of a phone.

Fannik said farmers might face some reception problems with this product. Also the technology may not be as good as what the other products offer, but he said they think what they have is sufficient. As their company grows, Raguse and Fannik hope to be able to provide more and better services.

“We’re here to help farmers first and foremost,” Fannik said. “Without farmers out there, you’re not getting food on the table, not getting milk in your glass.”

Friday 26 October 2012

Drip Irrigation Offers Huge Savings For Farmers


Three researchers from Batac in Ilocos Norte are developing the low-cost drip irrigation system (LDIS) for rice-based high-value crops such as bitter gourd to meet irrigation requirements in dry environments.



Known for its dry environment, water is a scarce resource in Batac. The periodic rains from June to November are hardly enough to irrigate the crops planted in the province so Engr. Noel Ganotisi, Engr. Romel Batuac, and Dr. Reynaldo Castro of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

The LDIS uses plastic drum, control valves, filter, mainline and manifold, and lateral lines (moldex hose). It was first used by the team to irrigate a 250-square-meter plot of bitter gourd at a PhilRice station in Batac for the first six months of 2010.

Except for the dripper, all materials are locally available in Batac and elsewhere in the country so anyone could replicate the technology, Ganotisi said.

Ganotisi likewise highlighted that LDIS only costs P30,000, which is up to 72 percent cheaper than commercial irrigation dripping system for a 1,000-square-meter plot.

Ganotisi also reported they were able to save 55 percent of water using LDIS. This amount of water can irrigate other crops, something that could have just been wasted if conventional furrow irrigation was used.

“It’s indeed very efficient. This can be explained by the fact that water was applied “at the root zone of the bitter gourd,” Ganotisi said.

This way, less water is applied “unlike in furrow irrigation where wider area is irrigated since more water is needed to run in furrows. Even those spaces that do not need to be wetted are irrigated when using furrow method.”

Consequently, the team reported that LDIS-irrigated bitter gourd produced slightly higher marketable fruits (78.62 percent) than those irrigated using conventional furrow irrigation (77.02 percent). Additionally, a return on investment of 85 percent over a one year period was reported.
After the station pilot testing, the team started the on-site trial in Currimao, a town in Ilocos Norte.

“This is user-friendly for women and for aging farmers. Once the containers are filled, I only need to turn on and off the drippers and all’s done. I can now focus on my other tasks,” said Agnes Asuncion, who also makes soaps after attending a course from the Department of Science and Technology.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Now, Farmers Can Check Water-Level In Soil


To help farmer reduce consumption of water, a scientist from Sugarcane Breeding Institute in the city has developed a soil moisture indicator to help farmers understand the moisture level of the soil and irrigate accordingly.



K Hari, a senior scientist at the institute, invented the device, which was tested for around a year among sugarcane farmers. "This can be immersed into the soil. By pressing the side button, the water levels can be understood. Different colours will represent the water levels; such as blue for adequate water and red for less water," he added.

According to the scientists, farmers can decide on when to irrigate looking at the indicators. D Puthira Prathap, who was the principal investigator of the project, says that "The indicator can be taken to different areas of the land and the moisture levels can be checked. The soil need not be irrigated, if there is enough water."

Farmers who used the equipment in Erode, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri shared their experiences in the sensitisation workshop organised as part of "Water Day" celebrations in the institute.

EK Subramanian, a farmer from Koothampoondi in Erode said he used the soil moisture indicator in half of his farm and found it beneficial. "I have one hectare of sugarcane cultivation. In half the land, I used this equipment to compare with the normal process of irrigation. I placed the indicator in several locations of the land to understand the availability of water. In the other portion of the land, we irrigated as usual. Using the indicator, I could manage with 20% less water. The land which used this equipment cultivated 8 tonnes more than the other portion," he said.

"I could reduce about 30% to 40% water consumption in the areas where I used the equipment compared to the land where I did not use it. The harvest was ten tonnes more," said P Saravanan, a farmer from Palacode in Dharmapuri district.

N Vijayan Nair, director of the institute said "Indian farmers use more water for agriculture. The usual reason is that we don't know when the soil requires to be irrigated. This leads to over irrigation which damages the soil."

The soil moisture indicator can check water-levels of the soil from around 15cms to 45cms. Hari says that this is enough for farms and plants in pots. "This is simple to use and affordable. We are looking for entrepreneurs interested in manufacturing this on a large scale," he added.

Friday 19 October 2012

Could Vertical Farming Be The Future?


Farm capable of feeding 50,000 people could fit 'within a city block'

Rice on the seventh floor. Wheat on the twelfth. And enough food within an 18-story tower to feed a small city of 50,000.

Vertical farms, where staple crops could be grown in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, exist today only in futuristic designs and on optimistic Web sites. Despite concerns over sky-high costs, however, an environmental health expert in New York is convinced the world has the know-how to make the concept a reality — and the imperative to do so quickly.



With a raft of studies suggesting farmers will be hard-pressed to feed the extra 3 billion people swelling the world’s ranks by the year 2050, Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier believes a new model of agriculture is vital to avoid an impending catastrophe.

“The reason why we need vertical farming is that horizontal farming is failing,” he said. If current practices don’t change by mid-century, he points outs, an area bigger than Brazil would need to become farmland just to keep pace with the demand.

Working the soil has always been an uncertain venture, and Despommier argues that the price of crop failure is growing ever steeper as the global population mushrooms. “The world,” he said, “is running out of resources faster than what it can replace.”

Critics like Bruce Bugbee, a professor of crop physiology at Utah State University in Logan, see improvements in how future farmlands are managed as more practical and cost-effective. To Despommier, though, the world already has the need and the technology to dramatically improve yields and reliability by adjusting its point of view: from out to up.

The Columbia researcher said his interest in vertical farming is an extension of his long-standing work on disease transmission among humans. Among the laundry list of benefits he cites, Despommier believes vertical farming could help break the transmission cycle of diseases in traditional agricultural settings. But it’s the potential to help solve impending food shortages that really excites him.

A recent exercise conducted by students in his medical ecology class found that a self-sustaining vertical farm able to feed 50,000 people could “fit comfortably within a city block,” rising perhaps 18 stories. With adequate funding, a smaller prototype could be up and running in seven to 10 years, he predicts. Eventually, full-scale versions could be a new feature of city skylines, climbing as high as 30 stories and filled with automated feeders, monitoring devices and harvesting equipment. And, of course, they would feature crops such as wheat, rice, sugar beets and leafy greens grown in mineral nutrient solutions or without any solid substrates at all.

These hydroponic and aeroponic growing techniques, respectively, have benefited from NASA’s strong interest because any long-term venture to the moon or beyond would require the use of self-contained and resource-limited growth chambers. Despommier concedes that current practices must be improved and systems put in place to quickly identify and quarantine plants stricken with pests or disease. “No pun intended, but the bugs need to be worked out of this thing,” he said.

He insists, though, that money is the last major obstacle. To his critics, that hurdle has tripped up past entrepreneurs and may yet be insurmountable. “I can’t be very optimistic about this study,” said Utah State’s Bugbee. “None of this is very new. But it doesn’t mean the whole concept is without merit. It just means the claims are greatly exaggerated.”

Bugbee’s chief objection is the exorbitant power requirement for such a vertical structure.  Plants on the lower floors would require artificial light year-round or expensive mechanical systems to get more light to them. And during a typical winter in northern U.S. cities, he said, average sunlight is only 5 percent to 10 percent of peak summer levels due to sapped intensity and shorter days.

“November, December, January and February are really dark,” Bugbee said. “Plants aren’t limited by the temperature, they’re limited by the light.” High-pressure sodium lights may be a reasonable stand-in for sunlight to maintain plant growth,  he said, but the electric bill is enormous. “Boy have a lot of people gone bankrupt trying hydroponic greenhouses for that reason.”

Nevertheless,  greenhouses such as Arizona’s 265-acre Eurofresh Farms are thriving with their hydroponic tomatoes and seedless cucumbers. Gene Giacomelli, Director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said questions of safety, quality and sustainability are pushing agriculture in a host of other directions, including Despommier’s vertical farming idea. “He’s one extreme – a very good one,” Giacomelli said.

Several years ago, Giacomelli and collaborators in Arizona explored another extreme when they won a contract to design and build a growth chamber within a new building at Antarctica’s Amundsen-Scott Research Station. The chamber can be tweaked remotely by scientists back in Arizona but is now largely managed by volunteers at the station.

Besides supplying some much-needed color and light for the research station’s residents during Antarctica’s bleak and bitterly cold winter months, the indoor chamber has yielded a range of crunchy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, hot and sweet peppers and even cantaloupe. Next year, a student will try to grow watermelon in what is arguably the worlds’ most inhospitable place for a garden. Remarkably, the plot has produced about two-thirds of what top greenhouses in North America can deliver.

“I like to say that we can grow any plant anywhere and any time, but for a price,” Giacomelli said. The catch in Antarctica is that electricity  for the lights and pumps has inflated the cost to about $50 per pound of fresh vegetables . “Now, the local person at the supermarket would say you’re crazy for spending that much money on vegetables,” he said. “But you give that number to NASA and they’d say, ‘Wow, that’s a good number.’”

Transportation costs
Back on Earth, Despommier said urban farms could defray some of their own expense by significantly cutting transportation costs. And as the local food movement gains in popularity with environmentally conscious consumers, he said, what could be more local than vertical farming? Despite a lack of major technological advances, the effort also stands to benefit from small but steady improvements in hydroponics and automated systems to control temperature, humidity and nutrient delivery, according to Giacomelli.

To curb the excessive reliance on electricity, Giacomelli’s own group is planning to experiment with fiber-optic tubes called solar pipes that can capture sunlight from the Antarctic growth chamber’s roof. Meanwhile, Utah State University researchers have developed a clear piece of curved polyethylene that can retain heat in the ground and extend the growing season by up to four months for summer squash and tomatoes.

As for keeping up with global food demand by growing crops such as rice and wheat,  “we’re going to have to get better at farming marginal lands,” Bugbee said, “but it’s still going to be done outside because the sunlight is so cheap — well, free — and the sunlight levels are so high in the summer.”

He agrees that some farming will move toward more controlled environments, especially for high-value crops like fresh herbs that otherwise would be difficult to supply year-round. “Chefs will pay a lot for fresh basil,” Bugbee said, “but we’re not going to feed the world with that.”

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Organic Growth Story Of Organic Farming

NAGPUR: Following in the footsteps of his father, 31-year-old Ashish Shinde from Anjangaon Surji village in Paratwada tehsil of Amravati district is promoting organic farming in all possible ways.



His father Deepak Shinde had shown the way in the 1990s. Today, Ashish has expanded the area of work to almost the entire state. The membership in the firm his father started, Organic Farms, has gone up from around 3,500 in 1999 to over 4,700 now.

Deepak Shinde had pioneered organic farming in Vidarbha and then started propagating it. As farmers joined him, he floated an NGO, Maharashtra Organic Farmers Association, with himself as secretary and Appasaheb Wankhede from village Amla in Daryapur tehsil as president. As the need to get produce certified grew, Shinde launched Organic Farms.

"In 1988, there were no organic certifying agencies in India. So my father researched and tied up with German company 'Agrisco' to certify produce from all 260 farmers in just two villages, Daryapur and Anjangaon," says Ashish.

Being an agriculture graduate like his father, Ashish has an edge over other farmers in understanding the nuances of agriculture. "I wanted to do post graduation, but father said things at ground level would not change much even if I completed doctorate in agriculture. He was right. So I am now expanding on his work," he said.

"The firm is now into export of soyabean and pulses. We are also undertaking organic cultivation and certification of pulses, vegetables and fruits," he said.


The senior Shinde was influenced by the book 'The One Straw Revolution' by Masanobu Fukuoka from Japan. Shinde was a senior grader in Cotton Federation at Daryapur and Pulgaon. After reading the book, he bought 20 acre land and started experiments. Every Sunday, he would go to Mumbai to meet Rohidas Patil after they met at a fair in Dhule. Gradually, he became famous as a organic farming consultant and went around the country training and educating farmers.

He also toured the USA and Poland, and came into contact with foreign buyers. He began promoting organic cotton, since he could buy all the cotton due to the federation's monopoly then and sell it in Kolkata market. "My father maintained extreme transparency. He formed a committee for procuring cotton with representatives from farmers and buyers to decide the rate and the farmers share in the profit. If the profit percentage was 15%, at least 10% would go to farmers and remaining 5% to Organic Farms, the company that gave the organic certification," said Ashish.

Shinde got support from Amravati collector Manisha Verma, who allowed a pilot project at Nimkhed Bazar village for residential training for farmers under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (Atma) and trained 100 farmers daily. Now, the firm exports soyabean powder, guava, pineapple and mango pulp and juices, fresh fruits like grapes, pomegranate, safflower and sunflower oil and sells pulses and oil to Brahmaratan, a Delhi-based company, from many districts of the state.

Shinde also started dal mills, oil mills, ginning mills, pulverizing units and cashew nut processing units under the guidance of Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth in 2003 at Nimkhed Bazar, which is proving handy for organic growers to ensure quality and avoid adulteration. The company also displays products at big fairs like World Organic Trade Fair-Biofach.

"For export, we need third party certification. Organic Farms has tied up with Reliable Analytical Lab and Microchem Silliker Lab at Mumbai. They test the produce for 147 chemicals at the port or airport. So, we have to maintain the same quality," said Ashish.

Ashish did his bit after meeting Kavita Mukhi, who runs 'Conscious Food' outlets in Mumbai. She motivated him to diversify into vegetables, fruits, organic textiles and cosmetics. She also proposed a Sunday farmers market in Mumbai, which will complete three years this September.

Ashish wants to fulfil all the dreams of his father, who died at an early age. "I knew a lot of my father's contacts since I kept their accounts, and they are now helping me climb up the ladder," he says.Box

Future Plans
  • Production of organic khaddar or handloom in association with Wardha-based Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Industrialisation (MGIRI)
  • Developing organic textiles and organic cosmetics
  • Developing organic Paithani silk dress material using organic dyes with support from Asmita Gaikwad, who works among tribals in Yeola village in Nashik
  • Developing organic mulberry silk in Mumbai
  • Organic milk production unit using Gir cows involving 100 farmers with cows
  • Training institute for farmers
  • Improving weekly farmers market in Mumbai

Friday 12 October 2012

Waste Not, Want Not


Plastics maker Sintex seeks to solve India's energy and sanitation problems in one stroke - with an at-home bio-gas digester.



(Fortune Magazine) -- Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation.

Sintex's digester uses bacteria to break down waste into sludge, much like a septic tank. In the process, the bacteria emit gases, mostly methane. But instead of being vented into the air, they are piped into a storage canister.

A one-cubic-meter digester, primed with cow dung to provide bacteria, can convert the waste generated by a four-person family into enough gas to cook all its meals and provide sludge for fertilizer. A model this size costs about $425 but will pay for itself in energy savings in less than two years. That's still a high price for most Indians, even though the government recently agreed to subsidize about a third of the cost for these family-sized units. "We want to create a new industry for portable sanitation in India that's not available now," says S.B. Dangayach, Sintex's managing director.

Government officials plan to end open defecation by 2012 (hundreds of millions of Indians use railroad tracks or other outdoor locales instead of toilets) and say biogas plants are part of the solution. A.R. Shukla, a scientific advisor in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, says India could support 12 million such plants, but only 3.9 million - mostly pricier models big enough to accommodate entire villages - have been installed to date. And last year the government fell far short of its target for new installations.

The future can be glimpsed on a dusty, rutted road in a poor South Delhi neighborhood. Here 1,000 people use an immaculately clean public toilet constructed by a nonprofit foundation, the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. The biogas digester attached to toilets provides cooking gas for a 600-student school and vocational-training program the foundation runs. In the past, nongovernmental organizations like Sulabh were the only ones offering biogas digesters.

But Sintex is hoping cities, real estate developers, building managers, and hospitals will jump at a ready-made way to harness the same energy.

Biogas digesters are just a small fraction of Sintex's business. The company has installed only about 100 of them. But it plans to increase investment and production tenfold in the coming year. That growth potential has helped Sintex stock more than double this past year. Human waste may be a stinky business, but to investors it smells like money

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Farmer Adopts Integrated Methods For Sustainable Development


Ray of hope

An integrated farming is a panacea for crisis in agriculture sector, if we consider success story of a farmer at a hamlet in the taluk. For farmers who are in distress due to crop loss due to vagaries of nature and fluctuating prices, the innovative approach seems to provide a ray of hope.



With his success in integrated farming, Veeranna, a farmer in Seegehalli, has set a model for farmers dependent on either single-crop pattern or poultry for livelihood.

Bovines and earthworms fulfill the requirement of compost for his field where he grows variety of crops, vegetables along with mulberry for silkworms. Besides, the bio-gas plant fulfils the need for fuel in kitchen. Sheep of rambouillite breed, cows of native breed, oxen and poultry are among the livestock Veeranna has nurtured. Mulberry required feed over 1,000 silkworms a month, ‘raagi’, cashew, tur, coconut, mango and vegetables are the main crops cultivated in his farm.

The benefits of integrated farming are many, he explains. Demonstrating the models he has set up, Veeranna says the organic waste from the ‘gobar’ gas plant provides nutrient to the plants in the farm. The urine from the cowshed, which is collected in a pit, is mixed with the green waste from the farm. The liquid will be sprayed in the field through drip irrigation system. The residual solid waste makes for the rich organic manure.

Sericulture

Veeranna’s approach to sericulture is also innovative. He has set up a shed using painted sheets to keep bamboo trays in which silkworms are kept. The Odisha-model of this silkworm shed is useful in maintaining the desirable temperature in all the seasons and is strong enough to sustain the gusty winds. The shed is spacious enough to boil 1,000 cocoons.
The shed that was built at a cost of Rs 6 lakh has proved beneficial, he said. Last year, farmers in the neighbouring Doddatekahalli and Marappanahalli suffered loss due to damage caused to the sheds by the gusty wind and heavy rain. But, the shed in his farm didn’t suffer any damage.

Veeranna says the integrated approach requires comparatively less investment while the profit is high. He says he has spent Rs 20,000 on construction of cowshed. He has availed a subsidy of Rs 10,000 given by an organisation for promoting organic farming.

He has got a subsidy of Rs 4,000 for construction of pits for vermicompost, which cost him in total Rs 8,000. The venture that began with two kgs of earthworms has now grown into 10-kg earthworms. The vermicompost produced in excess will be stored for use in future.

He has grown 10 quintals of horse gram on acres of land and 25 quintals of raagi on three acres this year.

The use of vermicompost for vegetables acts as a natural deterrent to pest attack.

Another advantage of using the organic manure is that he could grow mulberry without using pesticides for the silkworms.

Besides, he has also grown different variety of mangoes through grafting. Use of machines to harvest raagi, grass and vegetable leaves has reduced his dependence on the labour, as shortage of manpower is one of biggest problems facing the farmers today, Veeranna says.

Farmers need to avail subsidies given by the government for natural farming involving bio-digest, compost and vermicompost. As silkworms will die if pesticides are sprayed to mulberry, organic manure and natural deterrents can be used to check diseases and pests.

“There is an urgent need to create awareness among farmers on the integrated approach to agriculture,” said Rajanjinappa, Savayava Krishi Parivara Sanchalaka.

Friday 5 October 2012

Benefits Of Musk Melon


'Cucumis Melo' or Musk Melon is a native to central asia. It is grwon in the tropical regions for a very long time. Musk melon is widely known as 'Cantaloupe'.



Musk melon being an annual plant is cultivated from the seeds. The plants have to be watered lightly. It is a monoecious plant where the male and the female flowers are distinct. The melons are easily grown in sandy soil. Manure is essential for a healthy growth. Dry river beds are the most suitable for melon cultivation. Unripe melons should be stored at room temperature until they ripen. The two principal varieties of muskmelon are those with netted skins and those with smooth skins.

The creamy flesh can be consumed chilled or as fruit juice. With scientific advancements the melon growers have introduced many hybrids which are much tastier. Melons make a good combination for custards and fruit salads.

Musk Melon juice is beneficial to be consumed during conditions like Lack of appetite, Weight loss, Urinary tract infections, Constipation, Acidity, Ulcer. Musk melon reduces heat in the body to a great extent, relieves tiredness, enhances appetite and is an effective laxative. It is a good source of Vitamins A, B, and C. Musk Melons are rich in potassium, a nutrient that may help control blood pressure, regulate heart beat, and possibly prevent strokes.

If you are a dieter, then muskmelon is an excellent fruit for you. It has significant amount of fiber and provides you the feeling of fullness quickly. It can taste good and can make good combination for fruit salads and custards. Hence, a quick weight loss program ought to include muskmelon.

In addition to health benefits, muskmelon takes care of your skin too. It contains Vitamin A, which is useful in maintaining healthy skin. The fruit provides pretty fair amount of folic acid, which is especially important for pregnant women. It helps to create healthy fetuses and can even prevent cervical cancer and osteoporosis. Though it offers special benefits to women, men can also get great many benefits. Folic acid in the fruit acts as a mild antidepressant

Tuesday 2 October 2012

10 Terrific Varieties Of Honey




Acacia: Water-white to nearly clear in color, with a delicately light floral flavor. Exceptional for sweetening drinks without altering their taste.

Alfalfa: White to light amber in color, with good body and a multifunctional flavor. This honey is a fine choice as a table honey or for use in baking or cooking.

Blackberry: Usually light to golden amber in color. Fruity, rich and full-flavored honey is slightly reminiscent of blackberries. It’s an excellent all-around honey, especially great for baking.

Buckwheat: Color is dark brown. A very full-bodied honey with a strong, distinct flavor. Typically contains more antioxidant compounds than most light honeys.

Clover: Varies in color from water-white to very light amber with a mild, delicate flavor. Although light in color, research shows clover honey is rich in antioxidants.

Eucalyptus: Ranges in color from dark amber to gray, with an intensely bold flavor and undertones of a slight medicinal aftertaste. Makes a tasty sweetener for herbal tea or a nice accompaniment to cheeses and breads.

Fireweed: Pleasantly light in color and flavor, fireweed is an ideal all-purpose honey for cooking, baking and table use.

Mint: Despite its name, this honey doesn’t taste like mint. A dark, rich, full-flavored honey often referred to as “the stout beer of honeys,” its flavor holds up well in baking and sauces.

Orange blossom: Color is extra-light amber with a delightful citrusy aroma and flavor. (This honey is derived from a combination of citrus floral sources.) Excellent multipurpose honey.

Sage: Light and mellow in color and taste. Its taste is heightened by the subtle flavor of sage.