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Post by canadamike on Nov 4, 2008 17:28:53 GMT -5
Why don't you start by paying a visit? I have seeds to make the trip worthwhile anyway, and lots of great taters, either all heirlooms ( yes, enough to eat for a while) or new clones.
As for celiac, did you know that many old wheats do not cause any problems? There is a protein in the new super productive high gluten hybrids that is responsible for almost all cases of celiac. This protein is absent or near absent in many old wheats, and many can eat them. I do not know about kamut, but did you try it?
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Post by stevil on Nov 5, 2008 18:12:24 GMT -5
Yacon is the same plant as dahlias, so if like you said people around you grow those, this should grow too. The main problem Lieven, Søren and I have is overwintering the stem tubers. The plants themselves grow pretty easily, and I think you probably have a long enough season. The taste is really good, perhaps a bit like melons. They have the same sugar as Jerusalem Artichokes, inulin. . Dahlia roots also contain inulin (i.e., good carbohydrate for diabetics) - see sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200613/000020061306A0404391.php The tubers are also quite acceptable as food - a bit of a bland taste and the skin isn't edible, but otherwise, I say, "Eat your Dahlias!" Remember to keep a few for next year... This is the plant before harvest (the popular cultivar Bishop of Llandaff): www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=178and here he is ready to eat: www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=179Not many people can say that they had (the) Bishop of Llandaff for dinner..... |
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Post by orflo on Nov 6, 2008 9:29:06 GMT -5
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 19, 2008 10:13:12 GMT -5
Well, I've grown Bishop of Llandaff before and it did quite alright which further strengthens my resolve to give growing them a go. I have also heard rumours that you can eat daylily tubers (along with the shoots and flowers though I've only tried the flowerbuds) but the same thing: they contain inulin.
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Post by orflo on Nov 19, 2008 14:48:04 GMT -5
The bulbs can indeed be eaten, though I never tried them. I love the flowers however, nice sweet taste and very productive. Some Chinese or Japanese varieties have been selected for good-tasting flowers, maybe there are some selections for tasty tubers as well
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 19, 2008 16:08:36 GMT -5
Orflo, I've heard of these. From what I remember, they had yellow flowers. I have been looking though not to actively for some of those varieties but I think I'll try to do it actively now. I'm renovating my perennial curbside garden to add even more edibles and donating the many 'pretty' flowers to our local plantcycle. It would be interesting to find out if there was a food variety that had tasty tubers and flowers - hopeful as always. I don't have too many issues with inulin ;-)
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Post by orflo on Nov 20, 2008 2:03:09 GMT -5
Hemerocallis fulva is the one that is mostly used as a comestible. 'Flore pleno' seems to be a widespread cultivar in Chine (but needs to be confirmed). These are however mainly selected for edible flowers and flower buds. These are however, as far as I remember , orange coloured. I searched a bit for an edible bulb-hemerocallis, seems hemerocallis multiflora has rather good tubers. A word of warning: in some areas of the US, some hemerocallis species are considered as being highly invasive (maybe it's even forbidden to import them in these areas?). Here's a good link for other edible tubers , bulbs, greens,... in the liliaceae family: www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/faminefoods/ff_families/liliaceae.html |
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 20, 2008 9:18:15 GMT -5
Thanks for the links. These are really helpful and I don't feel alone anymore in all these plant investigations! I'm heading off right now to read the info.
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Post by stevil on Nov 20, 2008 15:35:07 GMT -5
Maybe I can add a bit to what Frank has written. The Daylily is really an ancient vegetable in China (with records of its use in food apparently over 2,500 years ago)! The Chinese mostly use the dried flowers (ask for golden needles in your local Chinese store), which means that we can still enjoy the flowers as we can harvest the day after flowering, a perfect edible ornamental in other words!! Some years ago I was trying to get hold of various botanical Day Lilies for my collection of edibles through trading on the Internet and it was suggested by a trader that I should contact Dr. Juerg Plodeck of the European Daylily Society. This I did and Juerg very kindly agreed to send me a few species from his collection. I asked him what he knew about its edibility and it turned out that his wife actually came from China. He told me that his observations from China were that it was mostly Hemerocallis citrina which was cultivated (the epithet citrina derives from the fact that the flowers have a lemony aroma). In fact, Juerg posted a comment about this on the PFAF page about H. citrina – see here: www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Hemerocallis+citrina Unfortunately, this species hasn’t been a reliable flowerer in my garden (the location is probably not ideal – a bit too dry – I haven’t moved it as Daylilies don’t like disturbance). Here are a couple of pictures of this species this summer from the Botanical Garden in Gothenburg in Sweden: www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=1041www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=1045If you grow species Hemerocallis in your garden, you can in fact harvest flowers and buds more or less through the whole summer by careful selection of what species to grow. The first to flower here are Hemerocallis dumortieri and H. middendorfii in late May, early June and my latest flowering species is H. altissima (which as the name suggests is a very tall species). It still has flower buds now in mid-November, although they are now ready frozen daylily buds. Here is my altissima: www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=1048I sometimes use the flower buds in Chinese stir-fry recipes Here are buds of H. dumortieri with Scorzonera buds and Malva moschata leaves (another ancient Chinese veggie) which I used in a stir-fry dish this summer www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=1046Finally, a midsummer salad with flowers of H. dumortieri: www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=1047Daylilies are commonly used by foragers in the US/Canada where it is mainly H. fulva which has naturalized (in a big way). There’s even a nice little book “The Delightful Delicious Daylily” by one of North America’s best known foragers, Peter Gail. This book has a number of recipes, using all parts of the plant. A word of warning. Many people (including myself) get a burning aftertaste after eating raw flowers and/or buds of daylilies. Although it doesn’t last long, it is a bit unpleasant and for this reason I don’t eat the flowers raw often. However, the cooked flower buds don’t give such a reaction. If anyone knows the cause of this, I’d love to know. It seems to be mostly males that get this reaction…. I’ve never used the tubers/rhizomes as these plants resent disturbance, but I might just try to carefully harvest a few tubers at the weekend. |
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 20, 2008 18:47:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the information. That was helfpul. I had heard about the golden needles / yellow flowered daylily connection and a cultivar called 'lemon?' which has a citrusy flavour but little information on the quality of the roots. I figure since some spread rather well, the roots might make a good once a year harvest to thin them out.
I love the picture of the scorzonera and malva. This is the first year that I'm growing scorzonera and I have high hopes! I have been meaning to try my malva moschata leaves and this gives me encouragement. Do you grow malva verticillata var. crispa?
May I just say that the red clover and the yellow daylily look as good as I'm sure they taste.
I don't get the burning sensation on my tongue but that sounds familiar. Let me get back to you.
Your
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Post by stevil on Nov 22, 2008 16:07:08 GMT -5
I love the picture of the scorzonera and malva. This is the first year that I'm growing scorzonera and I have high hopes! I have been meaning to try my malva moschata leaves and this gives me encouragement. Do you grow malva verticillata var. crispa? May I just say that the red clover and the yellow daylily look as good as I'm sure they taste. Your Yes, it is Malva (verticillata) crispa (an annual) which I understand has been cultivated since ancient times in China. I've had it for a number of years and it self-sows modestly every year. It's a tall plant reaching over 1m from seed. www.hagepraten.no/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=1065I've read somewhere that the Chinese had developed many cultivars of Malva verticillata before Brassicas became more important (about 1,500 years ago), including red-leaved, small and large-leaved, white-stem varieties - I dream of a red-leaved variety turning up (yes, I'm pretty sad.......) I thought I had found it when "CO OI A" listed "Chinese Red Mallow" in the 2008 Seed Savers Yearbook. I ordered some, but it looked to me to be the same as the species Malva verticillata, just a small red blotch at the base of the leaves as is normal. Red clover? What red clover? Stephen |
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 22, 2008 18:30:35 GMT -5
Stephen: I could be seeing things... thought I saw red clover flower heads? Anyhow, a red leafed variety... oooo pretty. May I sign up for your 'sad' list?
Telsing.
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Post by stevil on Nov 23, 2008 4:04:12 GMT -5
You mean in the salad picture? That's Allium angulosum (Mouse Garlic) - if I'm looking at the same thing as you....
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Post by ottawagardener on Nov 23, 2008 9:33:02 GMT -5
Must be the mouse garlic then. I just went and looked it up and it seems a lovely plant with strap like leaves similar to garlic chives - what's its flavour like? The allium family is such a fantastic range of plants, so many of which are perennial that it is hard for me to say no!
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 30, 2008 8:04:11 GMT -5
Frank: I'm reading your SSE article on Yacon right now (well actually I just read it). Great work!
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