chia

[orflo]

Michel, you asked for this???
Chia: the common chia is salvia hispanica, which is used traditionally in Mexico and further on south, onto Chile. The seeds are used, and contain lots of omega-3 (you can google a bit for more info on this aspect). Unfortunately I'm unable to grow salvia hispanica to the 'seed stage', I never had any flower on these. They are probably daylength-sensitive or require a long growing season.


A second one is salvia tiliifolia, the use of the seeds is similar to the 'true' chia (s. hispanica), and this one is a bit easier to grow, occasionally some tiny seeds are formed and these are viable. These seeds however are also formed very late in the season, and , just like s. hispanica, the plants are frost-sensitive.




A third one is salvia columbariae, which is known as 'golden chia', and this one is earlier for flowering, at least over here. It sets seeds, but not abundantly...Now, where's that picture of this one.... ?

[marjeta]

orflo, when is it a good time for sowing chia?

[mnjrutherford]

I have s. hispanica! It's self-sowing here and the patch it calls home is where I'm putting several things, mainly pole beans and wildflowers. The seeds are indeed tiny and a real pain in the brain stem to clean. I'm extremely pleased to see that the leaves are usable... How do you prepare them? Salads? All that I have read focuses on consuming the seed and based on what I've experienced I don't see where an ancient culture would have time to focus on planting something like this merely to acquire the seed.

Marjeta, I would suggest sowing it right now. I live in a zone 8 area and we are completely frost free at this time. We've already planted potatoes, spring onions, peas, and beans. We are preparing our corn field and plan to plant around the end of April or first of May. Hope this helps you make a good planting determination.

I have seed if anyone wants some. And like I said above, it will readily return once planted and allowed to go to seed.

[orflo]

I didn't mention the leaves are edible, as far as I know they aren't.

Marjeta, if you have a greenhouse or a windowsill, you can sow them over there now.
If you don't expect any more frosts, you can sow these outside. But if you have similar conditions to mine (I suspect you do) you have to wait until half may before sowing or planting them outside, it's not uncommon to have some night-frosts in the beginning of May.

[mnjrutherford]

Here is some of my "volunteer" chia:

[mnjrutherford]

Apr 14, 2010 5:35:08 GMT -5 orflo said:

I didn't mention the leaves are edible, as far as I know they aren't.

Darn! I thought I had read in the original post that they were. My mistake. I can't understand how this plant developed such huge popularity when the most usable part is the seed and those in quantity. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I recognize all the benefits of the seeds... but in an ancient culture that would have had to devote more time to acquiring consumables, it seems odd that they would have focused on a plant that takes up so much space yet returns so little and at such a high labor cost.

What do you think about this?

[marjeta]

Thanks to both of you! I'll sow them in the beginning of may then. Too bad the leaves aren't edible.

mnjrutherford, I agree with you. Try sowing some Quinoa - it's leaves are edible.

[mnjrutherford]

Apr 17, 2010 6:05:03 GMT -5 marjeta said:

mnjrutherford, I agree with you. Try sowing some Quinoa - it's leaves are edible.

Do tell? Quinoa has been on my "To Be Grown" list for several years now. I had to drop it for this year because I'm having to many issues growing the standbys we need for short term sustention. I feel I need to iron these things out before I can move on. Having edible leaves certainly ups the desirability though.

Regarding the chia leaves, does anyone know WHY they are not eaten? I was going to ask if they were considered poisonous. If they are not, I was going to see if I could afford to get a chemical analysis. If I can get that done for $25 or less, it would be doable for us. Then present that information to the board to get some feedback because I know squat about chemistry other than it exists. After hearing what the members say, do some trial in various preps.

[bluelacedredhead]

I'm not saying that the Leaves of Salvia Hispanica are edible, however, I can find nothing to substantiate a claim that they are hazardous to your health? They are a member of the Mint family, and at least one online article mentions drying the leaves.

I have read several articles stating that the plant was banned after the Spanish conquered the Aztec nation. But that was based on the fact that the Spaniards wanted to convert the heathens from Paganism. By banning some of the plants used in Aztec religion, it would be easier to turn the Aztecs to Catholicism. But that's as close to harmful as I could dredge up?
The following link contains a condensed version of everything I've read so far on this subject:
ezinearticles.com/?salvia-hispanica---one-of-the-most-healthful-herbs-available&id=951796

[mnjrutherford]

Fascinating... well, if the sprouts are edible, it stands to reason that the leaves are edible. That said, I'm not sure I would really WANT to eat them. They are pretty bland. So like, I ate one last year and since I didn't keel over dead in 10 minutes or less, and my tongue didn't swell up and fall off, and my stomach didn't do anything more unusual than it's regular, occasionally explosive activity, I was fairly certain it wasn't poisonous. But I wasn't able to find anything else about it at the time. Still seems like there should be something else useful about this thing... Well, I'll be saving more seed this year and there are more plants this year so perhaps I'll have enough to do some sprouts and use for culinary stuff.

[malibuw1980]

permaculture.org.au/2009/04/06/chia-crop-potential-and-uses/
in this site they talk about using Chia leaves for a medicinal tea