Dahlia varieties for food

[ottawagardener]

That's one of the species I have that I'm starting from seed: Thanks to the giver!

I'm also growing out D. merkii for the heck of it.

[MikeH]

Something to inspire you, Telsing.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Tubers, washed, peeled, washed again, then roasted or boiled. Or you can just wash them and not peel them before cooking. Flower petals can be used in salads. A sweet syrup is made form the tubers and is made into a beverage or used for flavoring. Dahlia seeds are 31.9 percent protein and 17.8 percent fat but I don’t know if they are edible.

Dahlia Bread

The tubers should be just dug so there’s not a thick skin on them. Washed well. Peeling is optional.

Preheat oven to 350*
3 eggs
1 cup veg. oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated Dahlia tuber
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
2+ tsp cinnamon
Beat eggs until light and foamy. Add oil, sugar, grated dahlia tuber and vanilla. Mix lightly but well. Sift dry ingredents together. Add to wet ingred. Mix only until blended. Put into greased loaf pans. Bake in 350* oven for 1 hour.

Dahlia Salad

3 large carrots, diced, preferably a mix of yellow and orange
1 pound dahlia tubers, pared and diced
1/2 pound fresh green string beans, cut into diamonds
1/2 cup virgin olive oil
3 tbsp vinegar (tarragon, chervil or dill vinegar recommended)
Mayonnaise to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 hard boiled egg, quartered
Mixed herbs (dill, parsley, chives), chopped

Steam the carrots, Dahlia tubers and beans for 5 minutes or until still slightly “al dente.” Put the vegetables in a large mixing bowl and add the oil and vinegar while still hot. Let the vegetables cool, and then add mayonnaise to taste so it coats all the vegetables evenly. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a serving bowl and garnish with the egg and chopped herbs. Serve slightly chilled or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6.

[caledonian]

I've eaten the tubers of a large red dahlia I received at the local farmer's market. I thought it was delicious, but maybe not for everyone - it was like a potato crossed with a resin-flavored gummy bear.

I would recommend staying away from modern flowery cultivars, though - I'm told that they're often bland, but more importantly they don't produce a lot of tubers - in some cases, my plants bloomed vigorously and put no significant energy into their root systems, so there was nothing to harvest to speak of.

A lot of sources sell dahlia seeds - often Unwin's Mix - and that might be a good place to begin the search.

[steev]

Tree dahlias, native to Chiapas, Tabasco. and Guatemala, are commonly used for food there. Also, they'll blow your neighbors away, blooming at 10'-12'.

[steev]

bertiefox, I just noticed you in a forum about tree dahlias; I hope you've had good results.

[ottawagardener]

Rise again thread "Rise!!!"

Anyone have any progress with Dahlias?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Nov 20, 2014 7:50:46 GMT -5 ottawagardener said:

Rise again thread "Rise!!!"

Anyone have any progress with Dahlias?

I grew and ate dahlia tubers this summer. The tubers were bland tasting, and very crisp when raw. They were a bit fibrous.

I planted both seeds and tubers. The stock I used has not been selected for eating. There are cultivars that have been, and I had one plant in my possession, but alas, the vagaries of fate didn't allow it to mature.

The tubers are very susceptible to dehydration after harvest, so I don't know if I'll have any viable tubers to plant in the spring, but I collected lots of seeds. Productivity was high enough that I would feel good about going in the direction of not keeping tubers at all, but growing new plants from seed every year.

This year I was mostly screening for the ability to set lots of seed. Breeding programs need seed, not pretty flowers. I'm not going to be fussy and hand pollinate dahlia flowers in hopes of getting one or two seeds per flower. So I saved seed from plants that had open flowers with the center fully exposed with easy access to pollinators. I did not save seeds from flowers that rotted instead of drying out... That's OK, because I don't think there were any seeds in the rotten-centered plants anyway.

Here's the kind of flower I am looking for. This was grown from a seed.

[ottawagardener]

I'd love to talk to you more about the variety selected for food. Yes, I was encouraged by yield but haven't done a taste test yet.

[orflo]

I tried eating a few other dahlia species, but quickly came to the conclusion that d. pinnata still remains the best one for eating...Not too juicy, but with an aromatic, even a bit spicy taste. The production isn't too high, but maybe I'm still neglecting them too much? I treat them like yacon, and never give them any nourishment (poor dahlias?) and tuber growth is about one tenth of the yacon production...It's nice to have such tubers as well, however they should be eaten not too long after the harvest or stored in a pot, completely covered by soil, that won't make them stringy,and they stay more appetising.

[littleminnie]

I didn't realize they were eaten. Mine ended up larger than sweet potatoes when I dug them this year. I actually was going to sell them all because the yellow doesn't do well in my garden. The bugs like light yellow flowers.

[steev]

In the late 70's, there was a company here in NorCal that was selling an instant non-caffeine powder beverage made from dahlia tubers; I think they were roasted, juiced, and dried to crystals; blandly inoffensive.

[billw]

We grew a couple varieties obtained at Home Depot and the often recommended variety Yellow Gem this year. I just got around to tasting them after the crowns had been sitting in buckets of soil for nearly a month (so, probably not ideal). I was pleasantly surprised. I'd consider any of them edible. Yellow Gem tubers were considerably larger and juicier and less spicy (as a consequence of the juiciness, I suppose). I wouldn't rate them as delicious, but I'd rather eat them than mashua or Jerusalem artichokes. I'm uncertain if I'll grow them next year though; they don't handle rain or wind very well and we have both in abundance.

[Walk]

Dec 2, 2014 23:14:36 GMT -5 steev said:

In the late 70's, there was a company here in NorCal that was selling an instant non-caffeine powder beverage made from dahlia tubers; I think they were roasted, juiced, and dried to crystals; blandly inoffensive.

The brand was Dacopa and I got it from a friend in Ohio. I really liked the stuff but I don't think it's made any more. I tried looking for it and came up with some recipes that used dried dahlia petals. That wouldn't be the same at all. I would like to have a "recipe" or process for making it with the tubers.

[diane]

A report in the February 1953 Royal Horticultural Society Journal -
a company in England had begun using surplus horticultural dahlia tubers as a source of inulin. They also tried Jerusalem artichokes, but the yield was much greater from the dahlias. They were using three tons a year, all they were able to get.

No word about eating the whole tuber, unfortunately.

[ottawagardener]

That's promising billw. They do well enough here though the pests enjoy them too unfortunately.