Have been learning so much lately, trying to focus on the edibles. This is Jewelweed, or Spotted Touch-me-not, Impatiens capensis, a native plant. I have posted on it previously, and was quite surprised to learn that it is an edible plant. Found this out on my foraging walk.
One edible part is the seeds. Just one problem, they are quite tricky to harvest. I have always enjoyed having them around as the kids just love to pop the seed pods. Now I come to find out that I have this treasure trove of edible seeds!!
Tried taking off a pod to check out the tastiness of the seeds, but had a little trouble. If you are not careful, the seed pod will explode, expelling the seeds all over before you have a chance to save any.
After a few tries I finally managed to keep a seed pod from exploding to get this photo.
It is an amazing fete. This seed pod pops open, curls back on itself and expels its seeds all in under the blink of an eye. The seeds can get thrown quite a distance and unless you grow them on hard top, they are impossible to gather once on the ground.
So here are the newly released seeds from one pod. As you can see they are green, just like the pod. When you open them up they are robin's egg blue inside!!
Who knew that such a beautiful color would be hiding inside such a tiny, seed. And that they would be quite pleasant to the taste buds!!
In checking out my raspberries on a daily basis, they are getting better and bigger with this nice cool weather. They are as big as my thumbnail! Notice the fine dirt underneath the nail!!
Have been so busy in the gardens, I don't bother to try to get them clean until the end of the day!! My preference has always been to work glove free whenever possible, so as to be able to feel that great earth between my fingers!!
Out and about yesterday morning, I had a great snack of Jewelweed seeds,
with my raspberries, both red and yellow!!
Now that is fresh!!
4 comments:
I need to get out in my yard and look for those exploding seed pods!
By the way, I went for a walk and found an Eastern Wahoo with ripe berries. I may be able to collect some for you if you wish.
Oh, Marna, I meant to tell you something. If you are looking to purchase perennial food plants, I recommend http://noursefarms.com/ I ordered strawberries, raspberries, asparagus, and rhubarb from them, and all but the rhubarb has grown exceptionally well. (I think the failure of the rhubarb was do to my failure to water them.) The raspberries in particular have been amazing. they weren't supposed to bear fruit this year, but they are loaded with berries!
Thanks Michelle, there are just so many options for ordering that it is very helpful to have recommendations from trusted gardeners!
I have not heard of Eastern Wahoo. Will need to look it up. Were the berries tasty?
As far as I know wahoo isn't edible unles you are a turkey. :)
Post a Comment