Electric Daisies - Growing And Seed Saving

I've grown electric daisies for a few years now and I think they make a really interesting talking point in the veg garden. 

You won't be alone if you've never heard of them, they're an edible flower that is related to daisies, they are also called the tooth ache plant because of the plants ability to numb your mouth slightly. I'd never heard of them until a couple of years ago and though I just had to try them! 

Eating a bit of the flower makes your tongue tingle, a little like licking a 9v battery! If you have a big bit it can make your mouth numb for a few minutes. 

For a bit of fun in the garden they don't take up much room. I grew mine under my purple sprouting and they've done really well there, flowering all summer long. I start them like many other plants, sowing the seeds in April in the greenhouse and planting out after the risk of frost has gone. I give them very little care just picking off a few flowers every now and again - I wouldn't say they taste nice but the sensation is a little addictive! 

The plants stay small, being about a foot high (30cm) and spreading about the same. I grew eight plants this year which is far, far too many, just a couple would be fine. My girls think they're pretty funny as well, watching them try one always makes me smile! 

.There's not many uses for the plant, although I've read of people using them in posh cocktails and smoothies. 

The video above shows how I grew them and saved the seeds. I'm saving loads of seed which I'll happily pass on to anyone that wants them when I start seed swapping later in the year! 

Have you ever grown them?

Any ideas what I could do with all the flowers?

Bread Seed Poppy

I grew some poppies this year that are bred for their seeds, for use in breads and baking.

The clever thing about them is that they don't open up and spill their seed. They stay closed up so you can pick them when you want.

Not too many grew but I did have a line of them down by a patch of beetroot. Once I harvested them I let them dry in the greenhouse for a while before collecting their seeds by breaking open the seed heads, a strangely satisfying job! 

I didn't get huge numbers but each seed head contained lots (just not many seed heads!). I won't use these for baking but instead sow most of them next year and see how many I get, I'm planning on dedicating a bed (10ft by 4ft) to them next year as they're really pretty as well. 

Does anyone else grow poppies for baking with?

Edible Daylilies

In my quest to find and try more and more unusual edibles I decided to make the most of what we've got here on the homestead and make sure I know which plants are edible and which aren't 

Outside our front door we've got two large clumps of day lilies. They always put on a great display at this time of year although I have to keep them trimmed back otherwise they engulf the path and we can't get in! 

Turns out the best thing is they're edible! And they actually taste good! So far I've only eaten the pods raw and they taste like mange tout and are lovely and crisp.

Apparently they've been used in Asian cooking for hundreds of years and every bit of the plant is edible. The pods and the flowers are great in stir fries, the roots are nice roasted and the spent flowers are dried and used to thicken soups and stews. Even the young shoots are meant to taste amazing. 

It's a plant I want to experiment with more and try to use in our cooking a little bit. It's also one that looks amazing! 

Anyone have something growing in their yard or garden that they didn't know was edible?