Plants From the Spice Rack

Dill Flowers

Coriander - This is the seed of cilantro, a popular herb in latino cooking. If you let it go to seed, you have coriander again, which is used in soups, stews and curry.

Mustard Seed - While many people don't like mustard greens, a lot of us do, so stealing a few mustard seeds to grow greens is just up our alley.

Flax Seed - Yes, the laxative. Flax has beautiful blue flowers, so next time you put some of this into your muffins, take a teaspoon out and put it into your garden.

Celery Seed - We all know what this grows, and while celery won't grow well in many parts of the country, if it does in yours, well worth growing.

Poppy Seed - Yes, it will grow poppies, but not those beautiful white opium poppies. However, you may get a variety of poppy flowers from a jar. Recently, thieves began stealing poppy seed off the spice racks to grow poppies for opium. Actually, you can get opium from any poppy, but the white ones produce more. Hey! Don't get any ideas!

Dill Seed - Dill plants are very useful, both the leaves and seeds, and are very attractive as well as being a larval plant for butterflies.

Caraway Seed - Grown almost exclusively for its seeds, caraway is used in casseroles, sauerkraut, cakes, cheeses, and curry. It can also be used to make a tea that is a tonic for colic and digestive disorders. Caraway roots may be cooked as a vegetable and tastes much like parsnips.

Fennel Seed - Fennel seeds and leaves have a strong licorice or anise smell and taste. It has culinary and medicinal properties, and fennel seed extract is often added to milk to cure colic in babies.

Anise Seed - This spice has a taste similar to fennel, and is used medicinally to treat menstrual cramps, relieve gas, and as a treatment for head lice and mites.

Fenugreek Seed - The leaves of fenugreek are used as an herb, and the seeds as a spice. It is a common ingredient in curries.

Cardamom Seed - Now this takes a long time to produce anything, but in subtropical areas, this will grow into a large ginger-like plant with beautiful white bell-shaped flowers. Ground cardamom is made from the seeds.

O.K., so some of these are a little far-out and not spices you'd use every day, but it still may be fun to try to grow some if you have a need to buy them. I've personally grown dill, flax, fennel,  mustard, coriander, anise and fenugreek. They really are pretty easy, and if you have the spices anyway, maybe it will save you some money.


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