Seeds are edible - probably the most nutritious part of a plant. Most necessary essential things in there for the herbivores amongst us. Good Idea, Wer Dear!

We should consider nuts in this Topic, as well? They really are seeds or seeds are nuts...whichever!

The concept of a seed is so amazing, isn't it? You plant one pumpkin seed, for instance, you grow a few pumpkins with hundreds of seeds, ready to yield hundreds more in turn.

I happen to have a website about seeds, http://www.saveseed.com for connoisseurs of rare and heirloom seeds, nonhybrid seeds, and seeds in danger of becoming extinct.

No Heirloom seeds in Hawaii, alas. Autumn, think of the seemingly over-abundant crop of seeds Sunflowers create. That is so all of the animals, birds, people and whatever else gets a good meal with enough left over to fall uneaten to the ground for next year's crop!

I love seeds. Like in apples and other fruits - you're right, it is the best part. And one NEVER has indigestion. THAT's what keeps my vertical energy flowing.

good point... and, Marcia, Hawaii does have useful seeds like Kona and woodrose and macadamia and...

and awa ( which used to be verboten but is now a health (!) food. Truth to tell, Macadamias come from Australia originally, Kona Coffee is a local adaptation-hybrid; wood rose is all over the tropics, I believe. We Do have Koa which is a rich Hawaiian native hardwood, but I know it is not edible - by humans, that is. Most of what is here came from elsewhere and made its own adaptation. Most have not been here long enough to qualify as Heirloom.

Baby Hawaiian Woodrose isn't native?

My text (In Gardens of Hawaii by MC Neal - the standard reference for thing green and growing in Hawaii) says probably of South American origin. That means it has been here for a very long time, so you could say it is native by now. Since Wood Roses are seed pods and therefore adult in every way, I do not understand the reference to "baby" ones unless they are the smallest on the vine. The flower is school-bus-yellow and a typical morning-glory-shape, from which family this comes. Its name in Hawaiian is Pili Kai. It has been here long enough to have Hawaiian legends written about it, and wood rose is found throughout Polynesia...which begs the question: which way did it go - from or to South America.

Interesting! Hawaiian flora must be great to explore, especially when one goes to live there like you - like a whole new world opening up.

Even the roadside weeds are unique - as are the things we weed out of the garden. I was amazed to go into the glass house at Kew and discover treasured little plants complete with markers pointing to the very thing we had unceremoniously pulled from the walls surrounding the yard just the week before. But, ours were much the healthier. I suspect 'ohelo is a native Hawaiian fruit like the blueberry, but is red in color. It grows on the barren slopes of our volcanoes at about 5,000' (1524 M). Pies and ellies are made from its berries. In vacant lots wild orchids grow where golden rod and other hay fever causing plants grow on the Mainland of the USA. We just take them for granted because they are there in profusion. Lovely little orchids like miniature corsage orchids...

Do you keep specimens and stuff?

No, I don't. It is so terribly humid here that everything I have tried to press for specimens have moulded. About the only way to keep specimens is to keep them in silica gel and that is not practical and you cannot see them in any case. I just pick them and put them in vases from time to time or make them into haku weaths for candles or ornaments for my hair...

Ornaments for you hair! That sounds a good idea! You should make them and sell them. I'd defenitely buy a thing like that!

They are lovely but last only a short while unless I make them out of artificial material or things which dry properly. Actually, they are quite lovely and my favorite goes down one side of the face with the hair swept away to show the flowers and foliage.

One evening I had my hair pulled back into a twist around which I had placed an arc of ageratums and leaves. It was beautiful but during the evening, my bare shoulders got itchy...there were wee tiny caterpillars reeling down out of the blossoms and onto me tickling as they went. It required the help of a gentleman to keep my shoulders clear of the little buggers. He did not seem to mind!

You tease!

*grin* You gotta admit - it was an original ploy, was it not? I later found out he admired my backside whenever I came into view. I am glad he thought it worthy of admiration. Then knew that he was not just a caterpiller fancier.

That's really sweet!

Ummmm...it felt good, too, when he rubbed my shoulders lightly with warm strong hands to remove the tickly feeling...I would have done that more often, but he asked me out shortly thereafter and I did not need to make up excuses anymore.

If I had known that'd work, I'd have worn some fancy fresh-fruit and flower hairdos, I swear!

...and almost bare shoulders??? (Trying to picture what I imagine you look like and then putting you in this attire. Amazing!) I does work...at least, it did for me (but I did not plan it that way!!!)

Nutmeg: You know it as spice, but is has also been discussed as drug, with effects similar to weed. It came to my mind again after I just found the second literary mention of it. Malcolm X mentions this in his autobiography (written with, uh, was that Baldwin?), it's a reefer-substitute in prison, swallowing the freshly ground powder, following it off with a glass of water. I later found it in a lexicon of narcotics and psycho-active substances, and they said certain doses worked with some people, while o hers didn't notice anything after doubling doses. Now, reading Edward Bunker's autobiography, nutmeg popped up again, in the same context. It was one reason while inmates working in the prison kitchen had many good friends... Thought you folks might found it interesting.

How curious! I wonder what the active chemical is...(there is sure to be something on the 'net about it..!)

It was a very Fifties thing, like listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Art Pepper and wearing zoot suits. Just in jails and prisons. (of course minus Ella, Art and suit...)

...not only there, I think. Something in the back of my skull full of mush is telling me it was what was available to kids before cultivating your own was popular, and it left no tell-tale smoke behind...!

BTW, Woodrose seeds are the same way if you smoke them or eat them or whatever one does with them...!

Never heard of woodrose seeds...my mom used to smoke monkey vine up on the ridge in central Pennsylvania's Big Valley, though! Read a book years ago called From Chocolate to Nutmeg, or something like that, about the pharmaceutical effects of eating certain foods. Very interesting--it was by a nutrition guru like Andrew Weil or Dean Ornish.

Oooh... what sort of "thing" do you get from smoking Monkey Vine? I graduated from Penn State and we went on all sorts of botanizing field trips...but they neglected to show me Monkey vine...bummer! Sounds like an interesting read...and reference!

sorry I did not see it in time to correct it in the last post.

What's monkey vine? Just the name appeals to me... Home grown: What people smoked who were poor. Middle European crops are very weak on the sticky stuff, but serve great as providers for a nutritious oil and fibres for making ropes or clothing. As late as early fifties, it was a thing for poor workers or farmers to dry whole plants, cut 'em up and put 'em into their pipes. They were not potent in any way, and since hemp lacks nicotine, they would not generate physical addictions. Nothing as bad as nicotine withdrawal here...

Macadamia nuts cut cholesterol, study says Despite their image as a sinfully rich snack, macadamia nuts lowered the cholesterol level of participants in a University of Hawaii feeding study. The research results published this week in the American Medical Association's "Archives of Internal Medicine" indicated that "the consumption of a diet high in monounsaturated fats, a significant portion of which were derived from macadamia nuts, appears to lower serum cholesterol levels when total energy balance and percentage of energy from fat are maintained." Dr. David Curb, lead researcher in the feeding study, said macadamia nuts "had an olive oil effect ... would act to lower your cholesterol." Other studies have revealed that olive oil, also a monounsaturated fat source, has beneficial effects in the body's cholesterol production. Curb and his associates put 30 study participants through three different diets for a 30-day cycle each. The first was a typical American diet, high in saturated fat from meat and dairy products, in which 37 percent of the calories were from fat. A macadamia nut-based diet also provided 37 percent of calories from fat. Under a third regimen, participants followed the American Heart Association Step 1 plan, a low-fat diet stressing vegetables and cereals, with 30 percent of calories from fat. "Each person was their own control subject. We could compare the subjects to themselves. It's a state-of-the-art way to do a diet study," said Curb, principal investigator in the Honolulu Heart Program, a 30-year-old research project. He said the macadamia research was the "first rigorous, controlled feeding study ever done in Hawaii." This portion of the research, funded by a grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity in Maryland, cost about $500,000 and was completed about four years ago. The research continued into longer term effects of a diet with monounsaturated fat from macadamia nuts. "We're not advocating that people go out and go on nut diets," Curb said. "We have show these can be part of a healthy diet, that there's no need to avoid nuts. In fact they can be good for you. "There's nothing magic about the macadamia nut, the profile is similar for tree nuts in general. All have low levels of the saturated fats. None of the tree nuts would raise cholesterol if eaten in moderate amounts." Chefs from island restaurants and hotels prepared tasty foods for the diet participants at a study kitchen at Kapiolani Community College. Everyone had to eat all their meals for the three-month duration at the college culinary arts program dining facility, and they had to clean their plates. "It wasn't like eating a can of nuts, it would be a meal like you'd have in a restaurant," said the research chief. The cooks had to weigh exact portions to fit the individuals, who ranged from 18 to 53 years old and had different daily calorie requirements, because "we couldn't have them gaining or losing weight." The baseline value used for the study was a mean total cholesterol level of 250, which indicates 250 milligrams per deciliter of cholesterol which is a fatty substance necessary for manufacturing cells. The baseline for low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) was 134 and for triglyceride high-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) 55. After the 30-day diet, the mean total level for subjects on the American diet was 201, and 130 LDL and 55 HDL. For participants on the American Heart Association diet, the readings were 193 total cholesterol, 124 LDL and 52 HDL. For people on the macadamia nut diet, the mean total level was 191 milligrams per deciliter, 124 LDL and 53 HDL.

I remember when seeds/nuts were one of those foods you were cautioned to indulge in only rarely. Now they keep discovering how healthy they are for you, in spite of fat. BTW, poppy seeds are loaded with calcium, in case anyone is trying to incorporate non-dairy calcium sources into their diet.

Thanks, Autumn. That must be an unusual attribute for a seed of any sort. Plantlings usually do not need that much embryonic calcium!

Oops, hit the submit button by mistake. *sigh* This is not gonna be my day!

Not seeds in the conventional sense, but this sounds wonderful... Three Bean Soup Cook the beans separately to help them keep their individual flavors and colors. Serves 6-8 1/4 pound Black beans, dry 1/4 pound small Red beans, dry 1/4 pound Navy beans, dry 1 large Ham hock 1 quart Chicken broth 1 quart Beef broth 2 quart Water 2 teaspoon garlic, minced Pepper to taste Soak beans (separately) overnight. Cook them (separately) until soft. Drain and rinse. Add all ingredients to a large soup pot. Slowly bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours. Remove the hock. Trim off the meat and return it to the pot. Serve warm with cornbread.

I made a bean and rice soup with onions and potatos, it turned out great.

Are vanilla beans seeds? I do know that that it is the pod of a kind of orchid. There was a study done with very young babies to test what sort of flavors humans would natually gravitate towards. They used flavored water for the babies to taste. Sugar water scored very highly as was expected. Another high scorer was vanilla flavored water. In some states it is illegal to rub vanilla extract on fishing lures and hooks. That is supposed to attract fish, too many fish. There is also the joke about vanilla extract being "hillbilly perfume". Just a dab behind each ear. I quess the "hillbillies" are getting the last laugh now with the proliferation of vanilla scented perfumes and toiletries.

Anyone know about saving seeds and hierloom seeds?

I know it is not a good idea out here, but there are several sites on the web regarding the keeping and preserving Heriloom seeds. I think William even created a topic for it. In Hawaii, if you don't plant it, the bugs will eat it!

We have a website, I think it's still up, called http://www.saveseed.com.

YUP that's the one!!!

I'm posting this here because noodles are generally made from grain, and grain is grass seed. Besides, I couldn't find a pasta/noodle topic. 4,000-Year-Old Noodles Found in China John Roach for National Geographic News A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world's most popular foods, scientists reported today. It also suggests an Asian�not Italian�origin for the staple dish. The beautifully preserved, long, thin yellow noodles were found inside an overturned sealed bowl at the Lajia archaeological site in northwestern China. The bowl was buried under ten feet (three meters) of sediment. "This is the earliest empirical evidence of noodles ever found," Houyuan Lu of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Beijing's Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an e-mail interview. Lu and colleagues report the find tomorrow in the science journal Nature. The scientists determined the noodles were made from two kinds of millet, a grain indigenous to China and widely cultivated there 7,000 years ago. Modern North American and European noodles are usually made with wheat. Archaeochemist Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia said that if the date for the noodles is correct, the find is "quite amazing." Even today, he said, deft skills are required to make long, thin noodles like those found at Lajia. "This shows a fairly high level of food processing and culinary sophistication," he said. Noodle History Noodles have been a staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2,000 years, though whether the modern version of the stringy pasta was first invented by the Chinese, Italians, or Arabs is debatable. Prior to the discovery of noodles at the Lajia archaeological site, the earliest record of noodles appears in a book written during China's East Han Dynasty sometime between A.D. 25 and 220, Lu said. Other theories suggest noodles were first made in the Middle East and introduced to Italy by the Arabs. Italians are widely credited for popularizing the food in Europe and spreading it around the world. Additional evidence is needed to prove that the noodles found at Lajia are the ancestor of either Asian noodles or Italian pasta. "But in any case, the latter is only documented two millennia later," Lu said. Gary Crawford, an archaeologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga in Canada, said finding 4,000-year-old noodles in China is not a surprise. "It fits with what we've generally known�that noodles have a long and important history in China," he said. Ingredient Sleuthing To determine what the noodles were made from, Lu and colleagues compared the shape and patterning of the starch grains and seed husks in the noodle bowl with modern crops. The team concluded the noodles were made from two kinds of millet�broomcorn millet and foxtail millet. The grain was ground into flour to make dough, which was then likely pulled and stretched into shape. Foxtail millet alone, the researchers say, lacks the stickiness required to allow the dough to be pulled and stretched into strings. While archaeological evidence suggests wheat was present in China 4,000 years ago, it was not widely cultivated until the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 to 907), Lu said. According to Crawford, the fact that the noodles were made of millet is not surprising. His own research at a similarly dated site in northern China shows ample millet and rice but very little wheat. However, he added, the discovery of well-preserved millet noodles helps explain the lack of grain seeds found at some archaeological sites. "One suspicion is grain seeds were made into a type of food through boiling and flour production. That would not necessarily leave much in the way of grains to be � recovered," he said. " � and if they were making noodles, that would explain it." According to Lu, in poor, rural areas of northwestern China, millet is still used to make noodles. "These modern millet noodles have a harder texture than the wheat noodles, so they are commonly called iron-wire noodles," he said. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1012_051012_chinese_noodles.html

I think I'll pass on these noodles. Those and the 100 year old eggs.

we need a pasta topic!!

OK pasta it is.

yippee

Check out the cool pasta recipe. I haven't made it yet but want to try it.