I Bought the Crown Jewels

Chia - Crown Jewels

What little did I know?…

and when I entered the world of Chia.

I have just received a few seed packets from Baker Creek Heirlooms Seeds for my potager. I always want to know a little about the plant I’m going to grow, consequently I looked up my Chia - Crown Jewels and entered a new world, most fascinating. I landed in American history, health, ancient food and future ‘super’ food. Amazing, do you know... I’ve bought a miracle! Perhaps that is why they are called just Crown Jewels or it could be because the flower in its simplicity yet beauty look like a small crown with precious blue-purple stones in it.

Wikipedia Salvia columbariae



Chia - Crown Jewels

(Salvia columbariae ) A different Salvia species with a long history, this heirloom Salvia was grown as a staple food crop by Native Americans years ago. It has a high nutrition value. In cultivation, it needs good drainage, sun and dry weather to grow to its fullest potential. Called Chia in Mexico and other Central American countries, it is also a special ornamental plant with decorative grey-green leaves and pretty colourful light purplish blue flowers.

Chia as Health Food

Chia seeds are now a popular natural health product. William Anderson writes about it

- The Ancient Food of the Future Chia Seed. Do read this most fascinating article.

“Another unique quality if the Chia seed is its high oil content, and the richest vegetables source for the essential omega-3 fatty acid. It has approximately three to ten times the oil concentrations of most grains and one and a half to two times the protein concentrations of other grains. Read more ”

This amazing picture is from EOL Encyclopedia of Life.

The beautiful seeds of Salvia columbariae.

Interesting? Want to try it out?

Chia Seeds - The RAW Food World
Chia Seeds - My SEEDS

Here you can buy Chia seeds and a lot of other interesting food.




Anthropology – about Chia Salvia columbariae


NCBI* Writes about the Chia seeds, how it has been used as food and continues to be used as such, how you can still buy the seeds in stores. Read the interesting story about the Chumash messenger who ran 30 km or perhaps more in a day to deliver messages between the villages. Consuming Chia seeds to maintain the energy right through the run. Read more about the Chumash and Chia “ How the plant was used to ‘wake the dead’ is unknown. However, it may have been the root that was used. Probably the people who were treated with this plant had suffered from strokes or heart attacks and appeared to be nearly dead.” NCBI

Books about Chia (Salvia columbariae)

- Rediscovering a Forgotten Crop of the Aztecs

- Revival of an Ancient Wonder Food

- Chia For Health

Another book that awoke my curiosity as I browsed the net was this +300 pages book

The New Book of SALVIAS, hm...I would love to read it.

Common Sage Salvia officinalis in my potager.

That's All Folks!

It is Blooming Friday at Katarinas place

I wish you all a great weekend/ Tyra

*NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information

"Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae"

This post, "Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae"was originally uploaded and written by Tyra at the blog Tyra's Garden http://waxholm.blogspot.com/

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Chicory not just a pretty flower

Just must visit M a s D u D i a b l e and read Laura Hudsons Plant profile of just Chicory & Endive

"I love the robust, complex flavours and the variety of textures and colours that this family of leafy plants offers the salad bowl. February has, in previous years, been the middle of our chicory & endive season. This year, with the tunnel out of action and the rains trashing the outdoor seedlings, I can only look at the pictures and dream of last years crop and make a mental note to sow plenty this year." Laura Hudson

"Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae"

A small history lesson. The chicory plant is one of the earliest cited in recorded literature. Horace mentions it in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: "Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae" ("As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance").
Lord Monboddo describes the plant in 1779 as the "chicoree", which the French cultivate as a pot herb. In the Napoleonic Era in France, chicory frequently appeared as either an adulterant in coffee or a coffee substitute; this practice also became common in the United States and the United Kingdom, e.g., in England during the Second World War and in Camp Coffee, a coffee and chicory essence which has been on sale since 1885.

Chicory is an ingredient in typical Roman recipes, generally fried with garlic and red pepper, with its bitter and spicy taste, often together with meat or potatoes

The chicory flower is often seen as inspiration for the Romantic concept of the Blue Flower. It was also believed to be able to open locked doors, according to European folklore.

Root chicory (Cichorium intybus var. sativum) has been in cultivation in Europe as a coffee substitute for a long time. The roots are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive, especially in the Mediterranean region (where the plant is native), although its use as a coffee additive is also very popular in India, parts of Southeast Asia and the American South, particularly in New Orleans. wikipedia

I've got my own bank!

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Read more about this and my tomatoes 2009 in the Greenhouse of Tyra's Garden

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I wish you all a happy and sunny weekend

and to Australia a lot of heavy rain!

TYRA

It is Blooming Friday meet all the other participants here at Katarina

THIS IS PETER !

© This post This is Peter! was originally uploaded and written by Tyra at the blog Tyra's Garden http://waxholm.blogspot.com/

This is Peter!

это царь Петр - This is Czar Peter. (Czaar Peter)

Tulipa greigii 'Czar Peter'. This gorgeous tulip is named after an emperor,

Young Peter - wikipedia

Пётр Алексеéевич Ромáнов, Peter I the Great, Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov.

Born in 1672 in Moscow Pyotr was the son of to Alexis I of Russia and his second wife Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina, within the walls of the Kremlin. Tsar Alexei died in 1676 and Peter just 10 year old becomes Tsar Peter.
Peter the Great carried out a policy of Westernization and expansion that transformed the Tsardom of Russia into the 3-billion acre Russian Empire, a major European power. He is cited as one of the greatest rulers in the 17th century, ranking alongside Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Empire and Louis XIV of France. (read more…Wikipedia)


Typical for these botanical tulips, Tulipa greigii are that the blooms are large, up to 12cm. The stems are fairly low compared to other varieties, often bright multi coloured blooms and the leaves are sometimes striped or spotted. What’s more is that the Tulipa greigii an early bloomer, they flower in early March – April and that I really appreciate. The bloom open widely in sunshine and look huge compared to its height and closes in shade or at nighttime.
'Cape Cod', 'Red Riding Hood', 'Toronto', 'Casa Grande', 'Chopin', 'Pinocchio', 'Rod Verlinden' and 'Czar Peter' are all examples of tulips of the specie Tulipa greigii.

Here we have Tulipa greigii 'Chopin' in the gravel!

more Tulips in the gravel and other tulip posts.

The species Tulipa greigii got its name from S.A.Greig.

The Tulipa greigii was discovered in Tashkent in (Uzbekistan) the region Turkestan by a German named P.L. Graeber. Described by the horticulturalist and botanist Eduard von Regel in 1877. He named it after S.A. Greig, a botanist in St. Petersburg, at that time the president of the Russian Imperial Horticultural Society.

Namnet Czar Peter från Tsar Peter den store av Ryssland, artnamnet Tulipa greigii fick blomman av Eduard von Regel som gav den namnet efter en botanist S.A Greig som arbetade för the Russian Imperial Horticultural Society i St. Petersburg. Blomman hittades ’först’ i Tashkent nuvarande Uzbekistan av en tysk vid namn P.L. Graeber.

Typiskt för dessa botaniska tulpaner, Tulipa greigii är att blomman är förhållandevis till skaftet stor (upp till 12cm), skaftet som är ganska kort jämfört med andra arter, ofta klara flera färgade blommor och bladen är ibland antingen randiga eller fläckiga. Vad mer är att Tulipa greigii blommar tidigt, början av mars - april och det uppskattar jag verkligen. De stora blommorna öppnar sig i full utsträckning i solsken och sluter sig i skugga och till kvällen. Tulipa greigii 'Czar Peter' tillhör Liliaceae familjen.

xoxo TYRA

Dear garden friends don't forget to write something.

Skriv en rad!

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Updated. 2009-01-06

Helen, the patient gardener said in her comment - Are these tulips in flower in your garden now?! Surely not!

No, unfortunately not, nothing and I mean nothing grows in my garden now. It is completely covered with a few inches of snow and it is freeeezing cold. My poor greenhouse is like a big icebox and the only roses that I got there are the roses of ice on the glass of the windows. I have got a pretty picture of ice roses in this post from 2007

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