Camas seed in the mail

DoubleDogFarm · Fri Dec 20, 2013 8:47 pm

Email from a neighboring Island.

Greetings,

I've just sent you a packet of camas seed (Camassia leichtlinii from Lopez). They can be planted outside anytime between now and around February 15th, or sprouted in the fridge (around 60 days in moist clean medium, such as coir). I sent a sample amount of seed (in most cases around 200), if you find that you need more for planting, go ahead and e-mail me, I should be able to send you more. I'm delighted to have you involved in learning about how best to grow food camas and look forward to hearing how they grow for you. I'll be sending you updates as our research plots yield results. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Madrona Murphy
Botanist and genetic technician

Kwiaht: Center for the Historical Ecology of the Sallish Sea

Native Americans use to burn parts of the San Juan Islands to encourage camas production.
Have any of you grown Camas. I will be planting them in the berms of my new food forest.

Eric

billw · Sat Dec 21, 2013 3:20 am

Yep. I grow more C. quamash, which is smaller, but also have some C. leichtlinii. It is a very easy plant to grow in our climate and tastes great, but a little challenging to cook.

There seems to be more variability in C. quamash than C. leichtlinii, which is why I have done more work with it, even though C. leichtlinii is larger.

Here's a bit that I did recently on cooking:
https://wettingthebeds.cultivariable.com ... -food.html

applestar · Sat Dec 21, 2013 6:05 am

INTERESTING! Will the same cooking method help diffuse the inulin in sun choke tubers?

rainbowgardener · Sat Dec 21, 2013 7:32 am

I planted camassia (Atlantic camassia, camassia scilloides, the eastern native variety) in my native woodland plants garden. But it hasn't thrived there, barely hanging on. It is supposed to be ok with clay and alkaline soil, but it may be too shady for it. The camassia is more a part shade type. It grows naturally in a little woods near me, but right on the edge, where it probably is getting a bit more sun.

I knew that native Americans used to eat it, but I just planted it as a nice native wildflower.

Applestar is right... I'm still working out how to be able to eat my sunchokes without it making us so uncomfortable. I heard that they do better if left in the ground until after some freezes. So they are still out there.

billw · Sat Dec 21, 2013 12:33 pm

Yep, long cooking also mellows fartichokes, but I find that the mushy texture that results is not very appealing. I prefer to eat them raw in small quantities. It does seem that tolerance increases if you consume them regularly, but it also seems to go away after a few months without eating them.

DoubleDogFarm · Sat Dec 21, 2013 1:37 pm

billw wrote:Yep. I grow more C. quamash, which is smaller, but also have some C. leichtlinii. It is a very easy plant to grow in our climate and tastes great, but a little challenging to cook.

You say it's a "easy plant to grow" Any techniques need sharing.

Eric

billw · Sat Dec 21, 2013 4:21 pm

Plant when the ground isn't frozen - about the same depth as the height of the bulb, make sure it gets some water in the spring (usually nature takes care of that) and make sure that it dries out by mid-summer (nature usually takes care of that too). Harvest any time after flowering. Easy.

DoubleDogFarm · Sat Dec 21, 2013 4:45 pm

Thanks Bill, but I'm starting with seed. She will be shipping bulbs later.

The email tells me I can direct sow now until mid Feb. 60 days for refrigerator sprouting.

Have you started seedlings indoors. Could I start them the same time I start my onions. Would 30 - 40 days be enough chill stratification.

Eric

DoubleDogFarm · Sat Dec 21, 2013 5:01 pm

I found this site

Mr Camas
https://mrcamas.com/Planting-Camas.htm

1/4lb - 32,500 seed for $20.00

Eric

billw · Sat Dec 21, 2013 5:37 pm

I plant camas seed at the same time as sweet onions - end of summer. They come up in the spring. That way they get natural stratification and I don't have to fuss with them. The seeds are large and don't rot easily. I imagine that you could still plant them outside with good results. I haven't tried starting them indoors.

DoubleDogFarm · Sat Dec 21, 2013 7:56 pm

The seed arrived today and along with this leaflet.

Eric

applestar · Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:00 am

This is neat! Cool that such a project is underway, too.

I'll be following this thread

and looking forward to hearing about your results, Eric.
Thanks also to Billw for your contributions.

Rainbowgardener, let us know if you try harvesting and eating yours -- I'll have to look up their native status in NJ.

(do you ever harvest seeds?)