Country skills question...Number 2

[British Red]

Okay....here is another weird one.....


What am I producing here? ...and why is it done this way?



IMG_7625 by British Red, on Flickr


...and for extra credit.....what dangerous product used to be made from a byproduct of operation?

Red

 

[HillBill]

They look like poppy heads. Left upside down to ripen fully and release the seed?

Opium?

 

[British Red]

Ahhh tooo easy.....but why do they have to be that way up?

 

[Robbi]

moisture from the stems and gravity stops the heads / seeds drying out too quick ?

 

[HillBill]

I hang herbs like that over paper to catch the seed. It allows the plant to release the seeds naturally when each one is mature. I think lol

 

[Chiseller]

Okay....here is another weird one.....


What am I producing here? ...and why is it done this way?



IMG_7625 by British Red, on Flickr


...and for extra credit.....what dangerous product used to be made from a byproduct of operation?

Red

Opium :beer:

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

[JonathanD]

Don't the heads dry out and the seeds drop from the head like a salt shaker. You can then pop em on yer bread.

 

[British Red]

Pretty close chisseler

The reason poppies have to be dried that way up to capture seeds is that, in the wild, the seed head opens at the top only - creating small holes under the flower "scar" at the top. Once seed is released, the wind blows the lighter seed pod around and the seed is "flicked" out of these holes travelling a long way. If you dry them "right way up", the seed just sits in the pod.

Years ago, the pods and stems formed a product called "poppy straw" - poppy straw was used to make "laudenam" - an opiate painkiller which caused addiction in many a poet! Dodgy stuff by all accounts

Red

 

[British Red]

Don't the heads dry out and the seeds drop from the head like a salt shaker. You can then pop em on yer bread.

Beat me to it Jon - with a better description!

 

[JonathanD]

Hurrah! .

 

[Toddy]

Yours are well on I've only started gathering mine..........I hang them upside down with a paper poke tied around the heads. I pin the bag to the noticeboard above the kitchen radiator.
By the end of summer it's the weirdest looking mix of drying herbs and seeds

cheers,
M

 

[British Red]

Bin a weird old Summer. Some things have done well....hay harvest is a record. Other stuff is very early (alliums) others....useless. Carrots are a nightmare!

Peas are doing well, first harvest is processed, second is in pod and I am going for a third crop which is already up and growing

Capsicums are a wash out with no sun

Diversity in crops seems to be th ekey these days

 

[Bowlander]

I gave up on the veg in mid-June. Even my 'blight resistant' sarpo spuds got blighted. We did have12" of rain in June. Rhubarb and strawbs are the only successful crops.

 

[awarner]

The slugs chomped all the seeds of this years gathering, climbed in the bucket.

 

[British Red]

Its a mad year for slugs isn't it? Even our nesting thrushes can't keep up

We love the thrushes so slug pellets are out (other than occasional use inside closed greenhouses). Nemaotodes are good - but hellish pricey

 

[Bowlander]

Its a mad year for slugs isn't it? Even our nesting thrushes can't keep up

We love the thrushes so slug pellets are out (other than occasional use inside closed greenhouses). Nemaotodes are good - but hellish pricey

You can 'homebrew' your own nematodes - never tried it but it involves lots of slugs and a bucket of water. Heard about it on GQT.
I let my runner ducks into the veg patch in the end, they had a field day!!