Dock seeds

[Ginger]

I've been harvesting the local dock seeds (shove the rust-coloured heads in a paper bag and strip).

Note that doing this will give you the seed enclosed in a calyx (I think?). Back at home in my mean and filthy basement apartment I tried separating the seed form the calyx by rubbing them vigorously but this didn't work. Simmering the seed and calyx combination, I noted that the seed swells up a lot but remains embedded in the mess of cooked calyx.

The whole mixture tastes very tangy. In as much as I can tell, this taste is coming from the calyxes, rather than the cooked seeds themselves. I know it has a lot of roughage but I reckon you could starve merely through the muscle power required to expel that much fibre.

I'm wondering if anyone knows a way of separating the seeds from the calyx before cooking?

I'm thinking of drying my cooked mess and then seeing if the puffed up, cooked seeds are more easily separated from the calyxes.

Ideally though, it would be great not to have to cook this much roughage in the first place.

 

[Toddy]

I tried this a while ago. Gathered lots of seeds and then got busy. By the time I picked them up again they were bone dry and I found that rubbing them around in a closely woven basket I could quite effectively de husk them.
Poured the mix from basket to bowl, backwards and forwards, outside in a light breeze to winnow and they were fine. Bit like coarse wholemeal.
A heavy sieve would probably work at least as well as a basket or even a cloth bag, but really dry seems to be the way to go.
Good luck with it. Do you have recipes? Anyone?
Cheers,
Toddy

 

[ilovemybed]

If you coarse ground them (bashed them with rocks even!), then sieved them through a loose mesh, that might remove some of the roughage and make the rest a bit more managable?

Dunno if Dock flour is useful or not though...

 

[anthonyyy]

What are doc seedst useful for? I know my hens wont touch the stuff.

 

[match]

I've collected dock seeds in the past, but yes, they are a fiddle to remove the husks from - drying well helps with this.

I tend to use them like plantain seed - makes a nice addition to breads, crackers etc. Can also be added to soups where they swell quite a lot and add some thickness.