how to harvest seeds from climbing spinach seeds?

[XipeTotec]

i picked this plant up from the nursery in late spring. Great tasting, great texture. It has fruited into these black berries, and I was after some advice on how to harvest seed. Should I let the berries dry, or what? thanks. Sorry for the crap photo... but you get the idea.

Edited March 27, 2008 by XipeTotec

[Conan Troutman]

i picked this plant up from the nursery in late spring. Great tasting, great texture. It has fruited into these black berries, and I was after some advice on how to harvest seed. Should I let the berries dry, or what? thanks. Sorry for the crap photo... but you get the idea.

hoe big are they? crush em and pass thru a sieve and leave to dry

[XipeTotec]

hoe big are they? crush em and pass thru a sieve and leave to dry

the berries? like a flat blackcurrent

[Vertmorpheus]

malabar spinach, lovely stuff. Cant work out if it wants to be a lush tropical or a succulent .

the ink from the berry husks is very potent, can use it for inks n stains etc...or just leaving ah ellish mess on concrete if u step on em.

As they ripen they should drop off the stalks, otherwise, using thumb n finger gently run from the base of the seedstalk to the tip applying just enough pressure to "roll" the berries off... then pop each one, break the seal so to speak, put em in a jar half fulla water and shake like hell every few hours for a couple days... then strain, put the goop on an old towel and rub em til the pulp comes off and u have lil grey white seeds left. Works for me, for doing large amounts (have this shit all over lately). Or after a day of soaking "pop" the seeds out leaving the pulp between your fingers, rinse, rub, and air dry in a sieve hanging on your windowsill (once again, works for me, even if the house does look like its inhabited by lost gypsie women)

Or, you can sun dry em intact and plant em as is, works just as well, but make sure theyre HELL dry before you seal the bag or theyll mould up.

The ink isnt a bad source of natural pink or red colouring for cooking and drinks etc.

Nice plant, good in a hanging basket or a leafier interplanting in succulent beds too. Cook leaf twice for liluns, oxalates etc, usual deal.

VM

[Teljkon]

asdfa

Edited December 19, 2021 by Teljkon

[shruman]

"ethnobotanical or edible."

Ummm aargh... both, look at the def for ethnobotanical.

Hows it taste?, good cropper or just a novelty?

Edited March 29, 2008 by shruman

[XipeTotec]

"ethnobotanical or edible."

Ummm aargh... both, look at the def for ethnobotanical.

Hows it taste?, good cropper or just a novelty?

tastes good raw... i wasnt aware of any special prep that vert points out... I put it in late, and didnt take much from it, so I am unsure about how much it can produce. Vert.... will it reshoot in spring?

[shruman]

"tastes good raw"

Like spinach? or what?

[XipeTotec]

"tastes good raw"

Like spinach? or what?

yeah, pretty much, fleshier leaves though

[Vertmorpheus]

I got my original seeds from the cityfarm in Brissie, and I've been ripping out seedlings every since haha. tough as nails, even in total neglect it will still grow just tastes a lil slimier and tougher. It has a lot of mucilage, kinda snotty on the tongue, but that means you can chop it fine into stews n stuff and it thickens them up like okra does. think spinach meets okra and yours close, it doesnt tend to have that mustardy cabbagy edge that some spinach gets, or that kinda rust edge either...good stuff. Bub eats some whenever she wanders past the bush.

It's perennial, and very hardy... even frosted specimens resprouted in the warm, and I hav eem growing in pots, dry garden corners, sprouting in the lawn itself, climbing up sticks and wandering around the lawn. Yield varies with conditions but 4 plants once established means you can cook up a potful whenver you want, really... it's a good permacultural/survival kinda veg, no fiddlingor special care required and it can climb up and over weeds etc too.

I like it, as its something of a vegetable but a succulent kinda thing as well, I plant it under pots of aloe arborescens, climbs up and twines makes a nice contrast..wide soft leaves and long tough spiney leaves, etc.

Ethno or edible, thats a good one ;) yeah man, ef-noze It doesn't get you high, no. Though I havent tried making a 312 x extract, or smoking crushed seeds, or stuffing thousands of em up my bum either... so there might be an unexplored side there.

Should resprout fine in the warm season, unless you get winters like dantes Frigido, and even then I think it'd come back anyway.

It's good for biocycle offrun, damp patches and rock walls too. It's also called Ceylon Spinach or Malabar Spinach.

No need for special prep for the odd nibble, but if you eat a lot of it or its going to kids etc, it'd be worth a waterchange whilst boiling.

You'll get a squillion seeds from it, and the nyou can run around chucking em in stormwater floodzones, abandoned yards and peoples front gardens like I do. We all need hobbies dont we?

Growth habit, cross spinach with a miniature choko vine...every time you look at it, its bigger.

VM

Edited April 1, 2008 by Vertmorpheus