Ziar poppy

(Papaver somniferum)

“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add an useful plant to its culture; especially a bread grain. Next in value to bread is oil.”

– Thomas Jefferson, Summary of Public Service

I like oilseed poppies.  They are easy to grow, the oil tastes splendid (and, if you press your own, you may find that the press-cake “byproduct” is an equally delightful culinary treat), and how often do we get to grow a crop which is a patch of lovely flowers?

Mauve flowers are followed by seedheads which, unlike most poppies, do not open vents and scatter their blue-grey seed. This is a major advantage for harvesting since it lets you decide when the seeds get scattered!

This is a specialty oilseed variety from the former Czechoslovakia. They know about poppies there: the Czech Republic is the world’s largest producer of poppy seeds, a fact of which they are justly proud, growing 40,000 hectares of Český modrý mák (Czech blue poppies) in 2020! For those wishing to learn more about its nutritional value and place in their culture, their Ministry of Agriculture has published an excellent, informative booklet. 

In his Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening, Will Bonsall tells that he received seed for this poppy from Peter Vido, a major promoter of the scythe in Canada (I owe most of what little skill I have in scything to his writings). Peter brought seed from his hometown, Ziar, Slovakia (which is pronounced “Zhar”). It has since spread across North America.

By the way, if you get out a magnifying glass you can see that poppy seeds are “favose-reticulate” – intricately honeycombed.

1/2 tsp (several hundred seeds)/packet.