[pbs] eating tulip bulbs, , eremurus, etc.
Adam Fikso
adam14113 at ameritech.net
Tue Oct 30 10:49:09 EST 2007
I'm with Jim Mckenney on this. I've never seen a reference to actually
eating them other than "they look good enough to eat" I do have a personal
recollection from a Dutch economist who used to bicycle for miles to gather
them from abandoned bulb fields during the famines of WWII. He said that if
they were not boiled for at least 2 hours and the water drained off
periodiclaly , one got terrible griping diarrhea from eating them. But they
were better than bark from trees.
Eremurus might not ship very well, because the tuberous fleshy roots are
fragile and not strongly connected to the central axis. I remember getting
a shipment from Turkmenistan which were all rotted due to breakage of the
roots from the central axis. They had been about 18" across before they
broke. I'd be interested to know how such a geophyte could be packed for
intercontinental shipment without damage. Or are only smaller ones usually
shipped?
And thanks, Diana for what I iwll regard as a definitive answer to the
shrinking Hippeastrum bulbs. And I'm wondering why I didn't figure it out
for myself. I tried for years:-- wasn't observant I guess ,or there was a
cerebral disconnect between the eyes and the frontal lobe. Might try it
again. And give them substantially more nourishment this time. Adam in
Glenview, IL, USDA Zone 5a, where maybe it'll only be a 7a equivalent this
year and a couple of Zantedeschias will come through the winter again.
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