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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Bill Jones wrote:

> Thanks so much for going to this effort.  "Crescent Bloom" is a 
> website where they're selling a book called "The Compleat Botanica" 
> but no plants or seed.  I've held the greatest hope for San Marcos, 
> but as of now they're out of stock.  Sheffield's looks good, but seeds 
> require stratification and scarification, they say.  Lotusland sounds 
> like a wonderful place to visit, but not really commercial.  I found 
> this plant under the name "Toona sinensis" at Cistus Nursery in 
> Oregon, even, but it's the same story: out of stock.  River Rock 
> Nursery (also in Oregon) says they're having trouble propagating their 
> cuttings.  Still searching for a plant...
>
> Maybe you can help solve the black mustard mystery (Brassica nigra).  
> Southern Exposure was supposed to have black mustard, but when I 
> ordered it, it was actually brown.  Same thing with Richter's.  I 
> notice that now both seed companies have removed it from their 
> catalogs, and now black mustard is extinct commerically in the U. S.  
> Even the mustard seed available for Indian cookery in shops is all 
> brown.  All this coincides with the rise of commercial medicinal 
> sources galore of "black mustard extract" and the concurrent 
> denunciation of black mustard as a non-native invasive (in the 
> Midwest, as I recall).
>
> Bill
> S. Oregon coast

tvoivozhd---if you are having trouble buying black mustard seed in the 
U.S., or discovering brown mustard seed being substituted for black, I 
would suggest trying a British source.  I lived in India for some years, 
and and at that time the only mustard seed I saw in the market was 
black---brown must be a newcomer.  I should add, however, that black 
mustard seeds are yellow inside---and in India the mustard seeds are not 
ground, but fried in oil, and pop open to flavor the food..

*Mustard plants are part of the broad genus Brassica, which also 
includes cabbages and turnips. Within the mustard group three classes of 
plants produce the spice seeds: Brassica hirta, supplying yellow or 
white mustard seeds; Brassica juncea, from which we get both brown and 
oriental mustard seeds; and Brassica nigra, which gives us black or 
Trieste mustard seeds.

** Black mustard seed. Brassica nigra seeds are not unlike brown mustard 
seeds in outward appearance. They are about 2 mm or less in size, but 
tend to be a little more oblong than spherical. Black mustard seeds are 
actually more brownish in color, and for a long time were known as 
"English browns" in that country. Since World War II, browns and 
orientals have gradually replaced black because they can be grown more 
economically.
*

*
*http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=black+mustard+seed/v=2/SID=w/l=WS1/R=73/H=0/IPC=us/SHE=0/SIG=120qhfc9q/*-http%3A//www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Brassica+nigra

(cultivation and uses)

http://www.seasonedpioneers.co.uk/index.htm  (see of their mustard seeds 
are black)