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  • From: Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re: Yellow Nut Sedge -- More than you EVER wanted to know!
  • Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 11:28:42 -0400

Pam wrote
:
We have a bad problem with Yellow Nut Sedge developing. Until
last year we had it in just a few places, and tried to dig it out before
August when the underground nuts develop.

I'd heard the nuts were edible and a quick surf shows that this is true.
"The tubers are edible raw, boiled, or baked. You can also grind them and use them as a coffee substitute."


The scientific name is Cyperus esculentus. They are also called "earth nuts" and "chufa" -- maybe you can sell a few as a speciality item?  One of my gardeners actually dried the flowers and used them in her dried flower arrangements -- they looked fantastic and she won top prizes in her categories at the Philadelphia Harvest Show.
They

Other
suggestions have been ducks or pigs. Personally I hesitate to
commit to keeping livestock.

Livestock seems to be your best option.  Ducks are supposed to be *very* easy to care for and turkeys seem to adore them also.  Pigs seem to be the premier choice of folks who make notes on websites -- could you borrow some?

From the University of Florida:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MV050

While seldom grown as a food item in home gardens, chufas were grown on about 2,000 farms mostly in Florida in the United States in 1944. In 1941, 7,000 acres were planted for hog pasture in Florida and over 3,000 bushels were dug from 170 additional acres. The nuts weigh about 44 pounds per bushel. In the 1980s, chufas are still grown for livestock feed on a few farms in the Florida Panhandle.


Just to totally cheer you up, here someone actually SELLING the tubers as "exotic seeds" and calling them "earth almonds."  The guy must be a buddy of Jay's! ;-D

http://www.greendealer-exotic-seeds.com/seeds/EarthAlmond.html

Here's someone else trying to tell you that they are so important to turkeys that you should buy them as fodder to seed in pastures! (!!!!!)

http://www.chufa.com/

It's all about marketing -- obviously we just aren't looking at this stuff right!  What a resource we all have! ;-D

I'm obviously overtired and overheated from harvesting all that garlic -- anyone have any serious advice for Pam or should she just take up turkey farmings?

Dorene



Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden

A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA  19460


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