Posted by Just Add Ice Orchids... It's Just That Simple. on Mon, Feb 01, 2010
Owning cats, who like to eat houseplants, inspired Taylor Miller at the Herb Companion blog to share some tips for having both cats and orchids in the same environment:
“The quick fix for my cats has always been to mist the houseplant leaves and sprinkle with either cinnamon or cayenne pepper…but there’s good news – orchids are classified safe by The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).”
Orchids are edible, and in many cultures used in a variety of food preparation – the vanilla bean is a good example.
Miller explains, “The root-like parts of an orchid, called tubers, are composed of a starchy substance called Bassorin, a type of gum that is one of the primary ingredients of the old-world hot drink, saloop - or salep - the olden-days version of Starbucks coffee.” Miller added with interest, “Because the starchy substance is so highly nutritious it is still used in some herbal folk remedies.”
Having beautiful orchids placed throughout your home will also brighten the mood. Miller concludes that while orchid plants are considered safe, they are not necessarily good for cats to digest. He now has over a dozen orchids and the cats have not touched them.
Posted by Just Add Ice Orchids... It's Just That Simple. on Wed, Jan 13, 2010
We’ve spoken about the similarities and differences between orchids and onions, but according to one website, just as onions can flower, orchids are edible too.
Aside from providing us with vanilla, which is fairly well-known, orchid farmers in Singapore have recently began to conduct cooking classes using orchids. Introducing stir-fried orchids and orchid sauces, they say that orchids are a source of fiber and vitamin C. So what do they taste like? Opinions vary; some say it is somewhat sweet, others say it tastes like tannin or raw chives. Perhaps it depends on the orchid used.
People in Hawaii have used orchids in salad dishes, or sautéed with scallops. They’ve even made sugar coated orchid candies since the 1960’s.
In the southern African region of Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi, orchid tubers have long been used as a source of food. Traded locally between the three countries, they are used in the preparation of a meatless sauce. Unfortunately, the harvesting has been done in an unsustainable manner, and now threatens the future of the species and their associated biological diversity in the natural habitats.
In Turkey, the ground-up bulbs of local terrestrial orchids are used to make a mucilaginous compound known as salep. This material is often used to make a particularly sweet and distinctive ice cream in Turkey and throughout the Middle East. The unsustainable nature of their harvest techniques has driven the species to extinction in many Middle Eastern countries.
Locals use another South American orchid as a curdling agent to make cheese. What is it called? Why, the cheese orchid, of course.
Actually, since no orchid is poisonous, all orchids are edible. But before you take a bite of the nearest bloom, you’ll want to wait at least a month for all the pesticides to be cleansed from the plant. It might be better to find a plant specifically grown for food.