Gandules / Mướp Hương / Cocoxochitl #gandules #mướphương #cocoxochitl #seedkeeping #seedsaving (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CW9gKrltVjD/?utm_medium=tumblr

Since trying them I’ve been telling all the other gardeners in my allotment association and encouraged them to give it a go, as many grow dahlias, but nobody seemed particularly interested so far. I am certainly going to grow them for eating next summer now that I’ve discovered the dual-crop potential of these wonderful plants.        

Cocoxochitl, the beautiful Aztec plant we mostly now call Dahlia, is changing shape in these late season cool nights. The centers of blooms that are usually closed for a while are opening much sooner, like in the second photo. They are ready to mate with the help fo flying insects and make heavy, dark seeds, which will develop in their pointy seed pods as they enlarge and then dry out to a papery crisp. All this available nectar and pollen is drawing lots of fervently foraging bees, and so praying mantises, and perhaps also this orange assassin bug (thanks for the ID everyone!) are waiting for their next meal of a nectar fattened bee body. We have been keeping the bees off our favorite parent plants with netting cinched around individual blooms from before they open and then bringing the pollen of other favorite parents, and hand pollinating them like you see in the photos where we removed the petals. We then cover them again to allow them to mature. We also harvest lots of green open-pollinated pods on long stems to allow them to mature in a bucket of water with plant food in the dry basement to avoid losing them to frost or rotting due to rain/humidity. As usual, we will taste test fat tubers this fall, including those from seedling dahlias whose parents were an open-pollinated population of those with the best tasting tubers. #cocoxochitl #dahlias https://www.instagram.com/p/CGd46I1A9qY/?igshid=wrv2z6ij3855

#cocoxochitl and friends today, harvested for @snapdragonflowersphilly (at Snapdragon Flowers) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFLdjETA8lV/?igshid=1jrvvjf7a8hiq

Things to say about this: 1. Dahlias are nearly done for the year 2. If you are local and want to make your own $15 bouquet of dahlias tomorrow (Wednesday) at 6pm in West Philly, let me know by 8am! 3. My dear friend Mendal and her partner Lisa Suzanne are visiting from North Carolina and helped harvest dried dahlia seed pods and then eat dahlia petals 4. The bottom right is one of my favorite seedlings from this year 5. The bottom middle and the top right are the same variety, which we are calling Princess Isle because it was mislabeled before I got it but it may be A La Mode by the looks of it. 6. Our favorite tasting petals so far are Bodacious, Princess Isle, and Jane Cowl. 7. Dahlias are called Cocoxochitl in Nahuatl and their tubers and petals are eaten in Mexico. #cocoxochitl #acocotli #dahlia #dahlias #dahliaoftheday #edibledahlias https://www.instagram.com/p/B3YZ-_8A6o3/?igshid=12etv2bss6r6m

Bees drink the nectar of our open-centered dahlias, and in doing so, they get crumbs of pollen on their faces and bodies. Female worker bumble bees (like this one) clean themselves by brushing the pollen into their pollen baskets (aka corbiculae or pollen sacs), moistened with saliva or nectar, to bring home to the family for later eating. This photo shows a big ball of moist pollen kept in place in the bee baskets on her hind legs by barbed hairs around a polished cavity. These balls of pollen can contain around one million individual protein-rich grains. As she moves on, stray pollen gets transferred to the next dahlia flowers, and this is how we get our seeds. #corbiculae #pollination #pollensac #pollenbasket #dahliaoftheday #cocoxochitl #honeybee #dahlia #bumblebee https://www.instagram.com/p/B11oLH1g3Mv/?igshid=1vd4y8ghtpg6p

Dorian stopped in to check out our farm yesterday, as he was traveling through and is interested in seed keeping as part of his agroecological and cultural preservation practices. In particular, as someone with Mexican heritage from the El Paso area, he’d like to work on edible dahlias, which are known as Cocoxochitl in Nahuatl. They are the national flower of Mexico and are traditionally grown for their edible tubers and flower petals. Check out Asociación Mexicana de la Dalia o Acocoxochitl for more info! Here, in our row of our best tasting dahlias (in terms of tubers), Dorian holds and tastes a pile of Bodacious Dahlia petals, which were part of his road snacks back to his farm in Long Island. They taste a lot like lettuce! Even better than lettuce, if you ask our apprentices. The folks at the above-mentioned Acocoxochitl association told me the petals have natural antioxidants and a nice flavor and texture. Dorian remarked how nice to have this flavor in a season that lettuce won’t grow well in. Thanks so much for visiting, @honeymesquite, and for your work in the world!! #cocoxochitl #acocoxóchitl #acocotli #edibledahlias #dahlia #dahliasofinstagram #seedkeeping https://www.instagram.com/p/B1rPV74gpTc/?igshid=qwri71pxhco5

Simple beauty: the first dahlia to bloom in the field was named Red with Black Stripe by William Woys Weaver, the man who cracked open my love for seed saving, and also my love for dahlias. As beautiful as this flower is, she was slated for “deaccession”, a cruelly scientific word for us breaking up. However, this winter she excelled in our tuber taste tests, so this bloom is now overlooking a long bed of the best tasting dahlias from which we will be saving seeds in hopes of selecting even tastier ones from future seedlings. We also plan to make these true seeds available through Truelove Seeds so that you too can select for flavorful and abundant tubers. Dahlias are called Acocotli and Cocoxochitl in the Aztec language of Nahuatl, and continue to be eaten in their native Mexico. #cocoxochitl #acocoxóchitl #acocotli #dalia #dahlia #edibledahlias #dahliasofinstagram #aztecfood #mexicanfood #seedsaving #seedkeeping https://www.instagram.com/p/Byc1mP_A5QZ/?igshid=wjw3ktnxecog