Grow Poppy Seeds For A Healthy Harvest

There is something so undeniably artsy beautiful about poppy flowers. Delicate and bold. Bent but not broken. They just seem hopeful and bright, but also like they can hear some special kind of music I haven’t heard yet. I love the lines and shapes and how the light shifts through the layered petals in the afternoon sun.

The really cool thing about poppy flowers is that they produce a ton of seeds in those round pods. By late fall, after the flowers have long since dropped, you can harvest the dried out pods, crack them open into a bowl and have a TON of poppy seeds to add to all kinds of dishes.

I’m an especially big fan of adding them to baked goods like lemon poppy seed muffins or sprinkled on top of home made bread.

Lately I’ve been addicted to the Bagel Seasoning from Trader Joe’s that includes dried onion and poppy seeds. I have been putting it on top of my eggs in the morning (or tofu scramble).

The health benefits are through the roof. They have 5 grams of fiber per serving, tons of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, riboflavin and a host of other nutrients. They help produce strong bones, a healthy heart, can help fighting insomnia and general relaxation and release from anxiety, and are energizing. Major win for just an easy and delicious shake of the wrist.

Not only are they nice to look at and eat, they are also one of many flowers that help bees thrive and will return again and again year after year by dropping their seeds into the ground and regrowing a new flower next year.

Start a patch of poppy seeds or a bee loving mix of wild flowers in your front yard and enjoy the color every morning, then gather those seed pods up and enjoy them in baked goods all winter long. 🙂

Get a full pound of wild flowers including poppy seeds here.