Recipe And Nutritional Information

You will find Evening Primrose a super food even though it likes to grow where most of our garden plants struggle. The plant thrives in poor dirt. The plant provides beta carotene, carbohydrates, potassium, protein, vitamin B3, and calcium. Also there is a large amount of gamma-linoleic acid (GLA), an Omega 6 fatty acid that our immune system needs, which the body converts the GLAs into prostaglandins a hormone type compound that help regulate the bodies systems.

Evening Primrose seeds are full of the amino acid tryptophan, which is converted into serotonin, a mood elevating compond. The leaves are full of bioflavonoid called quercetin. Quercetin aids in blood vessels strength and aids blood circulation.

For my tea recipe I grind up a teaspoon of Evening Primrose seeds and let the ground seeds seep with your favorite tea mix for five minutes. Use water that's just about to boil but not boiling hot. You can grind up the seeds and sprinkle them on just about anything, salads, stews, soups, bread, you are only limited by your imagination or lack thereof.

You can use the flowers and young leaves in salads. You can bake the roots, which have a nutty flavor and eat them as a side dish. The young seed pods can be roasted with your favorite vegetables. The young stocks can be steemed and served with butter and garlic.

The root can be roasted, ground and used for tea as a weight loss aid. The leaf and root drank as a tea can be used to aid the healing of wounds. The plant has been used by Native Americans as medicine and a food source. Back in the 1600 hundreds, American European settlers took the Evening Primrose seeds back to Europe and the plant became a favorite garden plant, the root was steamed like parsnips.

How To Plant And Care For Evening Primrose

Oenothera is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to the true primroses (genus Primula). Wiki Link

Clear the weeds from some neglected area on your property, you can gorilla garden as well, spread the seeds in some unused public area. The plant likes sunny or partial sunny well drained dirt after the danger of frost is over, sprinkle some seeds on the ground, cover lightly with dirt. Keep the dirt moist until the plants sprout in 7-14 days. Plants don't like their roots fiddled with and don't transplant very well. The plant is known as a weed because it spreads easily. The plant needs very little water, as it likes well drained soils. I watered mine twice a week during the height of summer in Oregon. The plant loves arid conditions.

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