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Blue poppy seeds

Poppy seeds have been around for at least 3000 years. Egyptians, Greeks, and other ancient cultures used these seeds for many purposes, most of them medicinal.

When you hear blue poppy seeds there 2 things that can come to your mind: blue seeds from the opium poppy or seeds from blue poppies also called Himalayan poppies. It's more common to think of seeds from the opium poppy because of the controversy that goes around them. There are many things said about the blue poppy seeds, some of them are true and some aren't so lets clear things up.

- It is true that opium is extracted from the seed capsule. - It is true that cultivating poppies for this purpose is illegal.

So, why are blue poppy seeds sold in supermarkets and used in many bakery goods?

Opium is extracted from the milky substance inside the unripe seed capsule. When the seed capsule matures what you get are the blue poppy seeds which don't have any narcotic substances. Those are the seeds sold and used.

Blue poppy seeds are tiny, kidney-shaped and have a sweet nutty flavor. It is for that flavor that they are used in many bakery goods and cooked dishes. They are very popular in European cooking mostly, and are mainly used in cakes, bread, muffins, cookies, pastries, etc. These seeds have a great amount of oil in them, so they are also crushed to get the oil and it is used in salad dressings, curries and sauces for meat and fish. Artists use it as a drying oil. It is also used in soaps.

The seeds are also used for birdseed.

Sometimes it's difficult to find blue poppy seeds at your local supermarket because of the close watch governments keep in the cultivation of opium poppy, but for a good reason.

Today the main producers of blue poppy seed are Canada and Holland. The high-quality "A-1" ones comes from Holland actually bust they have become very difficult to find in the last fez years.

If you hate cooking and don't find appealing any of the uses given to blue poppy seeds you can get them just to plant them in your garden and have a wonderful view with the beautiful flowers they bloom into. But as the poppy plant has to be treated with much attention in order for it to grow, so does the poppy seed before you plant it. The seed must be 4 weeks in a dry paper bag inside the refrigerator for 4 weeks before you can plant them. They also need to be kept under 18° C when planted or else they die.

Those are just a few things you must do before planting the seeds.