Thursday 23 August 2012

Coriander / Cilantro

Some of you will have seen me mention that I'm allergic to the leaves of the Coriander / Cilantro plant. For this reason, it seldom gets used in our kitchen. Last year, however, a few plants came up as part of a pack of mixed salad, so I grew them on for Jane to use.They soon bolted and I left them to produce seeds. Once dried, we used these few seeds in a spicy cauliflower dish, and Wow! they were incredibly tasty. [Fortunately the seeds seem to have no adverse effect on me.] Encouraged by this I decided this year to grow a bit more and deliberately let it go to seed. This post charts its development, in pictures.

The seeds were sown on 16th March. By 29th April, they had grown into sturdy little seedlings.


I pricked-out the seedlings into four small terracotta pots. By 20th May the Coriander was useable - as a leafy herb, I mean.


A fortnight later the plants had already begun to bolt, putting up fibrous stems like this.


As the stem develops, the foliage changes shape and begins to look more like carrots. This is 5th June.


By the middle of June the stems were about two feet tall. (June 17th).


Very soon, the first tiny flowers began to open. This year my Coriander has light pinkish / mauve flowers, whereas last year's ones were plain white.






As the flowers matured the mauve colour faded towards white.


By July 1st the plants were about three feet tall and covered in flowers, the colour of which was now plain white.


By August 1st the flowers had withered and given way to seeds, most of which were green, some of which were a deep purple colour like this:


 A week or so later the seeds were all beginning to turn brown:


By mid-August I judged that the seeds were ready for harvesting.


I didn't want the precious seeds to fall off of their own accord and get lost, so I cut the seed-heads off the tangle of vegetation and brought them indoors for final drying inside a paper bag in the airing-cupboard.


After a week in the airing-cupboard, the seeds were fully dry so I stripped them off their stalks, and handed them over to Jane for use in the kitchen. It's a tiny quantity of seeds (about 5 grams!), but based on last year's experience I expect them to have a very strong flavour.


On a weight-for-weight basis this is probably my smallest crop of the year, but I still think it was worth growing, because it involved only a very small amount of effort and produced a very tasty result - and when something is that strongly-flavoured a little bit goes a long way.


Jane is proposing to use at least some of the seeds in a Greek Cypriot dish called Afelia, which we have enjoyed in the past. It should be good with these powerful seeds to flavour it.

32 comments:

  1. One of the problems with coriander is how quickly it bolts but when using it like this it is an advantage isn't it?

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  2. Mark you definitely need a time lapse camera and Christmas is looming.

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  3. Goodness what an odd thing to be allergic too, I must get on & sow more coriander. I love the stuff. I shall try that next year, if mine has bolted in the past I have pulled it up. another thing to look forward to next year.

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    1. Funnily enough, stats show that about 25% of the population of the UK is at least mildly allergic to leaf coriander. This is why so many people get "Gippy Tummy" when they eat a curry.

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  4. Fantastic. I love coriander but I never have any success growing it.

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  5. gorgeous photo's!... I adore coriander and use it a lot... so wonderful of you to have done this from seed to seed, that it amazing!... send some my way PLEASE!!! x

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  6. For the past few years coriander grew like a weed in my garden, albeit a welcome one. I've never had much success at them staying at the "usable" stage since they always seemed to bolt overnight, and from then on I just let them be. This year the volunteers came up once again but got ripped out to make way for something else.

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  7. I love it how you have had the patience to photograph all the process of growing the plant from seed to seed again!
    I use coriander seed in my cuisine. Love the taste of it.

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  8. Allergic to coriander leaves - what a shame. Love that herb. Pity I can never grow it for long before it bolts. But having the coriander seeds does make it worthwhile (almost). Mind you, have it in yet again for the 1000 time!

    Also love your dedication in tracking the progress of the coriander. Great photo gallery.

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  9. Thta's one of the wonderful thisngs about this crop - the dual use. It didn't do well here this year, I think perhaps it was too crowded with other herbs. Also interesting that it only bothers you in leaf form.

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  10. Apparently you can also eat the seeds when they are green. I haven't tried it yet and at the most my plants are actually concentrating on leaf production for once but when they've finished hopefully I will test them out.

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  11. Lots of self seeded coriander filling our garden at the moment. They plant themselves at the perfect time. I love the journey of your photos. Coriander flowers are so pretty, they make a great ornamental and the bugs love them.

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  12. Very impressive crop, and lovely sequence of photos. We've only ever used the leaves of our own plants. I had the faintest impression that they would need more heat to produce good seeds for cooking, I'm glad I was wrong - we must let our plants go to seed and try collecting some too.

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  13. I always grow it in my garden, but for me it is both leaf and seed. I love them both. So good.

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  14. A very interesting potted history of the Coriander Mark - well done for remembering to take photos at every stage. It looks great when in flower - I personally can't make my mind up whether I like the taste of it or not - although I'm sure no Indian dish would be the same without it.

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  15. I've never heard of anyone allergic to coriander before but then you learn something new everyday!
    I personally don't like coriander as a herb...I find the flavour too strong for my liking but love using the seeds! I know work that one out.
    Now you've lead me through the whole process in such detail I'm going to have to try it out for myself!
    Beautiful photos too.
    Hey....I'm off to pack my bag because I see I'm going off to Vienna this weekend! Who knew???
    I can't wait...catch you on the tour! ;D

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  16. I need to grow more things for seeds. They are so expensive in the stores. I think it is definitely worth the effort even for a few seeds.

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  17. Lovely harvest of coriander. I usually grow this plant for the leaves and never take it to the seed production phase. I should just to do something different for a change.

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  18. Really nice photos! coriander, better known here as cilantro, is a winter weed for me. Love the stuff and eat in a lot of things. Funny about that allergy business tho. For those not allergic the whole plant can be eaten, including the root. I add the tender bits of the leaves and flowers into salad and such when it blooms. Also it's great for ladybugs; when mine bolted this year they were covered with them

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  19. This is great! I've heard cilantro is not easy to grow and you managed to grow it and even get seed from it. It looks beautiful!

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  20. Love how you documented the life cycle of the coriander, the flowers are so delicate and beautiful.

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  21. my seeds have been drying in the garage for half the summer now ;) I actually just planted it again. I have been planting in the fall and letting them grow through the winter and spring and they have done so much better for me than years past! Come spring I have nice full plants! And the bees that it attracts to the garden!

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  22. I don't like the leaf, but I love the seed. This is a great idea - something I never thought about doing!

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  23. Thanks for this journey. Love those little seeds.

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  24. What a great post. I love both the leaf and seed forms. I help it to volunteer all over my garden. I collect the seeds when they are mature but still green and use some green but let most of them dry indoors. But I always leave some seeds to mature on the plants and scatter them around the garden. The seeds germinate here and there as they get dug in when I work the soil at various times. I'm almost never without the plants at some stage in their life cycle.

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  25. We use both leaf and seed so it's always growing. Beautiful shots.

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  26. I wonder why the seeds from home grown coriander are so much more tasty? I missed my planned harvest of coriander seeds last year, you have convinced me to try again next.

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  27. I have a bunch up side down in a paper bag in the garage, I am trying to dry it for use in pickling.
    I never got any leaves it magically bolted overnight.
    Great photos.

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  28. I have been trying to homegrow coriander myself for a few months now, but I just don’t seem to succeed!! even if the seeds do sprout, they turn out to be pretty weak and don’t survive.. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong..

    A fresh batch has just sprouted out a few days ago, thanks to my unfailing attempts and the receding monsoons.. Yet again, they don’t seem to be very strong though, and I just have my fingers and toes crossed!! Hope I succeed this time at least. Who would have thought coriander was such a tricky plant? Would love to get some tips to do things a bit differently.

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    1. Hi Leslin; I'm not a great expert at growing Coriander (probably because I can't eat the leaf), but I have found that it hates being transplanted - this causes it to bolt immediately; and also it needs very moist soil/compost. Everyone acknowledges that this plant is difficult to grow, so you are not alone! Why not just scatter a few seeds around your garden and see what happens? Some of them are bound to do well, just to demonstrate their independence! :)

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  29. Thank you for a wonderful series of photos

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