Sicklepods!

 

Found in a Farmer's Field out in Red Springs NC, Foetid Senna is a fairly common agricultural 'weed'.

 

Common Name: Sicklepod

 

Other Common Names:  Sickle Senna, Sickle wild sensitive-plant, Sickle Pod, Tora, Coffee Pod.

 

Botanical Family: Fabaceae (The Pea Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Senna tora

 

Description & Habitat:  This plant in older publications may be listed as Cassia tora.

 

When & What to Harvest: In The south east regions of North America this plant tends to appear in farmer’s fields by early to mid-summer and while at a glance it might look like peanuts, the lack of fuzz on the foliage and its aroma when bruised is a dead giveaway. Despite this the foliage, seeds and flowers are useful from a culinary perspective. The young leaves can be cooked as a leaf green while the roasted and then ground seeds are a good Coffee substitute albeit with no caffeine. It is generally considered to be a annual weed and despite this is it is quite tolerant of poor soil and environmental stresses. The seed of this plant can remain viable in the soil for up to twenty years. This plant and it’s cousin American Sicklepod are somewhat interchangeable in culinary use.

 

Here is some additional information:

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/senna-obtusifolia/

 

Poisonous Lookalikes: None are known currently.

 

Related Edible Species: American Sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia).

 

Recipe:

Traditional Sicklepod tea calls for roasted Senna seeds that are whole. You use about 0.7-1.0 ounces of fully dried sicklepod seeds that are then roasted (325f for about 10 minutes) and then steep in about 20 ounces of boiling water for about ten to fifteen minutes. The resulting tea is typically drunk without sweetener or milk.

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 8:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Spring Vegetable Plants

Kale – Kalebration Mix

Swiss Chard – Ruby Red

 

Summer Vegetable Plants (NEW!)

Tomato – Sungold

Tomato – Midnight Snack

Tomato – Sweet 100

Tomato – Chocolate Cherry

Tomato – Lemon Boy

Tomato – Black Krim

Tomato – Paul Robeson

Tomato – Cherokee Purple

Tomato – Brandywine, Suddeth’s Strain

 

Pepper – Cayenne

Pepper – Ancho/Poblano

Pepper – Sweet Banana

Pepper – Ghost

Pepper – Carolina Reaper

 

 

Herbs (New!)

Eucalyptus

Orange Balm

Lemon Balm

Sweet Genovese Basil

Oregano

 

Garden Plants

Daylilies

Walking Iris

 

Coming Soon:

Dahlias

Bee Balm

American Aloe

Yucca

Hairy Balls Milkweed

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (2): Columbines, Out Take #11.

 

Meetings are still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next (unofficial) meeting is April 20^th at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.