Procrastination Pays Off - Eventually

The arugula stared to bolt about a month ago. I meant to pull it out and replace it with some other greens, but instead we went camping. And then it got kinda hot to work out there. And then it started flowering, and got kinda pretty. Now that the seed pods are developing, I think I'm just going to procrastinate a bit more.

Harvesting arugula seeds sounds pretty easy - wait until the plants turn brown, cut them of, hang them upside down in a paper bag and wait for the seed pods to fall off. Then thresh the pods, collect the seeds and voila - arugula seeds for everyone. Minimal effort, lots of waiting around. Right up my alley. If you want a more detailed explanation, check out Heirloom Organics. A great site for gathering information, as well as finding seeds.

On a culinary note, both the flowers and the seed pods are edible. The flowers are nice and mild, but still have that unmistakable arugula taste. Bite down on a seed pod, and it's like the flavour of an entire arugula plant explodes into your mouth. Delicious, peppery, intense. On the down side, they are a bit fibrous; after snacking on a couple of pods whilst making my garden rounds it felt like I had a small ball of horse hair stuck in my throat. I also tried tossing a handful of pods into a stir-fry as an experiment (I wasn't ready to just give up on that flavour!) - if anything, it made them stringier. Perhaps some of my foodie friends could find better cooking solutions for the seed pods. For now, I'm thinking of installing a spittoon in the garden.