edible lilies; was: Re: [pbs] Should I grow it or eat it?

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net
Wed, 21 Jul 2004 09:09:12 PDT
At 08:57 AM 7/21/2004 -0700, Diane Whitehead wrote:
>The grocery stores in Chinatown here sell lily bulbs as food, and 
>some of our Lily Society members have grown them instead  of eating 
>them. They had orange recurved flowers.

And they were probably tiger lilies, right?

Last year a Chinese medical student studying here in the D.C. area somehow
got my name and called me with questions about lilies grown as food. I
invited him over, and showed him the tiger lilies. He did not speak much
English (but he spoke a lot more English than I speak Chinese!) and I was
not always able to follow him. He wanted to know where he could buy them
for culinary purposes. When I explained that we don't typically eat them, a
sort of light seemed to go on - I think he got the idea that here was
something missing from the American scene, a gap he could fill. 

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he is now growing and selling tiger
lilies locally somewhere.

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@starpower.net
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where I'm trying to work up
the courage to stir-fry some tiger lily bulbs; does anyone have a receipe? 


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