I decided to finally get around to making roselle tea from the calyxes of the Roselle. Here's that plant in the container, along with a few of the calyxes I cut off. Nice seed capsule in the center of the pod:
To make the tea you simply remove the fleshy parts from about 6 calyxes (omitting the seed pod), put them in one cup of water, bring to a boil, let it steep 3 minutes, strain and drink. It's a nice, slightly tangy tea with a hint of floral taste. I used just a little sugar.
The leaves are supposedly edible with the description of tasting like a spicier version of spinach. Another twist on the all too common “it tastes like spinach.”
Used in various cuisines around the world, they say. I haven’t tried the leaves yet and I need to. Those I'll get from the plants in the ground.
There still aren’t many calyxes on the in-ground plants so for me the container is the way to go for maximum production.
This morning I decided to investigate the inside of the roselle seed pods just to see what’s what. Since they’re in the same genus as okra (Hibiscus) I wasn’t too surprised to see that the seed pods are structured like very short and round versions of an okra pod. They’re made up of longitudinal chambers with seeds in a row on each side of each chamber. The seeds are slightly flattened versions of the round okra seeds. In fact, I soaked them before planting just like I would okra seeds.
Summary of this year's growing:
Seed sown in cell pack: March 6 after 2 day soak in water, 1/2" deep
Germination: March 9 and put under lights
Shift up: April 1 from cell pack to 24 oz cottage cheese containers
Transplanted out: May 11 to make sure weather was warm and stable. 3 into the ground, one into a 15 gallon container
First bloom: May 27 on container plant
First calyx pick: Jun 25, 3 calyxes but they were way too small as I later learned after more reading. You want them big, bright red and fat.
I think the container plant is about done growing. No new shoots or flowers. What I think I'll do is harvest all of the calyxes, cut the plant in half and see if I can jump start it into more growth or if it's decided it's done its job for the season. "What! I've made all these calyxes and you still want more? Sorry pal, I'm outta here!"
