Giant Solomon's Seal Seeds

This North American woodland species is in the lily family. It can  produce a delicious green spring vegetable. It should be harvested just prior to the leaves opening. The flavor is much like a mild asparagus or spinach and can be eaten fresh or lightly steamed. It has a little bit of an arugula bite to it and is not fibrous when young.  Numerous cuttings in season can be taken as it has a large rootstock. 

Having a colony of it is ideal. The plants spread by a thick white rootstock which can be split or it can be grown from seed. The seeds take two years to sprout a top. The roots sprout the first year after planting the seed. Having established plants the colony will then look like a woodland asparagus field in that there will be several heads per plant that can be harvested for greens. Harvesting the greens does not weaken the plants too much but it may slow seed production a little.  The culinary side of this has yet to be explored fully. The variety I found is considered a subspecies and can easily grow to 5 ft. tall. This vigor combined with the rootstock is the reason I chose it. However all selections of giant solomons seal make work for cultivation. A few times the plants will grow to 6 ft. tall but normally that is rare. The seeds are set along the branches of the stalks and these can be harvested to further plant in a woodland or woodland like shaded setting.  

Plant in light shade. Our seed source originally came from oak woodland in southwest Michigan where the plants grew to 5 ft. tall. Grown both from seed and cuttings at our farm. This is kind of cool species to grow in the shade and the flavor is very good even without cooking. This particular seed strain appears to be larger than other collections I have seen. It may be more of a natural variant and something related to the environment they are growing in as well. One of my customers sent me a picture of her harvest in her woodland. Huge yields can be found if protected from browse of deer and just good cultivation with a little decomposed cow manure as fertilizer.