Sesame

 
The lockdowns this year have really opened up my social calendar for more gardening time. So, I have made the most of this by experimenting with plants I have never grown before. There has been no time to write about gardening because all spare time has been spent in it. This year I decided to experiment with sesame. I like sesame seeds and tahini (sesame paste) and it is an important ingredient to humus and baba ghanoush. The seeds are used in so many other recipes that I know I will be able to use them if I am blessed with a large harvest. 

I have never seen sesame as a seedling at any store but I did see the seeds online when I mail ordered all the other seeds for this year. I had no idea if it could grow here in the Mid-Atlantic climate. Sure, I have a growing zone chart but no charts for humidity and rainfall. I decided to experiment anyway. I started a few seeds in the greenhouse and they did not take well to transplanting.  I then sowed some seeds directly into the raised bed and I waited. After a while I did not see anything happening.  Experiment over.

Well, I was wrong. A few months later I notice a strange but pretty flower growing between pumpkin vines and a tomatillo.  A few sesame plants are growing strong in the raised bed.  They were hiding all this time. They are visible now because they are a taller and have flowers and seed pods.

Sesame could be an ornamental plant that just happens to be edible.  They have light purple/pink delicate flowers that remind me a little of foxglove.  I would not hesitate to plant some of these in a regular garden bed to add interest and height.