Oenothera biennis (common evening blooming primrose) grows extremely vigorously in my area. I spotted a few of its rosettes in a raised bed and was delighted to find a large, turnip-like root when I pulled it up. And, just my luck I saved several thousand of its seeds earlier in the fall.
So I will now be intentionally growing O. biennis as a root vegetable in years to come, and posting progress updates on this post.
If anyone else has experience growing, foraging, or cooking this plant, please chime in! And I’m more than happy to swap seeds, as I already have far more than enough to plant my entire garden with it.
Goals with this project:
- get O. biennis to grow on purpose to the stage where the large taproot is edible
- Save seeds from an intentionally growm plant, also saving as seed-to-root-to-seed so I can select for root characteristics
- Intentionally select for root size, flavor, and appearance, while incidentally selecting for hardiness and locality, and learn if O. biennis has potential as a staple like a turnip or beet