Wild & Free: Daylily

by By Sarajoy Van Boven, Newsletter Volunteer, from the June 2007 Newsletter

Life is but a day;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree’s summit.
-John Keats Sleep and Poetry

The poetry of the earth is never dead.
-John Keats On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

If you had one day to live, what would you do? It's a cliché "Youth Group" question, yes. But what would you do? Not that you should live every day like that, especially if you want to make it to 90, healthy and wealthy. Yet the question intrigues.

Would you settle yourself down among tall grassy leaves? Would the clump be in your garden, or along the wayside, an emancipated feral? In the new morning, would you rise up from the center of the lush 1-2' tall, sword-shaped leaves? And like a butterfly from its chrysalis, would you crack open your green shell, letting the light soar in? Would you unfurl your magnificent six tepals—three petals and three sepals (wikipedia.com)—and your six burgeoning stamens? What fantastic color would your tepals be? Would you be lemon yellow, vanilla, saffron, peach, or merlot? With tepals arched back, would you offer yourself to the brilliant generosity of the sun, to the seduction of the humming bee, to the play of a Palouse breeze, to the cleansing shimmer of rain, and to the joys and sorrows of being? Would you offer yourself to the magic of a day? Yes?

Then, you and I, and the daylily are kindred spirits. Daylily, the most popular, adaptable, hybridized, hardy perennial in America? Yes! And it's edible!

The young green leaves can be eaten, raw or cooked. They are inoffensively mild and tasty. Be sure that you know it's a daylily, as green grassy shoots of everything look alike. If you planted it and have seen it bloom, you're probably in the clear, but don't quote me on your deathbed.

Apparently, if you have too many daylilies (?!) and are beyond desperate for food, you can eat the long, teardrop shaped tubers: raw, steamed or boiled (www.survivaliq.com). I have no experience in the matter. Even if I and the rest of this beloved planet had but one day left, I would not prey upon the bulbs, on the off chance that the world went on for one more day.

And the flowers, yes, the fleeting moment of their lives ends in just one day. That is why I like to eat them for dinner, at the end of the day. Whereas eating the roots translates to No More Daylily Ever, eating the flower merely deprives you of one flower for the rest of the day. Some recommend steaming the flower buds for 10 minutes, then frying (www.indiansummerherbs.com), however that would also deprive everyone from beauty of the flowers.

The flowers seem to vary in flavor by color, perhaps only by subliminal suggestion. The white might taste of vanilla. Some yellow daylilies are actually called lemon lilies, both for color and flavor, I'm sure.

Daylily fritters and sautés seem popular, as does a bleu cheese daylily recipe floating around the World Wide Web. I have never wanted to put much labor into my daylily consumption. I simply pick a flower, remove any earwigs (perhaps they are edible too; I don't care), and toss the tepals in my salad. The richest kings and queens have never eaten a salad more enchanting than one with daylilies.

Originally from China and Japan, daylilies contribute to Chinese cooking and are rumored to be of medicinal value, though no one specifies what that means. Sold as "Golden Needles,” they appear in Hot and Sour Soup and Buddha's Delight (I don't know what that is either, but I'll take it!) (Wikipedia).

The Latin genus for daylily is Hemerocallis, based perfectly on the Greek for "day" and "beauty." Daylilies are not true lilies, not members of the Lilium genus. It will be important, if you want to live longer than a day, that you not eat Liliums. Make sure your daylily's long grass-like leaves grow straight from the ground, not along a stem, and that the daylily on your lips doesn't have spots. And if you want tomorrow to be free from diarrhea, don't gorge on the daylilies.

Copyright: Copyright on articles, recipes and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective contributors, except were otherwise noted.

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