Red Orache

This is not about tomatoes, but this is a good place to post this story.

My parents grew up in Romania, where as you can imagine the food is different from ours here in the good old USA. One of the foods they missed was a soup made out of a plant in the spinach family. In Romanian it's called "loboda", and the soup is called "bors de loboda". They hadn't had this soup in about 40 years, and they longed for it. But the plant was nowhere to be found in the USA; they had not ever seen it here. I decided to find this plant and grow it for them as a surprise.

In the world of the internet, I was able to find out that the English name is red orache, but finding seeds to buy a couple of years ago was very difficult. I found some seeds in the UK, but I thought they would not go through customs. Finally I found a lady in the midwest who had many types of seeds to trade, not to buy. I got in touch with her and made deal (for which I was very grateful) and got the seeds. I planted them in the spring according to her directions, and they came up pretty well.

One day I took my parents out for lunch and swung by my house to show them something. My father sat in the car while I brought my mother out to the garden, and as soon as she saw the plants she knew what they were. In the car she told my father about the find, and they got all excited looking forward to eating "bors de loboda".

This is what it looked like:



But here is the reason I'm telling this story... The red orache produces a lot of seeds, and I saved quite a few of them. For other poor people who are looking for loboda, I'm willing to give seeds away. This offer is good only while my supply lasts, and I'll only mail to a USA address. If you want some loboda seeds, leave your name and address in a reply to this posting, but please don't ask for any if you just want something for free. Ask for some if you have been looking for this seed and couldn't find it anywhere.