![]() When walnuts became commercially available in the region, the seed virtually disappeared. Very sweet, delicately nutty, and over 50 percent oil content, the white-seeded breadseed poppy was once used like nuts or oil. While there, he sought a white-seeded poppy that he had never seen as a child, but had heard of later. Not long after that visit, my friend went back to what was still Czechoslovakia. ![]() But if she were to move to another village, what does one call it then? I decided to call it ‘Zlar.’ Or, in other words, breadseed poppy. I could call it ‘Zlar,’ the name of his mother’s village. You cook with it and you save some for planting. One just goes to the market and buys poppy seed by the kilogram. It came from women who have no concept of a seed packet or a name. My friend reflected, then explained that the seed came from his mother’s village where there are early and late poppies. The seed quickly became my most cherished possession. A flush of respect swept my whole body as I realized that I was holding the results of generations of selection for seed production. Closer inspection revealed that the vent holes beneath the poppy’s cap were filled with corky flesh. As I mentally scrambled for a storage container, I realized the seed was not leaking out. And he handed me three very large seed heads. He showed me his poppyseed grinder, a miniature cross between a grain grinder and a meat grinder. ![]() While we ate, he explained that Slovaks used poppyseeds as a staple, a family wanting to have a 50-kilogram sack to go through the winter. Quite a few years ago, a Slovakian friend served me a dish of little soft pieces of bread sticks, coated with a sauce of ground breadseed poppy, some honey, and probably a few other ingredients. ![]()
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