I have neglected to enter the results of my last testing, which was in mid July. I still had lily bulbs dug from last fall (9 months previous), and they were still in remarkably good condition. I had kept them inside a thck walled styrofoam cooler in an unheated garage through the winter and summer here in USDA zone 4. So outside the cooler, temps ranged from minus 23°F to 98°. (We had a very mild winter and summer this year.) Apparently, I must have hit the "sweet spot" for hydration/dehydration, as there were only a few that had wanted to sprout.

Eaten raw, the texture was not as pleasing as fresher, more crispy ones tried before. Being not full hydrated, these were (understandably) more flexible, although I would not call them rubbery, since there was still a breaking point when they snapped, and they were not tough (or stringy) at all. Cooking seemed to be identical to fresh bulbs. The bulbs were still very sweet; if anything, even more sweet than before.

Ahh... tantalising...

That's a great storage triumph. Finding the sweet spot - how did you judge it?

I'm not even sure I can replicate the sweet spot again! It was very unscientific, but with educated guesswork.

When I dug the bulbs, I shook off all the dirt. you may recall I had bulbs from clay based soil and bulbs from a compost/sand mix. The ones in heavier clay based soil could have soil clumps still sticking, and those were gently removed. Usually, they released themselves from the bulb as single clods, but as long as the bulk of it came off (say, 80%?), I didn't worry about it. Roots were left intact. Bulbs were dug in the fall, well after tree leaves had fallen and weeks after the first hard freeze.

Bulbs were not laid out to dry, but stored dry in the garage, in these ugly red nursery pots I had that had drain holes that extended a quarter-inch up the sides. Details can be found in this post, but they were eventually put into a styrofoam box. This box is thicker (and stronger) than the kind used for summer picnics. These are the kind I use for making planting troughs, and come from hospitals where they use them to transport vaccines, medicines and living organs.



And uh-oh......
When I just went to get the pics of the box above (still in the garage), there was a "surprise" in it. I still had some leftover bulbs, now 11 months stored. Most had rotted, some to mush. Ummm..... didn't smell very appetizing. (Insert your appropriate emoticon here.)

WARNING! Clicking on this thumbnail may induce vomitting.... and from here on, the rest of this post is not for the squeamish. Kinda appropriate for the coming Halloween season next month.


Amazingly, there were still a few happy bulbs! Now, I know what's on all of your minds: did I sample them? (Remember, I am the one who tastes soil.) I can feel the suspense (and anguish, disgust and/or disbelief) building in your minds.

And yes, I did!!!

After some very diligent cleaning, I bit into a raw, still crisp scale. It was...... OK. The sweetness was gone, but there was nothing bitter. In fact there was no flavor at all. The silky texture I have previously described was much stronger: now I would categorize it as soapy (but not soapy tasting).
And there you have it. I didn't do any cooking, etc. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

In the name of science!



(I haven't seen that extra thick styrofoam here - now I'll be looking out for it. Thanks.)

Leftwood said: Bulbs were not laid out to dry, but stored dry in the garage, in these ugly red nursery pots I had that had drain holes that extended a quarter-inch up the sides. Details can be found in this post, but they were eventually put into a styrofoam box. This box is thicker (and stronger) than the kind used for summer picnics. These are the kind I use for making planting troughs, and come from hospitals where they use them to transport vaccines, medicines and living organs.

I hope that specific box wasn't used to transport a living organ! That would add to the ick factor of the picture of the rotten bulbs. LOL!

Take it or leave it:

The Good, the Bad and the Icky....

Well, I ate and prepared my first meal with lily bulbs today. These were NOID dwarf Asiatic lilies. Now looking at Rick's last few pictures and vivid descriptions, I feel really, really sick...

However it was actually rather good. I assume they will be sweater later on in the season, but for now they had no sweetness at all. Eaten raw there were just a little hint of bitterness, but this went away when cocked. I served them slightly crunchy in a stir-fry, with butternut squash, leeks, carrots, ginger, lemon, garlic, chili, soy sauce, fish sauce and pork meat.They tasted something a bit between beans and potatoes. Very nice and it's fun to be able to use something that would otherwise have been composted, so I say thanks for the idea .

I have also planted some bulblets of 'Netty's Pride' in the kitchen garden for later consumption. These was sent to me by error instead of another cultivar and therefore had to be moved as they were the wrong height for that spot .They were just planted this spring, but even so they had already set an unusual amount of bulblets and many of them were also of fairly good size. They seemed very vigorous so I thought this was a good candidate to try as a food crop.

I've only dug lily bulbs that would be equivalent to zone 7 digging in mid to late November, so yes, they might be sweeter then. However I have dug our wild onions (Allium stellatum) at different times in the fall, and it doesn't seem to make a difference with them. So, I can't really say for sure about lilies.

I think it is always safest to grow your edible lilies from seed in a non-chemical pesticide environment. As I've mentioned before, lilies are not tested for edibility in regards to pesticide applications, or how long (months or years) pesticides may linger in a bulb. And who knows what was applied prior to buying any bulbs. Just this past week I hosted a horticulture speaker on a international speaking tour. He lives and gardens in upstate New York. He applies imidacloprid once to the soil of his lilies as they emerge in spring, and the chemical remains at high enough levels within the plant for the entire season to kill the lily beetles.

Thanks for the concern Rick and those are all good, valid points, that anyone would do wise to listen to. I should have mentioned that those bulbs I cocked yesterday have been grown here for three full seasons and they would (with the exception of the motherbulb) have been from my own bulblets that have been growing here without pesticides or fungicides. Hopefully this will make them safe enough, at least it satisfies my own personal safety demands. I wouldn't want anyone trying eating just any lily bulb. I'll certainly not try 'Netty's Pride' until next year at the earliest and then it will only be from my own bulblets

Our climate here is not the same as most USDA zone 7 areas as in comparison we would have longer winters and (usually) much colder summers, being no far north and with a coastal exposure. Additionally as the zones are based on an area's average annual minimum temperatures, I believe it errors even more as the temperatures are very varying here during the winter and a few warm winters will push the average up a lot. A few years ago we were frozen solid from mid November until the middle of April. Occasionally the first frost comes in the beginning of September, but last year we had no frost until December. Frost free depth is suggested to be over three feet, yet some winters the ground barely freezes. So we have a very variable climate, and the USDA zones do not work very well here. So not completely sure how digging time actually compares to your zone, it could probably depend a lot on the individual year. I do know a lot of roots become sweeter after some exposure to cold temperatures, but as you say, that may not be so with lilies, further experimenting is required!

Funny thing is that this spring I saw it mentioned in a Dutch webshop that Lilium Leichtlinii was used for food and they even gave a recipe of sort, so perhaps eating lilies will become more popular in time.

I suspect most lily species have been eaten by indigenous humans (and animals) of the respective areas. I've read that Lilium maculatum is supposed to be one of the very best tasting. Sometime, I want to test L. maculatum side by side with L. leichtlinii and my leichtlinii/maculatum crosses.

Intrepid explorer William has taken the first step! No going back now. (Netty, poor Netty... she's one I've been looking to get here for several years, with no success.)

Last season I had a nibble on a raw scale of an oriental variety - scales rather yellowish - and it was decidedly more bitter than the asiatics.

That's really interesting about the bitterness of the yellow oriental bulb, Della.

Sorry you can't get a hold of Netty and it's a pity I can't send you some as I for sure would have many to share Hopefully it will become available in your part of the world in time. In fact a bit strange that it isn't already as I thought it was one of the more common and popular cultivars. One thing I however didn't really like with Netty was that it seemed to open all flowers almost at once, so had a very short flowering time.

Ahhh - thanks for the thought. I should say Netty is in Australia. Somewhere! I tried ordering from one seller this year but, for whatever reason, she couldn't be supplied at shipping time. Another company had her listed a couple of years ago, on an out-of-date web listing. I emailed them to find out if she was still available but they never replied.

Good to know her faults though, because I've been wanting to hybridise. I like the smaller flowers and long pedicels and thought the results could be graceful if crossed to 1c lilies.

Of course if she tastes good that would be a bonus.

Regarding bulb color and taste, I'll reiterate that in China it is generally thought that the more darkly colored a lily bulb is, the more bitter. This was told to me by someone who lived in China for quite some time. I have no idea if it is just a wives' tale, or even how regional the sentiment might be; China is a big country.

But I don't think I he meant yellow or dark yellow, rather, the tints of maroon that accompany some bulbs. And this would be the color as seen directly out of the ground, not exposed to light, open air or any environment not in the ground. I can also speak from experience here, as Lilium davidii bulbs are so far the sweetest I have tasted: here they are, (1) dug out of the ground, and (2) exposed to the above ground environment.

I just stumbled upon this which I thought was a bit of fun, Stefan Strasse offers lily cooking courses:
http://www.lilienarche.de/Lili... (in German)
Would have been interesting to know if he cooks them all or if he has some preferences. One would assume he has some experience in both eating and cooking them as he is confident enough to hold courses, but unfortunately he doesn't disclose much on the web site.

At our last local lily society meeting, I was approached by another member and a Chinese woman. She was not a member, but our educational meetings are always open to the public. She came for information. Her son is going to university and in a project, he is trying to find ways to increase production of Lilium davidii var. unicolor*. Some (many? all?) Chinese think that unicolor bulbs taste better than the other varieties of Lilium davidii, but supposedly, unicolor is less vigorous.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much to offer her, other than the normal recommendations. It was a lively conversation at the end of the meeting and there wasn't time to explain the viral implications, but she is now a member and I'll hopefully see her again. We are coaxing her to write an article for our newsletter about how she uses lilies in cooking. Perhaps I will have more to report....


*While unicolor is not recognized by some taxonomies as separate, the fact remains that there are at least some differences in this type. Apparently, one being taste.

Just an update on my planting of 'Netty's Pride' as a food crop.

Last year I planted rather large stem bulblets quite densely in an area that was approximately around 0.5m² or 5.4ft². All stems were disbudded as needed to improve bulb size.
I have harvested 38 bulbs of eating size from this area and they weighted totally 1.3 kilos with the basal roots and most of the soil removed. This was more than I expected and a quite reasonable harvest. The taste raw seemed mild and without bitterness. I have yet to try these cooked, but clearly there is some potential for 'Netty's Pride' as a food crop in the home garden.

In addition there were also many stem bulblets already forming. These have been replanted, but as they were smaller than last years, I don't expect them to grow as large for next year. They may need an additional year of growth. I'm thinking that in the future it may be best to leave a few bulbs to grow two years as to be able to harvest large bulblets from them, that in turn can be planted as that may be a more efficient method.

Lily beetle damage on these lilies: None in the kitchen garden (but average damage in the flower beds).
Botrytis damage: Severe, seems more sensitive than most lilies and the foliage was eventually killed.

William, it will be interesting to hear what you think of the taste cooked.

Me too!

Asiatics tend to have a tighter bulb structure than other types, I've found. They are much easier to clean the dirt out of between the cracks, because there hardly are any cracks.

Indeed, these were quite easy to clean. Also as the bulbs were quite young there wasn't much discoloration and damage on the outer scales and that helps a lot!

I really loved the taste of these . I simply mixed the scales with some lemon juice, black pepper, salt and butter and baked them in aluminum foil in the oven for around 35-40 minutes. These were not sweet and perhaps the best description would be to say that they tasted like a mixture of oily Avocado and a mealy Potato, but still not quite as the scales have a unique surface texture that contrast very well with the soft, mealy and buttery inside. The oven baking also gave a slightly roasted tone and color to the surface of some of the scales and that brought out additional taste.

I also made a mixture of soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic from the garden and home made chili sauce that was poured over at serving time and this turned out to be a total success .