Well… not much got done today… visitors didn’t materialise… but at least the house is clean and I had dinner prepared!!
So – Let me tell you about Tasmania’s Opium Poppies!!
The farmer over the road from us has put in a crop of poppies. Tasmania produces about 50% of the worlds supply of licit poppy straw which is then refined into opiates like morphine and codeine.
They are a pretty sight at this time of year
Its a lucrative crop, but tightly controlled as they can be deadly if ingested. In fact several people over the last decade have died trying out some ‘poppy home brew’
Once the flowers die off, a capsule is left. (The part which is harvested and sold) Theft of these capsules happens – A total of 516 capsules were stolen in 2015-16, up from 331 the year before, although far below the 3,923 capsules stolen in 2013-14. Don’t ask me how they know precisely how many they have and how many wander off!!
Its quite the tourist attraction, with visitors stopping by the roadside to take photos (and possibly souvenirs!!)
A total of 653 licenses were issued last financial year. There is a control board that regulates all aspects of the crop – including areas where regrowth occurs. Obviously you don’t need a whole lot of these randomly self seeding about like my broccoli! Mayhem!
Anyway – Tomorrow is “Visitors – Take 2”
Cheers!
Poppies are one of my favourite flowers, I had no idea they were such an industry in Tasmania!
I am trying to grow some (the garden variety) but like everything else – slow. A nice big red one randomly popped up in the paddock next door! So pretty!
Oh my. Those poppies are lovely. I grow them as ornamentals and save the seeds, in theory, as use in baking (poppy seed muffins, cake, bread, etc.). However, more than enough seed scatters and is enough to spread all over my yard. I love them. No desire to score the pods and collect the opium sap. What drudgery that would be. They are beautiful flowers. I also grow another species of poppy that looks about the same but has much smaller seed heads and doesn’t have any or much opium. I also let California poppies grow all over my garden. Poppy heaven. I have a hard time weeding them out of the veggie beds.
I bet your garden looks amazing with all those poppies! They are so cheerful! I did put some california poppy seeds in, but what has started to grow is very slow! Maybe now that its a little warmer I should just try again and scatter some more seeds.
If they grow I would love to copy your idea of collecting them to cook with!
Hi Lisa,
California poppies are notoriously hard to start, but once they start growing in your garden they can spread like weeds.
Please do NOT eat the California poppy seeds. I don’t know if they are edible.
I was referring to those opium poppies. The seeds from opium poppies are the bread-seed poppies used for baking. They have very small amounts of opium so if you need to be drug tested any time soon, don’t eat poppy seed muffins. That small amount can be detected, though it doesn’t affect one in any way.
lol! Good advice all around thank-you!!!! Imagine trying to explain that as you stroll through customs? 😀 Yeah suuuuuuure it was the muffins!! – Step this way Madam!! 😀