Portulac orchard
Portulaca oderacea. subsp. sativa
An annual leafy vegetable plant 30-50 cm high. Its homeland is West Asia, to be exact, the western part of India, where the locust beetle grows in the wild and is used for food since ancient times. It was also known to
also to the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Later, the Portuguese started to grow in Western Europe. As a cultural plant is most common in the Middle East and southern Europe. It is also cultivated in Central Asia and Transcaucasia. Can grow in the middle zone of Russia. Portulac refers to the most ancient cultivated plants.
Description: has a spindle-shaped branchy root. Stalk fleshy, arched, branched, brown. The leaves are green, fleshy, oval, round-ovate. Blossoms from June to September. The flowering plant is very beautiful, so it is often cultivated as an ornamental plant. The flowers are white, yellow and even dark red. Are located on 2-3 in the fork of the forked stem. Fruit is a round box with very small black seeds.
Ingredients: contains a fairly large amount of vitamin A and C, as well as minerals, saccharides, proteins, etc.
Cultivation: grows well in warm latitudes. It is cultivated almost throughout Southern and Central Europe. You can grow it in the middle band in the kitchen gardens and balconies. Growing portolacus is easy, but it should be borne in mind that this plant is not frost-resistant and dies even with light frosts. Seeds are sown in warmed soil into small grooves with a distance between rows of 50-60 cm. Shoots are thinned in a row by 25-30 cm. It is impossible to allow thickening of sprouts, since this adversely affects the development of the plant. Further care consists in loosening the soil in row-spacing, weeding and irrigation with a lack of moisture in the soil.
Collection: about a month after the emergence of the shoots, harvesting of the first small leaves begins. Then make the collection of leaves and young shoots as necessary, right up to the beginning of flowering portolac. Harvest harbor porak in another way. Initially, the young plants are cut completely. After growing sprouts, harvesting the greens is repeated. Usually for the summer cleaning is repeated up to 3 times.
There are few breeding varieties of portolaca, and they differ mainly in the coloration of the leaves. For sowing portolac recommended such tested varieties as Green, Yellow and Golden Yellow.
Medicinal properties: folk medicine uses fleshy leaves. They have a beneficial effect in flatulence, kidney function disorders, liver and bladder diseases and restless sleep. Fresh leaves of the seal are applied to the place of bee stings. Portulac has the property of lowering the sugar content in the blood, so it can be used in the treatment of patients with mild diabetes. In folk medicine, a decoction of seeds of pestilaka is used as an antipyretic agent.
Application: the smell of portolac is weak, the taste is slightly spicy, tart and refreshing. Cut off young shoots with leaves. Later, after flowering, the leaves become stiff and sharp to the taste. Portulac is often sown only once a year. Use port-lings for cooking salads rather as a leaf vegetable, and not as a spice. In the spring, while the leaves are still young, a salad of them is cooked with olive oil and vinegar. It does not fit well with potatoes. Suitable for all soups, vegetable dishes, sauces, rice and pasta. Fresh, finely chopped leaves of the portolac are served to cottage cheese, salads, tomatoes and cucumbers. Portulaca leaves can also be fried, stewed, blanched and harvested for future use - marinating and salting.
Portolac soup
Pomegranate leaves and green bean pods finely chopped( 2 tbsp with top), 1 finely chopped onion, add 1 tsp. Sahara. All boil for 15 minutes on meat broth. At the end of the preparation, freshly cut kupyr or other soup greens are covered in the soup.