Daisies Forever

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is an ethnobotanist, propagator of wild gardens and explorer of the flavours of wild cuisine. He is a professor at the University of Rzeszów and holds a doctorate in biology. He carries out ethnobotanical research in China, the Balkans and the Caucasus. He lives and works in a small village in the Dynów Foothills.

When I travelled to the UK as an Erasmus student, I was astonished that daisies bloom there even in January. Theses inconspicuous flowers can survive even when the temperature drops slightly below zero.

Several years later, common daisies (Bellis perennis) would sometimes bloom in winter on lawns in Polish Subcarpathia. I keep seeing them more and more often these days. Whenever I have the occasion, I collect some for cooking. A source of flavonoids and vitamin C, they are a valuable ingredient. Daisies can be eaten whole: both flowers and leaves. However, it is worth

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Łukasz Łuczaj:

is an ethnobotanist, propagator of wild gardens and explorer of the flavours of wild cuisine. He is a professor at the University of Rzeszów and holds a doctorate in biology. He carries out ethnobotanical research in China, the Balkans and the Caucasus. He lives and works in a small village in the Dynów Foothills.

Translation: Grzegorz Czemiel

Publish date: 10.12.2021

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Monika Kucia:

is a journalist and culinary superintendent at sialababamak.pl. Monika likes to bring words, flavours and people together. She helps foreigners learn about Poland from the tastiest side. She also creates culinary spectacles in which she encourages participants to eat leftovers, breathe in the smells of the basement, and sprinkle food with golden dust.

In early spring, forsythia flowers can appear on the menu. Raw. And a little later, pickled daisies, fried roses and ground violets join the table.

The flower is in fact the sex organ of a plant. Its role is reproduction. Note that Syreniusz’s Herbarium (Szymon Syreński, 1540–1611) – the most comprehensive and famous Polish herbarium, published at the start of the 17th century – advises thus: “The swollen male testicles are wrapped in daisy flowers.”

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