Tiina harvesting black nightshade in October 2016.
Visitors to the Garden have been asking questions about this year’s Really Wild Veg trial plots that contain various black nightshade species. Jan, who tends the plants, has passed on these interesting bits of feedback on the uses of black nightshades:
While I was picking today I was approached by an Edinburgh woman and her grandmother from Pakistan. She was adamant that she uses the leaves with no other preparation than ‘wilting’ them ‘like spinach’ into curry.
A second visitor from Johannesburg identified one particular row as a weed in her garden but said when she gets home she will revise what she can do with it!!
As the plan is to repeat this trial next year we will try to capture such comments from visitors.
Mildred
Hallo
I am interested in this african night shade.
Do you still have it and how can i get some?
Thank you
Mildred
Max Coleman
Dear Mildred,
The African nightshade is closely related to the British native black nightshade – Solanum nigrum. I would suggest that you try to obtain seeds of that species. Do get your identification confirmed if you collect from the wild as there are some toxic members of the potato family.