Orchid Foods

Blame it on my northern bias, but I cannot think of a single food in the orchid family beyond vanilla (Vanilla spp.). For the largest plant family (or second largest; depending on who you ask, Asteraceae may be the largest plant family), there is a real dearth  of edible species in the Orchidaceae family.

We had the pleasure to visit a sustainable, diverse, organic farm down in Belize last year – our friends there grew cacao, mahogany, teak, oranges, and other tropical goodies. One thing they were experimenting with was growing vanilla. It was trained up a tree, and sometimes “planted” midway up the tree in a little pocket of mulch.

VLUU L210  / Samsung L210VLUU L210  / Samsung L210

During our visit with these folks, we got stuck for two hours in a mud pit in the orange grove, where I saw this beauty, a yet to be identified (by me) orchid, growing off the trunk of an orange tree.

.VLUU L210  / Samsung L210

Published by Selena Rowan

Herbalist, educator, editor, farmer, botany afficionado

One thought on “Orchid Foods

  1. I wonder sometimes why we like orchids so much. But, man, we are crazy about them – and I am crazy about the one you photographed above. In Kaua’i last month, we visited a permanent outdoor store that sold nothing but orchids. Seeing the variety was like reading tons and tons of really good poetry: so deeply gorgeous it was a little overwhelming. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful picture and such an amazing detail: that this one grew off of an orange tree. Wow.

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