When Cilantro becomes Coriander

For some reason, I always associate Coriandrum sativum; the green leafy portion of the herb as cilantro and its dried seed as coriander. Yet, essentially they are interchangeable. I used this association to come up with my blog entry title. Hope it doesn't confuse folks.

It's late August and I've basically run out of usable foliage for fresh leaf harvesting off my cilantro plant. Here you can see it has bolted and started to produce seeds.

Wish my photo was better, but I love their larger 4 petals flowers fanned over a smaller star shaped florets.

Once the flowers wither, these plump seeds arrive. I plan leaving them on the stems to dry so I can collect some for re-seeding next year and some for the kitchen.

In desperation, I've used this ferny dill bolting foliage in cooking. It's just as tasty as the parsley shaped leaves. When it bolts like this, unfortunately there isn't much to go round.

I used to compost my cilantro once it bolts, but I've seen bees and butterflies enjoy the white flowers and I can't wait to harvest organic seed and use them in some Asian meals. Going to let them dry and harden them on the plant and enjoy harvesting the seeds in October...

Update:

...Well, it's now October and here are the seeds:

 

Perhaps not the largest, and highest volume, but enough to seed for a crop next year and enough for a meal or two.

Have a look at my previous post on Cilantro/Coriander.