Thanks to the delicious Otsuji farm in Hawaii Kai, I was exposed to several new Asian vegetables. In particular, they helped me discover purslane. This leafy green veggie is delicious when stir-fried or eaten raw in salads. When buying bunches of purslane from the farm, I noticed that there were occasionally tiny black seeds attached to some of the leaves. Thinking nothing would come of it, I sprinkled some of these seeds in the soil. A few months later, having forgotten about the purslane completely, I was pleased to discover what looked like ihi sprouts coming up!
It turns out that both the ihi and the purslane are in the genus portulaca. They look so much alike that I couldn't tell the sprouts apart. However, it soon became apparent that these plants weren't ihi. They grew extremely quickly and soon were taking up a whole pot. The first few tastes of the sprouts were sour and leaf-like, but eventually the familiar citrus flavor came through and I were convinced that I was indeed growing purslane.
Once I knew what I was dealing with, I became determined to sprout some new purslane, just to prove that it was repeatable. I let the plant go to seed rather than picking and eating the leaves. If you are familiar with the ihi seeds, you will recognize how similar they look to the purslane seeds below. The plant has now completely gone to seed and thousands of small black seeds have been produced. I kept some in an envelope, and let many more drop into the soil. No seedlings yet, but I guess it's just a matter of time.
