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~ SWEET LUPINS ~

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Lupins are a high-protein crop that grows well in the UK; the beautiful flowers are followed by large pods full of nutritious seed like a flattened bean. In South America lupins are a traditional food (travellers among you will have come across them as 'Altramuz' or 'Chochos'), but those old varieties were bitter and had to be laboriously and repeatedly soaked and rinsed to make them edible. This is why we have not offered them before, even though they are easy to grow.

But now we have found a new sweet lupin- the Dieta Lupin was bred in the UK specially for human use and is completely non-bitter, even without any special preparation.



plant pictureplant picture'Dieta' Sweet Lupin

This grows to 2ft - 3ft tall and make spikes of beautiful flowers, followed by large pods full of edible high-protein seeds.

NOTE: People who are allergic to peanuts might also react to eating lupin seed (there are similar compounds in them) - don't feed lupins to anyone with a peanut allergy.

A special lupin variety bred for eating.

30 seeds £

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COOKING: With young tender lupin seeds (in the green pod stage) you can just shell them out and boil them for 15 minutes or until soft. If cooking with dried lupin seeds then you will need to soak them overnight, then boil in fresh water for 40 minutes or until tender (it depends how dry they were!) Note that these are special lupins, you cannot eat seeds from normal decorative lupin plants.

GROWING: Plant your Lupin seeds in spring (April onwards) in a small pot and transplant them out once about 4 or 5 inches tall. Maybe plant two seeds per pot as germination is often a bit erratic.