(Mis)adventures with poppies

Backyard opium poppies pack a punch - a cautionary tale

Poppy season is beginning in Northern California. It is a spectacular time of year and poppies are the sprinkles on the sundae. The papaver genus includes over 100 varieties in a rainbow of colors found in regions across the globe. What many people don’t know is that one species holds a potent medicine that has been used for centuries. I learned about that medicine kinda by accident. In the middle of the night.  

Though I don’t recall exactly how those first poppies found their way into my garden the most prominent variety populating my beds is papaver somniferum, also known as the opium poppy. This variety is the source of both opium, used to make opiates, and the tiny seeds in that lem-pop-muff, as my kids call lemon poppyseed muffins.

Papaver somniferum are spectacular in the spring garden. Tall, blue-green serrated leaves rise up to 4’ high before launching elegant bare stems, each holding a bud that opens into a sensational, single or deeply lobed double petaled flower. They remind me of fireworks, exploding ever so briefly in an array of textures and colors before fading into the ether. The remaining pod is where the medicine lives.

My yard now reliably produces a crop of poppies every spring. They produce prolific tiny seeds and the deer, turkeys, and even the gophers leave them be. Some years I get a raucous display, almost a forest of them. Other years, just a few, but they always return, even after a well-meaning friend thought they were weeds and pulled almost every one out of the ground.

As a gardener/forager/cook with a background in herbalism these captivating plants with a history of medicinal use reaching back centuries proved too hard for me to resist. I’ve used cultivated and wild plants for lots of minor medical issues, especially for sleep and relaxation. Lavender, skullcap, chamomile, and valerian (my current favorite) have seen me through anxious moments and  restless nights. I have used the long thin taproots of California poppy, the state flower, in teas with pleasant effect.

So what was that opium poppy medicine all about? How are the medicinal constituents extracted? An acquaintance instructed me to score the green pods as soon as the petals dropped. Use a thin blade to make shallow cuts, so the white latex oozes out. Don’t cut entirely through the pod and do it on a sunny day so the juicy latex can dry quickly into a sticky black paste. Once the paste has formed and mostly dried, carefully scrape it off the pod and into a small container. It was labor intensive and I wondered how the legal and illegal opium trade does it. My work yielded just one small packet of the paste, less than a tablespoon. I kept in the freezer, just in case I needed it someday. I had no intention or desire to use it.

Then late one night, at that witching hour of 3am, anxiety came flooding in. I couldn’t sleep and had kids to feed in the morning and friends coming over for brunch. My mind began spinning about all my life’s challenges. I scrounged in the freezer for the little packet and scraped a tiny bit into a mug for a cup of tea. It tasted bitter and green and a bit astringent.

I relaxed, all right. Head to toe. Muscles let go, and then my mind became fuzzy. I noticed my breathing slowed, too. I slept hard.

When the sun rose, I was still very much under the influence. Fortunately, my kids were old enough to pour themselves a bowl of cereal, but I realized I was in no condition to prepare food for guests. I called my friends to let me know I was high on opium poppy tea. They came over anyway (a bit worried, I think), made the meal I was planning, and hung out with us while I stayed on the couch. It took great effort to simply raise my arms. I felt glued to the couch and was a bit nauseous. In all, it was not pleasurable, but I forgot all about being anxious. By the end of the day I had regained my equilibrium with no real consequence other than a good story. I tossed the leftovers from the freezer. For a long time just the thought of that very specific taste made me a little queasy.

So, friends - beware and be responsible when trying a new plant or medicine, especially one known as the opium poppy. And maybe don’t take something new in the middle of the night, either. On the other hand, keep experimenting and trying new things, cause that’s when the fun happens.