Chaya - Wow, It's Blooming

To tell you the truth, I never thought about it. Does chaya bloom? I can now say for sure, yes. 

Up until this spring, I had been pruning my chaya bushes on a regular basis. But now, they're producing more leaves than I can use for our meals. Thus the bushes have been growing bigger and more mature. So for the first time, they're bursting into bloom. Dozens of new little flower buds are showing up at the ends of 10 inch long stems. 

Pretty neat! I wonder if there's a pollinator here for them. Will they produce fruit/seed? Time will tell. 

Chaya - Update

Sonia, I don't have reliable information on chaya. I've heard a lot of differing opinions. And I see these same varying opinions on the Internet. Some people say that they drop a leaf or two in their smoothies and don't have a problem. Other references warn of toxicity (cyanide compound) with raw chaya. Most references and people I've talked to say that chaya needs to be cooked for safety. Now the cooking times I've heard are all over the ballpark. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. Most everyone who eats it that I've asked, uses chaya boiled. It's added to soups. But I've talked with one person who routinely uses a few leaves in stir fries. And another who boils the leaves and drinks the broth as a tea.

So things are up in the air. Apparently 3-4 leaves are relatively safe to consume if raw or lightly cooked. But not totally safe. On the other side of the coin, cooking for 20 minutes eliminates the cyanide danger, so consumption is safe. 

One other thing. I was recently told that one should NOT cook chaya in an aluminum pan. 

Chaya

Chaya, a.k.a. - tree spinach.

The above plant is just a baby. Only three feet high and a few months old, it will continually grow fast, attaining 6 feet high before Christmas. Chaya will easily grow much taller but I plan on keeping it pruned to about six feet. I've seen it trained into a hedge and that works fairly nice. I also saw one gigantic plant that must have been close to 20' high. I have two bushes at the moment, which will be more than enough for my own needs. The prunings will give me plenty of greens. 

Chaya is very easily propagated from stem cuttings. Mine started out as 18" tip cuttings. I just stuck them into the ground and kept them moist. They both successfully rooted. 

So, what Chaya is good for? As it's alternative name implies (tree spinach), it's edible. The boiled leaves can be used in a variety of dishes. I've been using them as food wrappers in place of grape leaves. 

(Close up of the leaves, sprinkled with an afternoon shower.)

Chaya needs to be cooked to make it safe to eat. 20 minutes at boiling does the trick. This is one veggie that is not for eating raw.