Nightshade Plants

Let's learn about nightshade plants this week, what they are, and how they can poison your chickens if you have them. I do and our employees toss nightshades, both the plants that they pull up and the raw vegetables into my chicken house all of the time.

The Latin name for nightshade plants is Solanaceae because they contain solanine. Solanine is a glycoalkaloid poison. They alkaloids protect the plants from insects by poisoning them. Then they dissolve the cells of the insects. At least this is how I understand it.

These alkaloids don't bother most people but they can promote inflammation. They are poisonous to chickens, especially the vines and leaves, as well as the raw vegetables. In humans, they have enough toxins to cause inflammation problems for people with autoimmune diseases, like arthritis. They can also bother people with a leaky gut.

The following are nightshades that you may be growing in your garden:

Eggplant
Goji Berries
Goose Berries
Ground Cherries
Hot Peppers
Okra
Potatoes
Sorrel (Leafy Greens)
Tomatillos
Tomatoes

If you don't grow them in your garden, you probably buy many of them at the store and consume them. If you have arthritis or another autoimmune disease, you may want to give them up to feel better. Ask your doctor about nightshades and if or how they can affect your body.

Nightshade Plants - 7/10-7/16/2023

Potatoes pulled from my garden this month. Potatoes are nightshades. Nightshade plants and leaves are bad for chickens. Cooked potatoes can be eaten by them.

Monday, July 10, 2023

Here is where the only Virginia Jumbo peanut came up and grew until yesterday. It vanished. Just last week, I flagged what I had left to make it easier for those who take them, I guess.

My last Tennessee Red peanut is all that is left in hoop house 5 of peanuts.

Good Monday morning! I would like to say how happy I am today because my seed order filler is back after being gone for three weeks and a day! I am just thrilled. I have been cleaning the pond, stocking the store, watering the grow tower in the store and posting on social media. I am now sopping wet with sweat and trying to dry off in the store. Currently, the pond is filling while I type.

So last evening, when I went out to put my chickens away, I checked on my two remaining peanut plants and now I have one. The Virginia Jumbo is completely gone, disappeared, vanished without a trace.

I have one Tennessee Red peanut plant left plus one of the plants that was pulled up and replanted, now has one live leaf and tiny branch which I noticed this morning. I don't know how much longer they will be there. As far as we know, no one has been in our yard all weekend other than us so maybe the gophers have been pulling them down under the ground. But would they have replanted those plants several weeks ago? LOL!

Probably by now, you have heard of Instagram's new Threads that came out last week. On Friday, I made a Threads account for David's Garden Seeds®.

Matt's car has a lot wrong with it and the mechanics could not find much so they did not even start working on it. They went into San Antonio and got it and now they are giving it away to someone out here. Then, Matt gets my car. Will I finally get the mustang I have always wanted? I will settle for a well built Toyota which is what my car is.

I had two customers today at lunchtime, so far. It is 3:30pm and 104°. That is completely ridiculous. The sun is shining in the bright blue sky. There is no chance of rain. There is a heat advisory in place until Wednesday at 9pm. I hate these extremely hot summers in South Central Texas. It is too hot to enjoy anything. I miss the mild summers we had up North when I was a kid.

David does not like fish. Once in a while, he will eat Ahi Tuna steaks or a piece of salmon, but not often. Tonight, I made salmon, garden yellow squash, and buttered spaghetti. It was delicious and he ate it. He even complimented me but I am not sure he meant it. I try to get healthy meals into him but he would rather have a burger and fries any day.

I baked the salmon at 450° Fahrenheit for just 12 minutes and it came out great! I seasoned it with lemon pepper. Very tasty and not dry.

Nightshade Plants And Chickens

Chickens can get very sick or even die if they eat nightshades that are not cooked.

Since we moved from the city out to a farm, I have chickens. I have wanted them ever since I was 19 and read the book, The Egg And I. Now I have them and I am the one who takes care of them with some help from my son, Matt. David and the other employees think that whatever garden scraps there are should go right to my chickens. Nightshade plants including some raw vegetables and all green materials on the plants are poisonous to chickens. My chicken house is full of them and I am very upset about it. Solanine is toxic to chickens.

Over this past weekend, I pulled all sorts of vines out from the chicken coop. They were all nightshade plants pulled out of our gardens. Now there is a big pile of them nearby. Someone needs to take them on to the compost pile. My chicken house is not a compost pile. Fortunately, my chickens did not eat any that I know of.

Ripe tomatoes can be given to chickens. Cooked nightshades can be given to chickens. I give our chickens cooked potatoes and eggplant all the time and they are fine but raw ones can kill.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

This morning, I went out to feed my animals. Every morning there is one hen who will not fly off of the shelf next to the nesting boxes. We always have to lift her off. So all of the chickens but this one came out. I went in to get her and I saw my white Ameraucana lying dead on the floor. I screamed loudly and, of course, no one came. I got the other hen off of the shelf and went on about my business. Once I got inside, I texted my son to let him know. Fortunately, he had just pulled up so he took care of my poor hen. I feel so sad every time I lose one.

I ate the last piece of the German pancake that I made on Sunday morning for breakfast. It looks like we have a full crew here today. There are 13 of us working. The parking lot is full and the heat is climbing. We are, once again, under a heat advisory. It is currently 11:30am and 88°. It feels miserable to walk across the place.

I am excited to try something new in gardening. I know I said I would not garden again but this time, I have ordered growing bags and they should be arriving today. I will need dirt, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peanut seeds. I am going to try to grow them in grow bags over in my area. Maybe I can keep employees out of my plant area in the backyard.

There is so much traffic going by today. No one is working on the cell tower. A few weeks ago, they were doing something to it for a few days and now, nothing at all. It has not been built yet, just large pieces on the property sitting there.

The mess from the house fire close by has not been cleaned up yet. Someone wanted to get volunteers and start cleaning it but the owners said no. They have gotten estimates to clean it up. I guess it is a matter of getting it on the schedule. I sure miss our neighbors. Hopefully, it will get cleaned up soon so they can move a new home there. Then we can have our neighbors back!

It is now 4pm and 107°. That is just crazy. No clouds, just sun and heat. My zinnias are turning brown. Last year, we pulled them all up and in a few weeks, more zinnias started growing in their place because zinnias drop their seeds. That will probably happen at some point but there are still many that have not yet turned brown. The zinnia beds got weeded this morning.

My ten gallon grow bags came in from Amazon today. I am going to try growing more potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and pumpkins in them back in my plant area where people should leave them all alone. At least I hope they do. I am starving right now. I have been working on future weekly pages for the next month or so. It takes a lot of work to plan them out, do some research and write stuff, all while handling customers, adding things to the website, dealing with personnel issues, social media, and more. It is tough being Mrs. David's Garden Seeds® but someone has to do it!

David took Pamela in the pool tonight. The high was 107° earlier. When we went in the pool tonight at 7:30pm, the water temperature was 92°. It was not refreshing but I decided to jump in. It was good to swim, but it was hot and I was drained before too long. The other dogs would not go near it, but no one had to even ask Pamela to go in. She would go in, swim, get out, and come right back in again. Then David went in but left Pamela out while I was still in the pool. She kept coming out to me and clawing me. I would take her back to the stairs but she would refuse to get out. I got scratched quite a bit. Fun times.

Nightshade Plants - Nightshade Sensitivity

Do nightshades make your joints swell?

Do you have sensitivity to nightshades? As mentioned above on this page, if you have an autoimmune disease or a gut problem, eating the fruits or vegetables from nightshade plants can make you feel worse. They can cause you to have heartburn, muscle pain, joint pain, joint stiffness, headaches, mood swings, insomnia, or depression. If you have any of these symptoms when you eat nightshades, you should talk to your doctor about them.

Your doctor will probably suggest eliminating them from your diet for a time, probably for at least 30 days or so, and then adding them back in your diet, one at a time for several days in a row to see how they make you feel.

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

This morning, I was going to go out and feed my animals. David said I needed to do something else instead. Once it was all over and about 8:15am, I had to go out and feed the animals. That resulted in me being so hot and sweaty and nasty. I had to go in and change again and redo makeup and hair. I then started the laundry around 9:15am and then came to the store. So far, no customers.

I think people are forgetting about growing a fall garden here, which will actually be their best garden of the year.

For a few weeks now, I have been having printer problems with the printer in the store. Of course, I haven't spent much time until this week working on it because I was over in Fulfillment for the past three weeks. So I ran the printer through the troubleshooter over and over and rebooted my computer over and over with no good results. I finally deleted the computer and then re-added it. I had no idea how to do any of these things but I finally figured it all out and then I was able to print something that David wanted printed and mailed out.

I am planning on growing some pumpkins and winter squashes that I have not grown before but I do need to get them planted soon which means I need dirt and we are out of it. I have those garden bags that came in earlier this week so I need to fill them with dirt and get the seeds planted and growing.

It is 1:25pm and 98° with blue skies. I really hate this heat.

We had some visitors to the store close to lunchtime. That was a pleasure. Then I went in the house to heat up lunch and found out someone brought us cupcakes. I came out and got one for myself. Very delicious! Thank you!

Now I am getting to work on computer stuff for the business for the rest of the workday in the air conditioning. God bless the inventor of A/C.

We are clearing the store of all of our previous seed packages and sending the last of them up to Amazon. We have designed new packaging with everything on the front of the envelope so those will be coming over to the Farm Store. We still have about half of the old packaging designs hanging up. Since most of our sales are online, we are removing the photos. If anyone in the store wants to see what the products look like, we can bring it up for them online and show them. Many of our competitors save ink by not having photos on the packs. Colored ink for those giant printers costs about $1600.00 a month per printer. That is $3200 a month that we could be paying to new full time employees. We really will need the help coming up in a few months when we start getting ready for spring of 2024.

Nightshade Plants - Peppers And Potatoes

A beautiful purple potato that I grew in my garden this year.

All regular potatoes, not including sweet potatoes, grow on nightshade plants. (Sweet potatoes are a part of the carrot family.) Potatoes are grown from potatoes with eyes that grow as potatoes get old. There are no potato seeds. You can save potatoes from the grocery store or you can order seed potatoes from different companies. David's Garden Seeds® does not sell seed potatoes. I used grocery store potatoes that I let get old and I ordered seed potatoes from Hoss Tools.

Do not give your potato peels or bad potatoes to your chickens. Either save your bad potatoes to plant, put them and your peels in compost, or throw them all in the trash.

Peppers, there are so many peppers that you can grow and eat but so many are nightshades. All hot peppers are nightshade peppers. This includes jalapeno, habanero, serrano, and all other hot peppers. Bell peppers grow on nightshade plants. Paprika, cayenne, chili powder, and more are all made from nightshade plants. We do give ground hot pepper powder to chickens to de-worm them from time to time.

All hot peppers are part of the nightshade plants family.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Good morning! I got up early and unlocked the front since Matt won't be coming in today. He is in San Antonio having a root canal. Fun times.

I have two dozen fresh eggs in the refrigerator today. I have lowered our egg prices some since all of the stores have but my local competitors are still selling theirs for $5 and $6 a dozen and feed has not gotten any cheaper. Due to covid, it has become a lot more expensive and sometimes we have to wait weeks for calcium and some of the feed due to shipping problems.

I just checked in on everyone and all are doing well. Some of our teen help is here for the second time this week so that is good.

Turns out, the root canal cannot be done so he has to have other things done next week. Fun times.

Nacho and his crew are here today cutting the property. They also delivered a yard of garden soil for me. I always thought a yard of soil was a whole lot but this is all it is.

This little mound of dirt on our driveway is one yard of dirt. You can see some of our hoop houses behind it.

David is resetting the store for so he had his people take all of the seeds out. Wouldn't you know it? Of all days, a customer came in...

We had one customer and there were no seeds in the store. I had to discuss what she wanted, make a list and then go over to Fulfillment and get it all. It worked out all right and she was excited to get what she planned for.

Nightshade Plants - Tomatoes And Tomatillos

Look at these beautiful Roma tomatoes. If you want to make sauce or salsa, these are the tomatoes you use.

There are many tomato varieties. We carry three tomatillo varieties. All of the tomato and tomatillo varieties come from nightshade plants. This means that all tomato based sauces like hot sauce, salsa, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and tomato soup are all nightshades.

If you have arthritis, you have probably been told that tomatoes will make your pain worse. I have been told that. I still eat some tomatoes but only when I am feeling well

Chickens can eat ripened tomatoes. In fact, they love them, but do not give them unripened tomatoes.

Friday, July 14, 2023

Here is another beautiful sunrise taken near the chicken coop while I am trying to get the animals fed.

So today, they have brought me boxes of seeds, many are new so they are not in the system. Shopify will not let me add them so there is nothing I can do. Technology can really be a pain.

The heat is horrible. Encino Pest Control came today for their monthly spray.

We took out all of the seeds yesterday and we're starting to replace them with our new packaging. Look closely and you will see one of our new tomato envelopes.

We started putting new seed packs in the store, but not many. It will be hours worth of work. I certainly cannot do it myself. I have a lot of boxes to put up. I had some help, but not much. Then it was time to go and they left.

David and I zoomed on over to Walmart to get some groceries so we would not have to waste tomorrow dealing with groceries.

I got some potatoes and sweet potatoes so that I can have new seed potato and sweet potato vines for the fall garden. I have to get them in by August 4.

We set up my grow bags this morning with dirt in my plant area for the fall garden. I have decided to grow pumpkins, pink banana squash, peanuts, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Nobody had better put their hands on my stuff this time.

I will also be starting pots of fall flowers that, hopefully, will be for sale.

Nightshade Plants - Berries And Ground Cherries

Goji berries ready to be dehydrated in my kitchen.

We sell goji berry seeds and we grow goji berries out in the back 40 as they are said to be a super food. Goji berries are nightshades. They sure don't taste good. They are not at all sweet.

Gooseberries used to be found in cans of fruit cocktail. Now I think they put grapes in but back when I was a little girl, I used to love to get all of the gooseberries. Gooseberries include currants which I did not know until I was just researching them. Currants are a type of raisin grown in California.

The gooseberry bush is a native of Peru. I have never had a gooseberry plant but I would love to have some.

We do sell ground cherry seeds and I have grown them in our garden. They are short nightshade plants that produce tiny round yellow fruits, each with its own wrapper. Once they are ready, the plant turns yellow and dies. Harvest the wrapped ground cherries and unwrap them from their own individually wrapped husks.

When the ground cherry plant turns brown, it is time to harvest the tiny wrapped cherries. Unwrap and enjoy.

Saturday, July 15, 2023

I did not sleep well. My toe ached and I really need to see my podiatrist. I was awakened at 6:15am by David who was watching some video in the den. I got up and whipped up a German pancake and some coffee. I put the pancake in the oven and ran outside to feed all of the animals.

As I was out there, I bore witness to the fact that our 14 week old rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, is now a man and he is bossing all of the hens around. I really thought he was too young for that sort of thing, but he is not.

I baked the German pancake in the new oven on the new Pampered Chef stone that David bought me yesterday to replace the one he broke in the broiler a few weeks ago. These stones are a bit different than the ones from 20 years ago. The pancake came out light and fluffy and just beautiful! Also, it tasted better because, for the first time, I added some cinnamon to the batter.

Today's was the best German pancake I have ever made. I added cinnamon and baked it on a new Pampered Chef stone in the new oven.

I started laundry, changed sheets, did the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen and then started preparing for tonight's Svengoolie dinner. Matt is making pulled pork. I got Hawaiian rolls for that. I pulled out some potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onion, and squash that I will be chopping and roasting, along with some honeyed apple slices. We also will throw on some stuffed mushrooms.

Then I baked a lemon pound cake and drizzled it with lemon glaze.

My lemon pound cake is so pretty. I cannot wait to dive in!

I picked out a bunch of potatoes that will be for fall seed potatoes and they are laying out on the counter. I now have them on a dish towel, getting ready to make sprouts. Actually, a few have sprouts already. They have two weeks to get bigger before I plant them in my grow bags.

You just can't buy fall seed potatoes in Texas so you have to make your own.

I soaked some sweet potatoes in water for two hours. Then I cut them in half and they are now in water so roots and vines can grow for my fall sweet potatoes.

To prepare for sweet potato vines, soak the sweet potatoes in water for two hours first.

Then cut in half width-wise. Stick toothpicks in to hold half out of glass, cut side down to grow roots and vines at the same time.

I gathered all of my fall seeds and got a few more so that I am ready. Most of what I am growing takes between 90 and 120 days to grow so I have to start everything by August 4 so it will all be through growing by November 22 which, according to the Almanac, is our first frost day this year.

As I mentioned earlier, I will be growing everything in grow bags. I have 12 but I ordered another 20 this morning. The 12 I have are currently set up in my plant area and the rest will go there as well. Hopefully, David will keep his employees away from my plants.

I still have to start a brand new sourdough today and fold laundry but I feel like I got a lot done.

It is now 3:45pm and I just started the sourdough. I hope I remember to feed it every 12 to 24 hours for five to nine days so I can start baking sourdough bread again. It has been a long minute.

Matt brought over some pulled pork that he made today. We put it on Hawaiian rolls. I cut up and roasted vegetables and I made honeyed apples to go with the pork. We had the lemon pound cake for dessert and it was delicious.

Here is my brand new sourdough starter. Early tomorrow morning, I will feed it with flour and water and repeat about every 12 hours for about a week and then it should be ready.

Nightshade Plants - Eggplant And Okra

This is a Red Burgundy okra plant.

Of course, we sell plenty of eggplant and okra seed varieties. Okra is a very big deal here in Texas and in most of the south. The good thing about okra is that it loves the heat of summer and will keep on growing and producing okra, even when the temperature is over 100° for weeks or even months.

We grow a lot of eggplant as well, my favorite being the Black Beauty, the big dark purple eggplants that you see in the grocery store. I like making Eggplant Parmesan. Eggplant does not enjoy the heat the way that okra does.

Eggplant parmesan ready to go in the oven.

Sunday, July 16, 2023

It has now been weeks since anyone has been over at the new cell tower place. This is currently what it looks like, not benefiting anyone right now.

Good Sunday morning! It is hot and miserably humid out there, if you have not yet had the pleasure of greeting the day. I went out to feed the animals and somehow got partially wrapped in a spider web and her dead bug treats on my back and hair, not to mention I was soaked with sweat by the time I finished with all of the animals. Needless to say, I came in and showered and cleansed my outer self of all unrighteousness! So gross. Then I did the dishes as there was a sink full from last night. They did not get done last night because the dishwasher was still going when we finished our meal. David made a nice breakfast and now I am waiting for my hair to dry so I can get ready for church.

I got a brand new vacuum sealer for food from Amazon and I unboxed it this morning. I have never used one before so I will try it out this afternoon. It was one of those Prime Day deals. I hope it is easy and fun to use.

We went to church and I fell asleep during the first prayer. I had another rough night where I did not sleep well. I have another ingrown toenail and it is swollen and awful and I need to see the podiatrist badly. I hope I can get an appointment when I call tomorrow.

We got home and warmed up leftovers from yesterday. Then David put in Yellowstone and we started watching it.

Now David is in his office with Pamela and Sue Ellen. I just cleaned up the kiitchen and now I need to fold a whole lot of laundry. It is miserably hot again, but we are in Texas so what is new?

Nightshade Plants - Sorrel

Leafy green sorrel adds a lemony flavor. It is one of the nightshade plants.

We sell the seeds for leafy green sorrell as well as red veined sorrel. Sorrel is also known as spinach dock and has some good health benefits. It brings a citrus-like tartness to dishes. The baby leaves can add tart flavor to salads. Mature leaves are made into soups and can also go in omelets and other kitchen dishes. Until today when I was doing research, I did not know that sorrel is a part of the nightshade plants family. I always thought of it as a leafy green.

Plant Families

Brassicas

Cucurbits

Legumes

Nightshades (This Page)

Return from Nightshade Plants to Our Fourth Year

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