Please read text!
Guizotia Abyssinica Niger Nyjer Noog Seeds
Packet of 100+ home grown organic seeds!
Never heard of this fella until a couple years ago, and I have to say it’s a real beauty.
Distant relative to the sunflower, it is just as productive as an oil and seed crop, but needs far less water and fertilizer inputs. To my eye it looks and grows very much like a cross between sunflowers and marigolds.
Generally its about knee high, multibranched and sprawling with beautiful yellow orange flowers that the native bees love.
It was a real battle to shoo them away to get pictures and in the end I just gave up as you can see from the picture.
If you have poor rocky soils and need a low maintenance feed crop then this is a great choice.
As a fodder crop the plant itself is highly nutritious with 18% protein 23% fiber, and a heap of calcium and vitamins. Cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, oxen, and deer have all shown benefit from its addition to their diet with great feed conversion rates and a nice balance of trace elements.
The seed is normally feed whole to bird in seed mixes especially for finches, and the “cake” left over after pressing and extracting the oils is able to be used as a 1:1 substitute for peanut, soya or cotton seed cake, without the need for additional inputs.
The seed is like a thinner softer shelled sunflower and a simple hand press is all that is needed to extract the oil and it can be used in all the same way olive oil is, with a similar fruity flavour.
The oil smells amazing when heated! Nutty, fruity, delicious.
Used as a spice in India for several traditional curries, the pounded seeds are also commonly made into chutney which is spread on chapathi.
In their homeland of Ethiopia they are considered medicinal.
There a sweet soupy tea made from crushed roasted seeds is commonly used as a cold and flu treatment.
It is still grown on a massive scale in Ethiopia today, but its productivity has ensured its spread to Sudan, Uganda, Zaire, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, the West Indies, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, France, and it is even grown on a pretty big scale here in Australia too now, both as a cover crop or green manure and also as a profitable oil and bird seed crop.
Commonly called Niger, Guizotia abyssinica also has the common names of nigerseed, noug, noog, nug, nyger, nyjer, ramtil, ramtilla, inga seed, blackseed, khursani, verbesina da Índia, abisin, negrillo, ramtilla, gujitil, valisalu, valasulu, uchellu, gurellu, karale, nigersaat, tourteau de niger, tourteau de nyger, tourteau de noug, Guizotia oleifera, Polymnia abyssinica, and due to finches loving thistle seeds it was also marketed as “black thistle” for a while back in the day.
This is despite the fact it isn’t a thistle, not even close, and it doesn’t have any spikes.
It’s useful, pretty, easy to grow, nutritious, and you should really buy a pack or two..
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
