Common Camas Seeds

Common camas, called speenhw in Hul'q'umi'num', is an important food plant of Indigenous Peoples on the West Coast that was extensively cultivated and traded with inland nations. It was/is cultivated in fields with an overstorey of Garry Oak trees. The meadows need to be carefully tended and burned seasonally to keep shrubs from taking over. In many traditions, families owned specific patches of camas that they cultivated and harvested from. Local lore says that camas bulbs used to grow as large as your fist! Unfortunately it's rare to see bulbs of that size today. Camas is a plant that requires (or at least greatly benefits) from human relationships to grow well. Humans are a part of nature- let's participate!

Camas bulbs contain a healthy fibre called inulin. They need to be cooked long and slow to make them more digestible. Traditionally they have been cooked in pit ovens. Fermenting the bulbs like sunchokes may be an interesting preparation method to explore.

Camas makes showy periwinkle blue flowers, which are an important food source for many specialist pollinators. The plants like dry summers, and can tolerate shallow soils and wet clay soils in winter. The plants will die back in the summer. The young plants look like blades of grass and take several years to size up and flower when started from seed, but they are worth the wait!

I was hesitant to offer seeds of this variety because of its significance to Indigenous Peoples in the area. But after hearing some incredible presentations from Jared Qwustenuxun Williams (Quw'utsun chef, Indigenous food champion, and more), I felt empowered to offer these seeds in an attempt to encourage more people to grow this plant. What I heard from Qwustenuxun is that Indigenous foods should be more widely available to everyone living on these unceded Indigenous territories, but there is not the supply available to make this a reality. There should be restaurants and institutions serving these foods. He encouraged farmers and gardeners from all backgrounds to grow these plants, and make them available to chefs and restaurants. We need both supply and demand for these important Indigenous foods to make a resurgence in local cuisines. Be a part of it!

I'll be experimenting with different ways to cultivate camas, with the hopes of making it available for the community to eat. If you have any insights into growing camas in a market garden context, please get in touch.

I collected these seeds beside a highway growing alongside Desert Parsley, somewhat near where a river meets the ocean, so I believe these plants may have been cultivated by the First Peoples of the area for many years. I made sure to replant seeds while I was harvesting, and I look forward to the seeds finding new homes in soils where they can be used for food and medicine without worry about road runoff. 

100% of sales from this variety go to Indigenous Food Sovereignty projects. If you are an Indigenous person who would like to grow these seeds, please email us at grow@cicadaseeds.org and we will gift them to you free of charge.