Poppy Seeds

Opium Poppy  (Papaver somniferum) Seed Capsule

Poppy seeds are a pretty common ingredient in the Czech cuisine - especially when making deserts.  A traditional Czech buchta (the best translation I could find is a stuffed bun), consists of ground poppy seeds mixed with sugar.  The poppy seed stuffing is delicious and you can even buy a special poppy seed grinder.  So when I had the opportunity to stop by an opium poppy field, I couldn't resist to pick some poppy seed capsules.  They were past the opium producing stage - I believe the opium is collected when the capsules are still green. 

Here are some photos of the poppies.