TL;DR: Is germination rate a good indicator of edibility?
I found a long forgotten bag of checkpeas at the back of my cupboard the other day, the best before date surpassed by at least half a year.
I also had a strangely empty pot with soil that had bothered me for some time, and I decided to sow a small handful of chickpeas to see if they were still alive — which they were (of course): without counting before or after, I'd say that most of the chickpeas germinated withing just a few days.
I made a batch of cranberry blondies that were delicious. All gone now! 😋
So this made me wonder: Completely disregarding the best before date, would you say that a high germination rate could be a good indicator for edibility? I mean, if the seeds are still alive and able to germinate into healthy looking seedlings, their combined biochemistry cannot be off by a lot, right?
I could be a littler worried about rancid fatty acids, but it's not like chickpeas have a lot of fatty acids (dry ~6%, canned ~2.5%), and wouldn't a viable seeds have mechanisms for preventing those fatty acids from going all rancid?
[Thread moved from the Vegan group because it is no longer about edibility]
Have you guys ever tried sowing chickpeas?
Less than one and half month ago I did, in order to see if a bag of “expired” chickpeas were still viable. Today the plants are ~40 cm tall and I have seen the first flower. Amazing metabolism! In a warm climate it must be possible to harvest chickpeas at least two or three times annually.
@kas@plants I would personally not like to take the chance of eating expired chickpeas, however, this is definitely a very good use of expired chickpeas 👍.
My logic went like this: If the seeds (in this case chickpeas) can germinate and produce healthy plants, the damage to their internal biochemistry must be limited → edible.
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