Behind the Seeds Tour at Epcot

Today we did the Behind the Seeds Tour at Epcot. Our tour guide was Rhiannon from upstate New York. She said we all wouldn’t know the name of the little town so she wouldn’t mention it. Of course, being from upstate, we asked! It was Ilion and, of course, we know where that is. My roommate in nursing school was from there!

First stop was the Biotechnology Lab where we learned about the Leaf Miner Fly (bad) and the Parastoid Wasp (good)! We watched a video of how each does its thing. We also learned that they keep lady bugs in the refrigerator and bring them out of “hibernation” to help rid plants of aphids and other pests.

Next we were off to the Tissue Culture area. There is only one person allowed in that room. They have to be very careful that nothing is brought into that room that would contaminate the new growth of plants. 

We also learned later that the only way pineapple is grown is by tissue culture and not pollination. Each pineapple plant bears 4 fruit. The first is very sweet and big and is served fresh. The second is less sweet and usually used for canned pineapple. The third and fourth are smaller and even less sweet and are usually used for juice.

We spent a lot of time in the hydroponics area and were even given a taste of one of the cucumbers grown that way. We have had hydroponic tomatoes before and we think everything tastes better grown that way!

Let me create a salad for you with hydroponics, string planting, and some plants rooted in coconut shells…

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Why can’t my basil look like this so  can add it to the salad?

And how about this rosemary!!!

There were many edible flowers.

This looked like 4 leaf clovers but it’s called Sushni, which is an Asian herb. 

This is a cassabanana fruit which people don’t eat. It’s very bitter and they use it for its fragrance. Just cut it up and put it in your garbage pails!

Grafted Tomatoes in the back

Watermelon needing support!

Citron: Budda's Hand Variety

Bananas…who knew there were so many varieties. One was “Ice Cream” but this is Dwarf Cavendish.

No wonder we like coffee so much, the beans almost look like grapes!

The red light calms the fish and alligators but not the shrimp. The shrimp fight and eat each other. There was only one left in the tubes…no wonder shrimp are so expensive! The tilapia in the second photo must not be claustrophobic!

There were so many more interesting things (to us at least) and so many pictures but I’ll spare you! BUT one final photo of one of our favorite spices and characters…

Black Pepper Tree

Ciao and buon appetito!