Ants, the garden trouble makers, are finally doing us a favor farming our orchid trees!

While collecting seeds from our orchid trees has always been a challenge thanks to their explosive pods, this time we stumbled upon a surprise that made us laugh!
Ants, those tiny titans of the garden, had meticulously organized a long path of the collected seeds. These industrious creatures had gathered a bounty we could only dream of.
A year's supply we picked in minutes!
I roast some seeds, adding the husks to pearl barley for a roasted barley flavor, while the seeds can be cooked or fried as a nutty vegetable.
This unexpected harvest from nature's tiny farmers crowned our 15 years of efforts to establish our place in the ecosystem of our property.
We give and we finally also take, as everything in nature does.