Mustard seed
Mustard seeds are the small round seeds of various mustard plants. The seeds are usually about in diameter and may be colored from yellowish white to black. They are an important spice in many regional foods and may come from one of three different plants: black mustard ("Brassica nigra"), brown Indian mustard ("B. juncea"), or white/yellow mustard ("B. hirta/Sinapis alba"). Grinding and mixing the seeds with water, vinegar or other liquids creates the yellow condiment known as prepared mustard. Regional use. Mustard seeds are used as a spice in the Indian subcontinent.. The seeds are usually  fried until they pop. The leaves are also stir-fried and eaten as a vegetable. In Maharashtra, mustard oil is used for body massage during extreme winters, as it is thought to keep the body warm. In Bengali cuisine mustard oil or "shorsher tel" is the predominant cooking medium. Mustard seeds are also essential ingredients in spicy fish dishes like "jhaal" and "paturi". A variety of Indian pickles consisting mainly of mangoes, red chili powder, and powdered mustard seed preserved in mustard oil are popular in southern India. In North America, mustard seeds are used in spices and condiments. Yellow  mustard is popular in the United States and is often used as a condiment in sandwiches and other dishes. Mustard seeds are first ground into a powder and then mixed with other ingredients to create this condiment. Roughly 1,000 seeds are used in manufacturing just 8oz of mustard. Cultivation. Mustard seeds generally take eight to ten days to germinate if placed under the proper conditions, which include a cold atmosphere and relatively moist soil. Mature mustard plants grow into shrubs. Yellow mustard has a plant maturity of 85 to 90 days; whereas, brown and oriental mustard have a plant  maturity of 90 to 95 days. If the temperature conditions are conducive to growth, a mustard plant will begin to bud five weeks after the seedlings have appeared. The plant will reach full bloom 7 to 10 days later. Brown or oriental varieties of mustard tend to have higher yields compared to yellow mustard. Seed yield is also related to the bloom period. In other words, the longer the bloom period, the greater the seed yield. Mustard grows well in temperate regions. Major producers of mustard seeds include India, Pakistan, Canada, Nepal, Hungary, Great Britain and the United States. Brown  and black mustard seeds return higher yields than their yellow counterparts. In Pakistan, rapeseed-mustard is the second most important source of oil, after cotton. It is cultivated over an area of 307,000 hectares with an annual production of 233,000 tonnes and contributes about 17% to the domestic production of edible oil. Mustard seeds are a rich source of oil and protein. The seed has oil as high as 46-48%, and whole seed meal has 43.6% protein. Production. In India, mustard seed is primarily produced in the Northwest region of the country, specifically Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Based on  data collected from 2001 to 2015, roughly 48% of total production from the state of Rajasthan comes from the Bharatpur district. In North America, mustard is produced as a specialty crop. Majority of the production is found in upper Midwest United States and Canada. In 2020, the total production of mustard in the United States was 81.8MM lbs. Religious significance. In the Bible, Jesus tells the Parable of the Mustard Seed referring to faith and the Kingdom of God. There, Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which is the smallest of all  seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade"." There are references to mustard seeds in India from a story of Gautama Buddha in the fifth century BC. Gautama Buddha told the story of the grieving mother (Kisa Gotami) and the mustard seed. When a mother loses her only son, she takes his body to the Buddha to find a cure. The Buddha asks her to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a family that has never lost a child , husband, parent, or friend. When the mother is unable to find such a house in her village, she realizes death is common to all, and she cannot be selfish in her grief. In Hinduism, the reference of a mustard seed is given in ancient texts called Upanishads to explain the duality of a person's self and the relationship of self with the universe. It is stated that if an individual were to pick a single mustard seed every hundred years from a seven-mile cube worth of mustard seeds, then by the time the last seed is picked , the age of the world cycle would still continue. (If a mustard seed is in diameter, then taking one seed every 100 years from a seven-mile cube of seeds would take 936 quintillion years, 68 billion times the age of the universe.) Jewish texts compare the knowable universe to the size of a mustard seed to demonstrate the world's insignificance and to teach humility. The Jewish philosopher Nachmanides mentions the universe expanded from the time of its creation, in which it was the size of a mustard seed. According to the Hadith, Muhammad said that he who has  in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of pride would not enter Paradise. The mustard seed is mentioned in the Quran: "And We place the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection, so no soul will be treated unjustly at all. And if there is [even] the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it forth. And sufficient are We as accountant (21:47)" and also "[And Luqman said], "O my son, indeed if wrong should be the weight of a mustard seed and should be within a rock or [anywhere] in the heavens or in the  earth, Allah will bring it forth. Indeed, Allah is Subtle and Acquainted (31:16)." Mustard seed is mentioned several times in the writings of the Báb, where it signifies a thing of insignificance. In the Persian Bayán, he states: "There is no paradise, in the estimation of the believers in the Divine Unity, more exalted than to obey God’s commandments, and there is no fire in the eyes of those who have known God and His signs, fiercer than to transgress His laws and to oppress another soul, even to the extent of a mustard seed." In one of his  prayers, he makes mention of a tiny fraction of a mustard seed to signify the importance of the object in the statement: "All that I beg of Thee, O my God, is to enable me, ere my soul departeth from my body, to attain Thy good-pleasure, even were it granted to me for a moment tinier than the infinitesimal fraction of a mustard seed." Several more mentions are made in other places.