Why is there a jar of sesame seeds in my boyfriend's parent's kitchen?

[iwasagirlinavillage]

We're staying at their house while they're on holiday so they're not here for me to ask them.

My boyfriend says the jar has been there for as long as he can remember and he's never seen them used and never noticed the amount in the jar increase or decrease. They're on the worktop next to the teapot and the sugar which are used multiple times daily.

It just seems so random. He has never considered why they're there.

Any ideas?

Same reason someone asked me why there's a Postman Pat postcard on our fridge when DS is 10. You stop seeing things after a while

I've checked inside. It's definitely just sesame seeds.

I know this! I know this!

If his parents are 'of an age' it used to be fashionable in the 80s to 'display' jars of seeds/beans on your worktop. My parents have a set of 3 glass jars with cork lids next to their kettle. In one they have yellow lentils, in the other white kidney beans, and in the other brown kidney beans. It was probably something suggested in the 1985 Dairy Diary....

My mum still has a Thomas the Tank Engine clock in her living room from when my sister was a baby. My sister is now 35.

Marie Kondo, STAT.

Personally I use sesame seeds all the time, but they couldn't really be considered worthy of display. They look like maggots, IMO.

Either they like them or they used to like them and have now stopped seeing them. I dread to think how many threads like this my mother could start about the random piles and crap in my house. Eg why have we had a pile of magazines on the little shelf under the coffee table for years? We just do.

The thing is, their house is otherwise immaculate with no "things" just left there for years.

@origamiwarrior the jar does have a cork lid!

They're not sesame seeds, and whatever you do, do not open the jar.

Not that random. I bought a big pack of sesame seeds to make my own tahini..... but it was such a ball ache I did it once and never again, and never think about using them up in other things.

At the risk of now making this a 'thing' across the houses of Mumsnetland...

Please may you ask your in laws when they come back what the jar of sesame seeds is for?? The suspense is killing me! 😂

Are you sure they are sesame seeds?
Put the jar in the airing cupboard and see if they hatch!

@iwasagirlinavillage Did you ever find out what the jar of sesame seeds were for?

Not yet. They're back from holiday but I haven't seen them yet so I haven't had a chance to ask. I will do. I haven't forgotten.

Why is it any of your business?

Why is it any of your business?

Well, it isn't. But as they were very visible on the kitchen worktop and not in the secret sesame seed cupboard I saw no harm in asking.