When Tradition Meets Trend

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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Treasuring A Heritage Crop

I recently took part in an ongoing if slightly weird community discussion about kale. It all started with a social media post asking if anyone actually liked kale. Yikes! The floodgates opened and hundreds of people spoke up. I found it fascinating that some folks seemed resentful of kale’s popularity, scornfully calling it “so last year” and accusing high profile chefs of tricking them into eating something fit only for animal fodder. Others protested that kale can be wonderful, usually citing favorite restaurant dishes and recipes. Of the hundreds of responses, mine was the only one (that I saw, anyway) that discussed kale as a heritage crop, grown from the Mediterranean basin into Asia Minor through Europe and into the UK by the Middle Ages. Response? Crickets….

I guess I’m a little odd, but I’m always intrigued by the ways in which foods migrate around the world, becoming firmly traditional in some countries and fading from popularity in others. Brassica oleracea, the progenitor of kale, cabbage, broccoli etc., was a common food in Greek and Roman cultures by around 2000 BC. Thanks in part to various invasions, ancestral forms of kale and cabbage made their way across Europe to find an especially warm welcome in what’s now Scotland, where a heritage Shetland kale is still grown, a landrace whose origins are said to date back to around 600 BC when Celtic travelers wandered the known world. Scotland kale and its cole kin were farmhouse staples for hundreds of years, if not longer. Well into the twentieth century, Scots called any kitchen garden a kale yard, and ‘come to kale’ was a traditional invitation to a meal.

The World In A Kale Yard

These days, kale comes in many colors, textures, and even flavors, from peppery to mild and slightly sweet. As a dedicated kale lover, I’m thrilled to be able to grow kale in astonishing variety, from intensely ruffled Siberian Blue to frilly, crimson Chidori, which tastes sweetest when touched by frost. Deep magenta Redbor has curly-edged leaves that look and taste terrific in raw salads and cook in just a few minutes. White Russian kale has lacy foliage with white veining and is also most delicious after a light frost. Red Russian, deep green with pink and red edging, adds a tender crunch to salads. Vivid, electric green Prizm has won several awards, since its curly, almost stemless, cut-and-come-again leaves are excellent raw or cooked.

Crinkled and slender, Black Tuscan kale is a mild yet flavorful cross between kale and cabbage that my grandkids love, especially when we call it Dragonskin. Oregon-bred Dazzling Blue is another lacinato-type beauty, with blue-green foliage and hot pink ribs and a mellow flavor that’s lovely raw or cooked. I’m enchanted by Biera, an heirloom Portugese Sea Kale; it’s very tasty and the large leaves, jade green ribbed in ivory, look just like the charming pottery cabbage plates my mother collected in Portugal. Their thick ribs are as crisp as celery, while the leaves, sliced into chiffonade, are delicious in soups and stir fries. My whole family is wild about Kosmic Kale, a perennial Dutch tree kale that we harvest from every day of the year. My grandkids love to harvest the tender, blue-green foliage tipped and streaked with cream, and we enjoy it raw in sandwiches and salads as well as in almost any savory dish we make.

Kale In The Kitchen

If kale isn’t part of your usual repertoire, try adding chopped kale to casseroles, lasagna, and soups for extra color and texture. For extra crunch and a mild bite, add finely shredded kale or cabbage to tacos or hummus wraps. Need a quick side? Saute kale with olive oil and garlic, then spritz with lemon juice or drizzle with garlic-infused olive oil and toasted walnuts. Here are a few of our daily dishes, good warm or cold as sides or cooked salads, and leftovers make great omelet stuffing.

Three Vegans And A Fish

Bright and beautiful, this hearty side can become an entree with the addition of sliced sausages such as field roast or spicy Italian. The vinegar gives it an appealingly autumnal tang; try it with raspberry or blueberry vinegar as well as apple or pear cider vinegar.

Tangy Kale With Apples And Peppers

1 tablespoon olive or avocado oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 medium Honey Bee or any apple, diced
1 cup chopped sweet or spicy red pepper
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4-6 cups chopped kale, stems finely chopped
2 cups red or purple cabbage, chopped
2-4 tablespoons cider or fruity vinegar

Combine oil, onion, apple, peppers and salt over medium heat and cook for 5 minutes. Add kale, cabbage and 2 tablespoons vinegar, cover pan and cook until tender (15-20 minutes). Adjust vinegar to taste and serve. Serves 4-6.

Lively with curry spices and fresh lime juice, this savory salad makes a satisfying vegetarian/vegan entree.

Black Kale Salad With Curry Dressing

3 cups Black Magic kale, stemmed and cut in ribbons
3 cups finely shredded cabbage
1 cup chopped sweet peppers
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 Cara Cara orange, sectioned, peeled and chopped
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
2 tablespoons golden raisins
1 cup Curry Dressing (see below)

In a bowl, combine all ingredients and gently toss. Serves 4-6.

Curry Dressing

2-3 tablespoons avocado or any oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1-2 teaspoons curry powder
1 organic lime, rind grated, juiced

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, starting with small amounts of curry powder, salt and lime juice and adjusting seasoning to taste. Makes about 1/3 cup.

Quick Kale Crisps

Kids love these tasty tidbits for snacks or as a mealtime side dish. Nutritional yeast has a nutty, cheese-like flavor and packs a powerful amount of protein.

1 large bunch kale (any kind)
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Trim tough stems from kale and save for soup. Chop the foliage into inch-wide ribbons. Pour oil into a rimmed baking sheet, add kale and toss gently with your hands to coat. Sprinkle with salt and nutritional yeast (if using) and bake at 400 until crisp (12-15 minutes). Serve immediately. Makes about 2 cups.

Poached Salmon with Kale and Oranges

1 pound skinless salmon fillet, cut in four strips
2 organic oranges, rind grated
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 cups chopped Kosmic Kale (or any)
4 green onions, thinly sliced

In a large pan, arrange salmon and sprinkle with half the orange zest, salt, and pepper. Juice one orange and add juice to pan with 1/4 cup water. Cut peel from remaining orange, section and chop, set aside. Cover pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until fish is opaque (136 degrees F., about 10 minutes per inch of fillet thickness). Remove fish to serving plates. Add kale, oranges, and remaining zest, salt and pepper, cover pan and cook until barely tender (3-4 minutes). Serve with fish, garnished with green onions. Serves four.

 

Posted in fall/winter crops, Gardening With Children, Recipes, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living, Vegan Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Following The Light As Days Grow Dim

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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Lifework is like a tree with branches going everywhere

Standing For Kindness (And Fabulous Soup)

Foggy mornings give November mornings a ghostly quality, like fading old photographic images. Misty nights capture waxing moonlight in silvery nets, spangling plants with tiny moondrops. Both effects are beautiful and sad, dimming the pale sunlight and matching my mood. There’s no denying that these are desperately dark times for our country and the world. I wake up in the middle of the night, weeping for our suffering planet, for water, for trees, for air. I’m soul sick and grieving over the environmental destruction and the human meanness we’re faced with every single day. I’m painfully aware that neither is anything new; both conditions are as old as humanity. But both are so painful because I have a different dream for the planet and its people.

History teaches us that the degrading, heartless backward swings we’re experiencing usually follow and are followed by forward swings. Ruth Bader Ginsberg has reminded of this several times and she’s not wrong. But. There have never been so many of us before, and we’ve never been able to wreak as much and as lasting harm so quickly before. I wobble between panic and despair, perhaps especially because I recognize that’s the intent behind the malicious nastiness of the current regime. Like alcoholics and addicts, they use a choking smog of smoke and mirrors to knock us off balance, providing a relentless stream of aggressive destruction that’s deliberately designed to make ordinary people collapse in despair. The despair of good people is the goal of evil people.

The Power To Change

My dream is of a peaceful, plentiful world, where we humans all have access to good health care, can control our reproduction rate, can feed and house and clothe and educate ourselves and our children, can build cooperative and productive societies that hold the health and wellbeing of the planet and all its wild inhabitants as dear as humanity. That’s what I want with all my being, but getting there isn’t easy. If few of us are given the opportunity and power to change the world for the better, it’s worth noting that some people don’t wait for those tools, but dive straight in where they are with what they have. If Greta Thunberg, a young teenager on the Aspie spectrum, can shift the thoughts and actions of the world simply by showing up, persisting and speaking clear, simple truths, perhaps we are all capable of more than we imagine.

It helps to have clear goals; with so much happening, it’s easy to get scattered, spending dwindling energy on a multitude of issues. I’ve made myself crazy more than a few times trying to respond to every cause that appeals. I end up making myself sick, less capable than ever of doing any good. Instead, I keep coming back to my lifelong focus; healthy gardening. Fortunately it’s a huge tree of a topic, with many side branches; healing soil, growing food without toxic chemicals, getting young people engaged in gardening, finding regionally appropriate plants, planting trees, making pollinator gardens, bird and butterfly friendly gardens, on and on. What’s more, I can pursue it every day, in almost any setting, public or private, formal or spontaneous. Even before I was (mostly) retired, I found numerous places and ways to share my knowledge and skills widely, accepting payment in the form of satisfaction and joy.

Finding Light

Even with an endless supply of worthy work I love, it’s still too easy to sink into the sticky pit of dark despair. To keep my balance, I have to actively notice every positive action, every kindness, every joyful effusion, every moment of sweetness that comes my way. For years, I’ve kept file cards in purse or pocket so I can make notes about goodness. When I start to slide, I bump up my practice, making sure that I acknowledge at least ten positive things every hour, light in the darkness, all day long. This takes work, and sometimes means I need to get out of my house and walk in the rain to see raindrops spangling a trembling leaf, a bird calling from a bending branch, a sudden shaft of sunlight, a smile exchanged with a passersby. I also count hugs from my grandkids, my cat purring on my lap, the smell of baking bread, the fun of knitting unicorns or making up patterns for doll’s socks.

There’s also satisfaction to be had from calling my elected officials, from local school board and parks district to senators and congress people. It’s especially pleasant to hear cheerful thanks from their aides, no matter how often I call. In fact, they are often grateful to hear my requests because the current regime pays people on every level to pretend to be grassroots activists and they are calling every day too. Believe it. Elected officials are supposed to be responsive to their constituency, and some very unpleasant people are calling for very unpleasant actions, from bathroom bills to cutting off aid for people of color to locking more kids in cages to allowing extractive adn toxic-producing industries to rape and pillage unchecked. I particularly like the five calls app (5calls.org), because they provide a script you can alter, especially helpful when I start crying as I try to make my plea for help and action.

Making Comfort Food

Everyone has some favorite comfort foods, but sadly, a lot of them aren’t really ideal for daily indulging. That’s truly sad, since every day has demanded comfort for the past three years (ok, and before that too). These days, some of my most comforting food is coming from my indoor garden, where my little lemon tree is ripening an impressive batch of fruit. My whole family loves Greek Avgolemono soup, a gorgeously flavorful concoction that combines tart lemons and eggs, rice and broth. I like to lean into the lemon, adding grated rind and lots of pepper, but some folks find a softer, less assertive flavor more pleasing. My second treat is a lemon pie that is a tremendous crowd pleaser. Again, I make mine more intensely lemony than usual, so definitely suit yourself if you prefer milder, sweeter versions.

Avgolemono Soup

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 cup cooked short grain brown rice (or any)
2-3 organic lemons, juiced, rind grated
(1/3-1/2 cup lemon juice)
1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons flat Italian parsley, stemmed

In a soup pot, bring broth to a simmer over medium high heat. Add rice, lemon zest and salt and simmer for five minutes. Whisk lemon juice into eggs, then add a little hot broth to temper the mixture so it doesn’t curdle. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the hot broth while stirring constantly over lowest heat. Add more salt and pepper to taste and serve, garnished with parsley. Serves 4.

The Most Lemony Pie Ever

This pie filling is seriously tart, so adjust the flavor at the end of the cooking while the filling is still hot; just add sugar and/or butter to taste, but don’t eat it all, unless you really need to. Then it’s fine. The crust can be graham cracker, toasted nut crust, gluten free or regular dough or you may prefer the filling as a pudding, with roasted pistachios, toasted coconut, or candied ginger for garnish.

(Very) Lively Lemon Pie

1-1/2 cups cane sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup fresh lemon juice (3-4 large lemons)
1 cup water
3-4 tablespoons grated lemon zest
4 large egg yolks, well beaten
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 baked pie crust
1/4 cup spearmint leaves

Sift together 1-1/4 cup sugar, the cornstarch and salt into a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Stir in the lemon juice, water, and lemon zest, then add egg yolks and blend well. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently (especially pan edges). When mixture thickens, stir constantly for a minute, then remove from heat and stir in butter until completely incorporated. Taste and add more sugar if needed, stirring until dissolved. Stir in vanilla and pour filing into the baked pie crust. Let cool for an hour, then sprinkle top with spearmint leaves. Serves at least one.

 

Posted in Gardening With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Recipes, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Honoring Seasonal Shifts

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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Encouraging Engagement From Young And Old

Thanks to timely summer rains and cooperative temperatures, this is one of the most spectacular years ever for fall color in the maritime Northwest. I grew up in New England, where fabulous fall foliage supports a lucrative tourist industry; in a good year, leaf tours may run from mid September through October, filling B&Bs and thrilling regional boutiques and restaurants. Here on the West Coast, notable fall color is far less certain, so a standout year is something to celebrate. Or so I would think.

Perhaps because it’s uncommon, fall color isn’t really noticed here, or only in a perfunctory way. I used to drive my mom around the island, stopping at a blueberry field, blazing ember red, and circling through neighborhoods where bigleaf maples and birches shone golden against the subfusc backdrop of fir and cedar. I recently invited several folks who no longer drive to take a leaf tour and was bemused to hear that none of them were particularly interested.

Joyful Jumping

Remembering my childhood delight in playing with the leaves, I want to reawaken that simple joy in others. However, when I asked my grandkids if they liked to jump in leaf piles they looked at me like I was nuts. A little conversation reminded me that, most years, our lovely leaves quickly turn to slimy slush in the usual autumn rains. Oh, right. But this autumn is a dry one, and though that spells trouble down the road, for now, I’m taking my grandkids outside to gather especially beautiful leaves, then using the foliage to line paths in vivid patterns. True, the leaves soon blow away but such natural confetti is gorgeous even as it tumbles off down the street. We’re also sewing our favorite leaves into swags to drape over denuded trees and garden gates. It’s wonderful fun in the moment and I hope it may spark a little happiness in passersby who may have forgotten how sweet it can be to take pleasure in such ephemera.

I’m still curious about the general lack of love for the seasonal changes I find intoxicating. Turns out that for many people these days, autumn is more about setting the clocks back to gain an extra hour of sleep than preparation for the coming winter. With grocery stores continuously offering pretty much anything we might want, from asparagus and strawberries to citrus and squash, the idea of harvest and putting up food for winter doesn’t really resonate anymore. When homes and cars, shops and offices are effortlessly heated or cooled, we don’t even need to dress very differently as seasons change. In fact, if we bundle up on a cold day, we’ll need to strip off those famous Northwestern layers right quick when we get inside, where the temperature is probably very similar no matter what the calendar says. Samey same sameness can make us oblivious to our surroundings, the way homeowners with astonishing views of water and mountains say their windows turn into wallpaper after a while.

Seasonal Shifts

Even as a child, I’ve always felt a deep need to acknowledge seasonal shifts, perhaps especially this cusp between autumn and winter, the time of summer’s retreat and the approaching darkness. Before Halloween was claimed by the Christian church as a time to honor all saints and all souls, it was an important sacred day for Celtish people, Samhain, which marked the slide into winter. Indeed, throughout the temperate world, most cultures traditionally celebrated both harvest and the time of gathering darkness.

For thousands of years, people living with seasonal change had to prepare for the cold and be ready for the short, dim days if they planned to survive. Whether this midpoint between the equinox and solstice was noted or not, many cultures marked the actual winter solstice with rituals that often included huge bonfires, rowdy songs, and feasting. For some, winter solstice was also a time of deliberate darkness and cold, with all fires and lights extinguished at sundown, the gathered family or clan singing, telling stories, and keeping vigil through the longest night until the first ray of sun brought light back into the world.

Joy And Sorrow

That quieter, more reflective tradition suits me best and my own celebrations lean into the introspective rather than the festive. With the world in dire distress, it’s hard for me to get in a party mood or be lured into over-spending and over-indulging. That isn’t to say there’s no joy in my life or my world view; there certainly is, and I keep a daily tally of gratitudes and delights to help me remember that vital balance between the darkness and the light. (No need to keep a list of the griefs, sadly.) Exercising joyfulness helps me stay in a healthy balance, which is why bags of beautiful leaves keep company with my sourdough starter in my refrigerator. Baking bread always soothes my sorrow with nourishment, beauty and fragrance. And the leaves?

Ah! Today, my grandkids and I will decoupage empty tissue boxes with our favorite leaves (thanks to Mod Podge). When the boxes dry, we’ll fill them with cleaning rags and hankies cut from soft, recycled materials, and they’ll be our holiday family gifts. Doing our small bit to save trees feels like positive action, especially as these impressionable children are learning to genuinely love and respect trees. Clearly, we humans all need to develop this arboreal love if we want to survive. If I had my way, I’d vanish all copies of that misogynist book, The Giving Tree: Seriously, who thinks it’s a healthy model for anyone? A boy growing up and systematically stripping a supposedly beloved tree of life and limb and reducing it to a dead stump? And who thinks it’s a great model of feminine “giving”? Gah! We need a better book, one about planting and nurturing trees, planting gardens for birds and bees as well as humans, healing soil. Hmmm…

Posted in Climate Change, fall/winter crops, Gardening With Children, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Savoring With Several Senses

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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Fruit blossoms are sweet smelling and tasty

Fragrant & Edible Flowers

I recently saw a wonderful old cookbook from pioneer days that was all about edible flowers. Those hard working women may have been living in cabins with dirt floors, but they still wanted to serve their friends lovely tea party treats. I paged gently through the crumbling old book, enchanted by the elegant etchings and charmed to see how many old fashioned garden favorites had made their way West with the wagons. Alyssum and calendula, roses and violets, all were discussed in curly copperplate; there was page after page of heritage forms now eagerly sought by avid hortheads like me.

My own garden holds many of the same fragrant, edible flowers that trimmed those long-ago cakes. These days, florally decorated food is as trendy as ever, but the wise cook will do a little research before covering a cake or garnishing a salad with garden gleanings. For one thing, glossy magazines and cookbooks are not always your best guide to which flowers are safe to eat and which can cause serious illness. I’ll never forget the gorgeous photo showing a deadly toxic angel’s trumpet (Datura or Brugmansia) blossom spilling over with a tumble of fruit salad. Pretty, but, yikes! Bad, bad idea. I’ve also seen lovely cakes topped with baby daffodils and lily-of-the-valley, both toxic enough to send an incautious nibbler to the bathroom if not the ER.

A Little Homework

These days, publishers are more savvy (and readers perhaps more litigious), but it’s still worth taking time to check up on toxicity before mingling plants and food. Though some flowers are not dangerously toxic for most people, if eaten, they can cause irritation even in the less-sensitive. Thus, when you see a purple calla lily loaded with rosy shrimp salad in a lush photo spread, do try the recipe but use a non-toxic daylily instead (stamens removed first).

All cautions observed, quite a number of common vegetable bed and ornamental border flowers are lovely to look at and tasty to boot. Which flowers are the safest for kitchen play? For starters, please remember that no flower is safe to eat unless it has been organically grown. This means that NO chemical herbicides or pesticides have been used on or around the entire plant. Rose fertilizers that contain systemic toxins are included in this category, as are any fertilizers of the weed-and-feed variety. This usually rules out store bought flowers, most of which have been drenched in pesticides (especially if flown in from other countries). This also means that edible flowers on plants that were brought home from nurseries and garden centers are not safe to eat unless they have been grown organically or sustainably (without toxins). Fortunately, it’s easy to grow your own edible annuals from seed, from calendulas to pansies and violets.

Always Remove Pollen

In addition, for some people, eating pollen can trigger allergies or even asthma. To be safe, remove the pollen bearing parts of each edible flower (the pistils and stamens). The sepals or calyx should also be removed from all flowers except the viola/violet clan (pansies, Johnny-Jump-Ups, violets and violettas). To make edible flowers safer still, gently immerse them in tepid water for a few minutes. Loosely wrap them in a tea towel, place them in a salad spinner and give them a whirl. Flowers that won’t be used right away can be stored, still loosely wrapped in the towel, in the vegetable crisper drawer in the refrigerator for up to a day.

Grow Your Own

Here are a few of my own favorite edible flowers, all easily grown and either long lived or apt to self-sow. Most will be equally popular with pollinators, from bumble bees to hummingbirds.

Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
This pollinator favorite is also called licorice mint for the mild, spicy flavor of both the foliage and the tubular blossoms. Both can be used as a scented, flavorful garnish for all sorts of dishes, from lemonade to poached salmon to green or fruity salads.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
In the cool Northwest, calendulas bloom through the year. Use the petals, fresh or dried, to add a gentle bite to soups and salads. Well chopped, the petals add color and flavor to rice dishes (much like saffron). Feed flowers to chickens for deep golden egg yolks.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)
Honey-scented chive blossoms have a decidedly oniony flavor that adds snap to soups, sandwich spreads, and salads. Break up the clustered blossoms and scatter individual florets over rice or pasta dishes for garnish.

Daylily (Hemerocallis species)
Common in Chinese cookery, fresh daylily blossoms or dried buds can be used year round. Buds are eaten just before they open, when in full color, and taste rather like green beans. Open, they taste mildly sweet; fill pink daylily flowers with colorful melon balls or stuff yellow daylilies to make elegant, individual pesto potato salads.

Mint (Mentha species)
Add fuzzy blue mint flowers to lemonade or fruit salad and use them to garnish chocolate ice cream treats. They also work well in curries, rice dishes, and green salads or with steamed vegetables. The leaves of many kinds of mint are decorative and tasty too.

Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)
Lovely in salads, nasturtiums can also be used to garnish salmon or chicken dishes. Slightly astringent and peppery, nasturtium flowers work best in savory dishes. Layer slabs of tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and garnish with golden nasturtiums.

Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana)
Velvety pansies are for thoughts, so use them to tell dear ones that you think about them often. The petals have a soft, minty flavor that lends itself to sweet or savory dishes. Use them to trim tortes, to garnish herbed tuna, or tossed into a quick curry.

Rose (Rosa species)
Sweet and fragrant rose petals are an elegant garnish for game hens or fish. Rosa officinalis, the apothecary rose, is one of the nicest, but almost any fragrant rose will taste sweet. Sumptuous in summery salads, rose petals can also grace any and all kinds of desserts.

Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Try sliding some culinary sage flowers under the skin of turkey or chicken, along with a few sprigs of rosemary. The flowers have a warm, herby flavor with a hint of heat. Toss orange slices and fennel with sage flowers and slivered sage leaves.

Signet or Threadleaf Marigold (Tagetes signata
or T. tenuifolia)
Spicy, lemon-scented signet marigolds are tastier than most of their kin. The flavor is somewhat like tarragon. Try the petals in carrot and orange salad, mash some into deviled eggs, or sprinkle petals over potato soup.

Squash Blossom (Cucurbita species)
Toss these pretty flowers into stews, fry them in fritters, or stuff them with herbed goat cheese. The flower flavor is gently green. New tips of young shoots often taste slightly salty and crunchy, so use those, too.

Posted in Edible Flowers, Gardening With Children, Hardy Herbs, pests and pesticides, Pollination Gardens | Leave a comment