Flowers for Breakfast...

Flowers are an unusual and underused way to brighten and beautify your plate.  Seeing the sad, wilting, expensive box of organic flowers in my grocery store every week never inspired me to try edible flowers.  Last year, I grew some nasturtiums as a pest control measure in my garden and was surprised at how delicious they were!  One of my favorite early Summer drinks is lavender lemonade, so much so that I bought the lavender we have just so I can make it once a year.  This year, I bought some new veggies because I'm always trying new things and found I love borage and since my pak choi came up and went directly to seed, we have been eating the blossoms.  Last night, while inspecting my squash for potential blossoms, it occurred to me how many edibles I had blooming right now.  So here I am sharing them with you!  This is by no means an exhaustive list of all edible plants.  It's more like a snapshot of my garden in the middle of June.  If you are equally uninspired by your grocery store, may I suggest planting a flower garden?

	Marigolds have a bitter taste at first that mellows out into a floral aftertaste. Uses: Salads, garnishes, jelly
	Thyme: First taste is like a slightly sweet thyme, which is followed by a little herbal burn (similar to fresh oregano), finishes as a straight thyme flavor. Uses: Salads, smoothies, soups, garnish for chicken
	Salsify: Slightly sweet petals, the stem starts out with a green flavor, becomes peppery and ultimately tastes very similar to thyme. Facebook users may recognize this as my quiz plant from a few weeks ago. Nobody got it right! Uses: Salads, salad dressings
	Himalayan Blackberry petals are slightly bitter, the stamen are powdery and lacking flavor, but the blossoms are undeniably beautiful. Uses: Salads, garnish
	Pak Choi taste very much like how daffodils smell: floral, earthy, and fresh.  They have a slight kale or broccoli flavor, being in the same family. Uses: Salads, smoothies
	Garden Peas: The white flower is off a bush pea called Little Marvel and the purple one is off a climber called a Blue Podded Pea.  They taste like green peas, fresh out of the garden, pod and all.  The finish is very similar to alfalfa sprouts.  *I was going to give a warning about Sweet Peas, the ornamental flower, since I had heard they were poisonous.  Mr. Internet says this is a bit of a misconception.  The only thing that isn't safe to eat in large quantities is the hardened seed of the Sweet Pea.  Still, if you want to be cautious, don't eat them.  More flowers for bees! Uses: Salads, garnish
	Spanish lavender has a strong, herbal, well basically, lavendery flavor.  Uses: Lemonade, baking
	Thimbleberry petals have a very slight floral citrus taste. Uses: Salads, salad dressing, garnish
	Borage: Once you get past the fur, you are rewarded with a strong cucumber flavor. Uses: Salads, sandwiches, salad dressing
	Nasturtium: Spicy, think horseradish without the burn, peppery, finishing with a slightly sweet taste. Uses: Salad, garnish, salad dressing, pizza
	Dandelion: The petals are really fabulously sweet, but the greens taste like earwax, so pluck these before adding them to anything. Uses: Salads, wine, jelly, tea

Tips:
If you want to use flowers in your salad, I suggest picking them before you are ready to serve.  Many of these flowers wilt soon after picking.  Nasturtiums, marigolds, lavender, and borage will last the longest, but any Mom who's been given a dandelion bouquet knows how quickly those go south!

My spinach, pak choi, cilantro, and lettuce are bolting right now.  I've been using the flowers in smoothies every morning to try to extend the season a bit.  I'll be doing the same thing as soon as the purslane, and basil go.

Savory Pancakes and TMI...

     I'm the type of person who has to tell the story of a gift when a person opens it.  People receiving gifts from me have to sit patiently though a long and winding tale of how the gift came to be in their possession.  I regale the receivers of my gifts with harrowing yarns of brave treks to Target surrounded by temptations of every shape and size or long and rambling quests through the jungles of Amazon.  My Mom did it.  I don't know why she did it, but because of her it's how I feel gift giving needs to be done.  The person can't fully appreciate the gift if they don't understand why I chose it for them and how it arrived.  Each gift has a birth story.

Christmas takes a long time.

    Food blogging is a little bit like that.  Each recipe has a story.  Sometimes I don't have the time to flesh it out the way I'd like, especially recently with all the upheaval in the living room.  (Maybe someday I'll tell you that arduous tale.) But today I have a moment.  It's raining outside and my boy's bellies are full.  The dishes are piled in the sink.  I've got my apron on and this is why:

     This year, to mix it up a bit in the garden I decided to plant nasturtiums and zucchini.  The poor zucchini has never zuked a single zuke, but it has made tons of blossoms!  Until this year I've never really eaten a good one.  I tried stuffed squash blossoms recipes which were inevitably full of cheese and way too greasy, and decided I liked them chopped up in salad best.  The nasturtiums were to save the kale from insect invaders.  They worked rather well and had the added benefit of being pretty and fragrant.  (I had no idea what a nice scent they had!)

      Besides the unexpected bounty of flowers in my garden, I had also made some homemade cashew milk.  The boys had some friends over this weekend who have special dietary needs and I don't like all the chemicals in the nut milks available in stores.  And anyway, it's super simple:

Cashew Milk
1/2 C raw cashews
2C water, plus more for soaking
1 tsp honey, or to taste (opt)
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste (opt)

Soak raw cashews in water for one hour, then drain and rinse.  Add 2 Cups of water to a blender along with the cashews and blend until liquified.  Strain it if you want and you can add a little honey or salt if you like.  I didn't do any of that for my version.

     I had been toying with the idea of savory pancakes for a while.  There's not much sugar in a pancake except what you pour over it.  They aught to make a great base for a savory breakfast.  To test my theory, I decided to combine all my weird ingredients and see what happened.

Savory Pancakes
1 C Whole wheat flour
1 C White flour
3 t Baking powder
1/2 t Salt
1/4 C Coconut sugar
2 Eggs*
2 T Oil
1 3/4 C Cashew milk
2 Leaves Sage
1/2 tsp Rosemary
1 tsp Thyme
3 or 4 Nasturtium blossoms, chopped
2 Squash blossoms, chopped (pistils and stamens removed)
1/4 C Spring onions for garnish
*You could make this vegan by substituting 1 mashed banana for the eggs.

Combine the dry ingredients, then add the wet ones.  Mix until well incorporated.  Grease a frying pan with butter or oil and preheat.  Spoon batter into pan.  Cook pancakes until done in the middle, flipping once. 

Yield is entirely dependent on how big you make your pancakes.  It usually yields around 12-14 of my small "silver dollar" size pancakes.  Top them with raw, fresh Spring onions and a pat of butter, no syrup necessary!

     If you're wondering about that funky coconut sugar up there especially after I wrote a post about processed sugars for October Unprocessed last year, coconut sugar, as far as I can tell, is one of the least processed sugars there is.  I found this article describing the process of making coconut sugar and Wikipedia backs it up.  I'm sure as soon as it catches on, manufacturers will figure out a way to process the snot out of it, but for now, it seems pretty safe.

Review:
I'm really grateful my husband is open to trying new things.  The kids wouldn't have it.  I think if I had come up with another name for them besides "pancake" they would have been on board.  My husband and I both liked them.  I think next time I'll try a little goat cheese or feta on there, too.

A Year is Round...

     It's not Fall yet, but my garden is officially in "Fall" mode.  The temp hasn't gone much past 60 in the last few days.  My eldest has been complaining of the cold.  Poor kid really seems to be affected by the seasons here.  But more than the cold, my garden is now shaded all day.  All Day.  I was hoping the very edge would get a few more rays, since that's where my tomatoes are, but it just isn't going to happen.  So I'll be eating some green tomato food, I guess.  Whatever that ends up being.  I'm thinking fried and/or chutney...

The Bad:

• The birds ate all the slug bait out of my garden (twice) and with it all my carrot seed (twice).  I read in a couple of places that August was still not too late to replant with seed for an Autumn harvest.  So I did.  But I'm thinking there won't be enough sun to produce anything of consequence.
• I got a grand total of three large tomatoes to ripen, one of which was hollowed out by a slug and another was recently eaten by a deer.  

 This is where my deer eaten tomato used to live... =(

•  He also ate half of two green tomatoes...

Didn't learn from the first one, apparently...

• and then he danced in my carrot seedlings...

All those round divot marks are deer tracks!

• The 6 beets that grew out of the million or so I planted (birds again) are the size of golf balls.  
• The basil got devoured by slugs the instant I planted it and the parsley went to seed (shouldn't until the second year, shame on me for buying old plants).  
•  The garlic disappeared, I have no idea what happened to it.
•  I'm pretty sure some of my beans interbred.  I was supposed to have two beans with purple pods.  Out of four different kinds of beans, three had purple pods... Hmmm... This is only a "bad" thing because I plant heirlooms and now I don't know what this means for next year's beans... Probably nothing...  Except, you know, mutant beans. o.O
•  Neither of my pea plants made more than 6 peas.

The Good:

• I got a handful or two of cherry tomatoes this year which beats the zero I got last year.

• The chard went crazy this year.  I had one plant last year survive, but I got an entire row this year.
• The kale did beautifully this year, too.
• I got purslane to grow, finally!  (OK, I bought starts from the farmer's market, but hopefully it'll seed itself for next year.)
• I think one salsify plant survived.  If it is salsify and not grass, it should grow and spread on its own.
• The beans did pretty well considering they were under supported and got shaded out early by the tomatoes because I overestimated how fast the beans would grow and underestimated how fast the tomatoes would grow.

(These are supposed to be purple...)

• I had a volunteer tomato pop up and has even produced a few tomatoes.  They will never ever, ever ripen, but I admire its grit.  
• Ditto the volunteer vined thing that will never produce fruit big enough to tell whether it is a cucumber or a pumpkin or a squash.  I'm just happy it happened.
• I have a darling, beautiful, sweet little volunteer sunflower that bloomed this week.  I am in love with it. 

Conclusion:
Hope springs eternal

Additional Conclusion:

If a deer eats this, I'm buying a pellet gun.

As Promised...

The latest offerings from the Cracker Garden:

 Sugar Ann Snap Peas, a favorite from last year, one of two heirloom varieties in our garden this year.

 That darling little blip is the fruit of Frageria vesca the woodland strawberry.  A native here and brand new to our garden this year.  I photographed it here next to a medium sized farmer's market berry so you could see the size difference.  Quite a spread!  The flavor is intense and wonderful, but as my husband said after eating two at once, "That's about an eighth of a mouthful!"  He's right, they're not going to fill you up, that's for sure.  But he suggested, and I agree, that it would be a great little thing to put on a salad.  I'm already dreaming up ideas for next year's crop since we ate this year's entire crop just testing them out...

Another native plant, Claytonia perfoliata aka miner's lettuce.  Likes part sun, moist conditions, and sandy soil.  Pretty much the exact conditions of my garden... Especially the shady wet part...  =) This is another new one for my garden.  It's quite a delicious little thing (each leaf being no bigger than a quarter) and it tastes a lot like spinach.  Having a time keeping the slugs off of it currently, so I'll have to consider that next year, but the few leaves we've gotten made nice additions to salads and sandwiches and I like to have a little sample every time I go into my garden!

Next up: Chives, Thyme, and Red Huckleberries!

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy...

 Harvest has officially begun at our house!  A small sample:

 Beet greens, spinach, chard, purslane, mint, and kale.

I knew the chard was ready to start picking when a deer sauntered into the garden and ate one!

Coming soon: peas, miner's lettuce, and native strawberries!