Just a reminder, the Botanicals Beauties& Beasties take the weekend off from blogging. The gang need their environmental rest.. some zzz’s…and hopefully some fun too. For FUN this weekend we will be at Whole Foods Waterman Street Block party! Whole Foods is “closing down Waterman Street from Wayland to Butler! Join us for an afternoon of family fun, charitable giving, and delicious food! There will be live performances, music, games, kids activities, outdoor artist gallery (That includes us: The Botanicals,) raffles, and did we mention food? Hope to see you there! Sponsored by Waterman Whole Foods Market and East Side Monthly.
See you all back here on Monday with a new post. A hint to the topic, its yellow and screams of summertime.
Ronfleur: Relaxing on Saturday. On Sunday we will be off in Providence R.I. show our wares at Whole Foods Waterman Street Block party! Join the fun if you can.
•REUSE your energy •REDUCE your waste •RECYLE your stuff •ReThink your actions
A Blooming Salad photo by Leigh Beisch; Food styling by Dan Becker - Sunset website (see below)
It’s Fun Food Friday. Fun can mean many things – today it means food to smile at and enjoy.
Thanks to Kathy from Wedge Wood Flowersfor the first 1/2 of this post. She is a wealth of information on flowers, herbs and health! Meet her in person at Whole Foods Market/Cranston on Tuesdays afternoons as well as Pawtucket Village on Sat. 9-12, & Whole Foods/University Circle, Mon 3-6.
“As we enter midsummer we are in the best of both worlds. We have lots of fresh greens for salads from our gardens, or from farmers markets, and we have a great variety of flowers blooming ready to add to our greens/salads that fills our senses. A fresh salad with a variety of greens and a few nasturtiums tossed on top is a true delight. The mix of greens and buttery taste of the greens is brightened with the spicy flowers and it all just looks so good.
Even though edible flowers is not a new idea, day lilies were used in the Orient for centuries, there are a few guide lines to follow when considering flowers in our menu.
First, do not gather flowers along roadsides where pollution abounds,
Second, know which flowers are edible. Start with the best known flowers such as violas, nasturtiums, and day lilies.
Third, use sparingly. A small sprinkling of flowers is better than too much.
Last, keep in mind that herb flowers are spicier that the leaves of the herb
The list of edible flowers is extensive but here are a few that are the best know and easiest to find: calendula. Clover,day lily, chives, borage, chamomile, dill, lavender, viola, nasturtiums, pansy, roses, scented geraniums,
As a guide line, use garden flowers to bring a sweet and tangy taste to salads and desserts such as pansy, roses, and lavender. Herb flowers are flavorful and fragrant on cooked main meal dishes or vegetables such as baked yellow squash with dill. Use your imagination to create a some fun in your meals this summer.
A favorite summer salad, tear buttercrunch lettuce into bite size piece and arrange on a salad dish. Make a creamy buttermilk dressing with 1 1/2 cup buttermilk, 2/3 cup Mayo, 2T each chopped green onion, chives, dill, and parsley. Drizzle over lettuce and sprinkle just the petals of a marigold flower.” — Thanks Kathy! Wedge Wood Flowers.
Ok- and here are some more ideas! Go out, have fun and eat very pretty food! When your garden gives you flowers and vegetables, use them both to make a salad and to make you smile.
From the Sunset website: “Ingredients you can grow in your flower bed: Pansy petals: The largest of the viola-type flowers, all of which you can eat (the littlest are Johnny-jump-ups). Faint lettucelike taste; velvety texture. Carnation petals: Sweet and spicy. Eat only the petals, and taste each flower before using, as they can sometimes be bitter. Calendula petals: Usually orange or yellow, with a daisylike appearance; mildly tangy. Bachelor’s Buttons: Spiky-looking but soft; can be blue, purple, pink, rose, or white. Cucumberish flavor and a fun, frilly texture. Nasturtiumpetals: The tastiest flower. Peppery and mustardy, with a touch of honey. Ranges from yellow to reddish orange, with variegations too.
Sunsets favorite salad flowers: 1)Bachelor’s buttons 2) Borage 3) Calendulas 4) Carnations 5) Herb flowers (basil, chives, rosemary) 6) Nasturtiums 7) Violas, including pansies and Johnny-jump-ups and 8) Stock.
Nasturtiums and Johnny-jump-ups are often available at upscale grocery stores. The best way to have the others is to grow them. To find out how to grow your own flowers for salads read here.
2 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed, safflower, or canola oil
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon minced tarragon
1 Persian cucumber or 1/3 English cucumber
About 50 sugar snap peas
1/4 cup lightly packed chervil sprigs (optional)
3 ounces mâche clusters (about 3 lightly packed cups) (corn salad = mache = lamb’s lettuce = lamb’s tongue = field lettuce = field salad = fetticus Notes: Corn salad has tender leaves and a very mild flavor. Substitutes: butter lettuce OR Bibb lettuce)
4 ounces mesclun (about 6 lightly packed cups)
4 medium radishes, sliced in half lengthwise
Your choice of: bachelor’s buttons (whole and petals), calendula and carnation petals, whole Johnny-jump-ups, nasturtium petals, pansy petals, and stock flowerets (15 to 20 whole flowers total)*
Preparation
1. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and tarragon.
2. Thinly slice cucumber. Split 30 of the fatter peapods and remove the peas; set aside. Gently rinse chervil, mâche, and mesclun and gently spin twice in a salad spinner to thoroughly dry the leaves.
3. Put greens in a large bowl and toss gently but thoroughly with 3 tbsp. dressing (leaves should be barely coated), adding more dressing if necessary.
4. Divide greens among plates. To each salad, add a few slices of cucumber, some sugar snap peas (both whole pods and just the peas), and some radishes. Drizzle with any remaining dressing, if you like, and top with whole flowers and flower petals.
*Use only unsprayed, organic petals and blooms. If you’re growing your own flowers from seedlings, be sure to buy organic plants—and don’t spray them as they grow. To buy edible flowers, try gourmet grocery stores and farmers’ markets; avoid flowers from florists and nurseries.
Want more information? Here is very fun list > Edible Petals Glossary. One more fun site.. The cook’s Thesaurus– a list of Edible Flowers, photos, and often what they taste like. Now that qualifies for fun! According to the cooks THESAURUS … To candy flowers, whisk an egg white, then use a brush to paint a fine layer onto clean, dry, pesticide-free flower petals (or whole flowers if they’re very small). Next, gently place the petal into some superfine sugar, and sprinkle some more superfine sugar on top. Shake off the excess and lay it out on waxed paper to dry (this takes as long as eight hours).” Now you can have your cake and eat it too with flowers.
Behold the tomato, juicy and luscious. One of Mother Natures Summer Super Stars! Are you growing your own? Mine are coming along but not ready yet – so off to the Farmers Market I go. Your natural vine ripe tomatoes may not look as perfect as your mass-produced ones BUT there is no ethane gas ripening going on with your fresh picked local grown tomato. That is a BIG part of why the local tomato taste better. Another good reason to shop local and seasonally! Tomatoes are packed with nutrition, antioxidants, lycopene, vitamin A and C. They work and play so well with so many other ingredient and they’re just plain old yummy! Maybe all that is why they are a summer Super Star! There are so many things to do with tomatoes that naturally we can not even begin to cover them all- so we decided to find some delectable tidbits and two recipes for you today! First the Tidbits:
Never forget about the basic Heirloom Tomato (a classic tomato) on a BLT – a classic summertime sandwich. Don’t eat meat? There are many Bacon subs!
Never put your tomatoes in the fridge! If they drop below 50 degrees a flavor compound called (Z)-3-dexenal is just going to flip itself off like a chemical switch … permanently.
When you get them home, don’t keep them in direct sunlight.
To pick your tomatoes: Firm fragrant tomatoes, not mushy when pushed lightly with your fingers, heavy for their size, no big open slits or bugs but some of the tastiest tomatoes may be the ugliest!
The average American eats 17 pounds of tomatoes each year. That means that after the potato, these fruits are America’s favorite vegetables. That’s right, fruits!
Ingredients: ▪ 1 cup baby arugula, washed ▪ 1/4 cup high-quality extra-virgin olive oil ▪ 1/4 cup red wine vinegar ▪ Kosher salt ▪ 5 to 6 assorted heirloom tomatoes, cut into wedges and various other shapes ▪ 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano (or Basil) (Note: we learned yesterday that pretty much any mix of Herbs will be yummy-go for it! Experiment, play have some Herb and Tomato adventures!) ▪ 4 ounces goat cheese, room temperature (or parm. or skip the cheese) ▪ 4 slices grilled baguette ( any kind of toast)
Directions: In a small bowl toss the arugula with 1 tablespoon each of the olive oil and red wine vinegar. Season with salt. Divide the arugula between 2 serving plates. … Toss the tomatoes with the remaining olive oil, vinegar, oregano (or whatever herbs), and salt. Arrange the tomatoes on the serving plates….Spread 1 ounce of goat cheese onto each slice of grilled bread. Serve 2 slices of grilled bread with goat cheese (or whatever you like) with each plate. Holy tomato!!
Continuing on Summertime theme… this week is summertime FOODS, always a fun topic. Summer seems in part to be in about the food, specifically the fresh produce and veggies. Easy to find everywhere, fun to find at your local outdoor markets! Keep it local folks- support your local farmer (especially the organic ones) and your community will be better off for your actions.
Monday, today, we will start the week off with HERBS – hopefully your herb garden is flourishing by now. My mint is taking over already! (see photo!) These wonderful words are from Kathy Weber: Wedge Wood Flowers: Herbs for culinary, medicinal and ceremonial use: She is one of the fabulous growers at the Whole Foods Farmers Market in Garden City on Tuesdays! There are 2 recipes (bottom of page.) One is from Kathy and the other is from Linda Nunes- the Healthy Eating specialist at Garden City Center Whole Foods. She made us this luscious salad last week as the taste sampler food for the day. Want to know what is being made this Tuesday? Sorry, it’s a secret you will have to come on down to see/taste for yourselves!
“Now that is it summer in our area, the farmers markets are filling up with fresh greens, strawberries, peas and herbs. All of these wonderful offerings from the fields will give us an early summer salad just right for us.
Snipping herbs regularly helps the herb plants grow bushy and full and provides more for us to use. Pinch the tops of the plants to prevent flowering and going to seed. If that happens, the flavor becomes bitter. That is another reason why snipping herbs daily is a good idea. If you have more herbs that you can use, dry the sprigs on a paper towel and store for cooking.
Use herbs in the summer to bring out the flavor in meals. Here are some tips where using herbs. Use dried herbs when cooking sauces and soups. Dried herbs have more intense flavors. Use fresh herbs in salads, as a garnish in soups or sauces, and add sprigs of parsley or basil in a sandwich. Then taste how good that is! (Note, from Ronfleur and Liz- put a bit of mint on my turkey wrap { turkey, a touch of low-fat feta dressing, lettuce and a sprinkle of mint} and it was WONDERFUL! )
Plan to enjoy the early summer time enjoying all the bounty provided to us and know that more is soon to come to us from the fields.”
Kathy learned to love herbs from her parents. Her father lovingly tended his herb garden and often brought in lettuce, scallions, and parsley for a salad for supper. Her mother loved to make herb tea from herbs that she dried for the winter and so she grew up understanding how to grow herbs and health benefits they provide. Currently she is studying to become a herbalist with Susan Clements. Learning to make tinctures, salves, and creams.
She has combined all her knowledge of herbs and turned it into a business,
Wedge Wood Flowers: offering a wide variety of herbs for culinary, medicinal and ceremonial use. “I love to help folks, learn to grow and use herbs. Along with my herbs, I make cold pressed soap using essential oils and clays. I often use herbs in making soap. This year I can be found at farmers markets, Pawtuxet Village, on Sat., Whole Foods University Heights and Cranston on Mon and Tues. I also will be at Washington Co Fail in Aug, Woodstock Fair, and Hebron Fair in Conn. I can also be found at various festivals and harvest fairs. Information on where I will be can be found on my Facebook page, Wedgewood Flowers.” Kathy’s email is wdgewood89@aol.comif you have questions for her.
Here is a recipe with snap peas from Kathy
Cook in water a handful of snap peas for 1-2 min. Toast 2T sliced almonds. Combine 2T oil, 2 T fruity vinegar salt pepper. Combine romaine or spring greens with 1/4 cup chives, and tarragon, add peas, and almonds
Here is the recipe from Whole Foods Market Healthy Eating Specialist, Linda Nunes.
Combine fresh greens using red and green lettuce. Add sliced strawberries and chopped basil. Make a simple dressing by blending, 1 cup strawberries, 1T Dijon mustard, 1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar, and 1 shallot. Pour over the greens and enjoy the flavors.
