Thank you Winnie for your support, it means a lot to me, having you here. And everyone else, Welcome! I would like to have an adventure, lets walk down a trail and see what magic we can find, want to? There may be portals between the hedgerows and the corn fields so keep a good eye open. Whichever path we take let's keep nature close by our side and our hearts tuned to the divine, shall we? I have a feeling it's going to be grand. I'll meet you here by the blue door.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Nasturtiums Bring Happiness
by Trendle Ellwood
My sense of duty told me that I should be making up some more berry jam or jelly. It sells real well at market and has been my main avenue of earning my keep the last few weeks. But instead I was drawn to the nasturtiums that are blooming so beautifully in my annual flower garden.
Annuals have their own unique magical quality. Unlike perennials they do not set a limited amount of buds a year. With annuals the more you harvest, the more they bloom. They will give and give and give the more you take. So it is almost a shame not to collect them when they are ready. If they go to seed then they are done, they feel that they have finished their job and they go on vacation.
As I stood with the cheerful faces of the nasturtiums around my ankles I was enveloped by their charming spicy sweet scent. I don’t think anyone could stand among the nasturtiums and not admit that these flowers are very happy. This flower so knows happiness that it spills over in cheerfulness with bright blooming faces of orange, yellow, red and all shades of those colors mixed together in swirling blends. Have you ever eaten this edible beauty in a salad?
Although I knew that it probably wouldn’t sell as well as fruit I decided that I was going to cook these lovely edible flowers up into a jelly. I gathered the fresh blossoms and buds into my apron skirt as I wondered what color a jell of them would come out to be. Back at the kitchen I started a pot of water to boil while I washed through the blossoms.
I placed all of the blossoms into a large kettle and poured the boiling water over them and then covered them with a lid and let them steep for a good ten minutes. When I took the lid off the water it looked dark amber in color. I strained the flowers through cheesecloth, keeping the juice, which I returned to the kettle on the stove. As I added sugar and pectin I watched as the liquid turned into a beautiful bronze red.
Ah! It is such a beautiful color! No artificial dyes needed. How glowing it looks in the jars when light shines through the glass. It will be nice to keep a jar of this to pull out on a snowy day in January, to hold it up to the light and remember July’s rich colors as I spread it’s spicy sweet flavor over a piece of toast.
Like I allready said I didn’t think that it would sell at market but it did pretty well. There were a few ladies that really got into my flower jelly and bought some for gifts to herb loving friends. And the conversations that the nasturtium jellies lead us into!
Two sweet pea lovers met at our stand as they were buying the jelly, they were so happy to find another who loved sweet peas as intensely as they. And I learned a few sweet pea tricks as I was listening in!
Hubby was stripping his cured garlic of its outer leaves, which he had not gotten to do until we were set up. His working with the produce seemed to draw people in. We got to talking together later that it is rare these days for people to even see food in the hands of the farmer. When the food passes through the hands of the farmer and not the hands of the machine does it make the product any different? Or is it only the man that the produce has passed through that is changed? Hubby delights in his garlic, he only grows seven different kinds. All in all it was a real good market day. We even sold one of my Moms paintings.
When we left market at mid noon, Amish man Dan paid us in barter for bringing his load of corn to market in our trailer. We were happy to take the scrapings of the corn harvest left in our wagon back home to our chickens. We picked out maple syrup, cucumbers and onions. At home we sliced the cucumbers and make the onions into rings to fashion into cucumber- onion salad because we were going to Farmer Bob’s pot- luck dinner.
I mixed in the usual vinegar, water, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar but I also added some of our lime basil and chopped up some of the colorful nasturtium flowers to sprinkle in it. Not too much, I wanted people to recognize the cucumber-onion salad that that our own Grandmothers made for our family reunions when we were kids. So I kept to the familiar taste with a slight twist, and an added dash of color. It was so pretty! I find that a grand way to keep such a dish cool on the way to the pot- luck dinners is to not put the full amount of water that is called for into the mix. But at the last minute when you are dashing out your door and tucking the chilled dish into the cooler with your ice packs, then you add tiny little ice cubes to the cucumber and onion mix, this will keep it sparkling cold, just give it a stir when you pull it out to eat, the cubes will have melted into ice cold water by then.
So I am glad that I wandered off from my supposed duties the day that the nasturtium flowers enticed me. You never know where such wonderings might lead you!
Copyright © 2004, by Trendle Ellwood All Rights Reserved.
My sense of duty told me that I should be making up some more berry jam or jelly. It sells real well at market and has been my main avenue of earning my keep the last few weeks. But instead I was drawn to the nasturtiums that are blooming so beautifully in my annual flower garden.
Annuals have their own unique magical quality. Unlike perennials they do not set a limited amount of buds a year. With annuals the more you harvest, the more they bloom. They will give and give and give the more you take. So it is almost a shame not to collect them when they are ready. If they go to seed then they are done, they feel that they have finished their job and they go on vacation.
As I stood with the cheerful faces of the nasturtiums around my ankles I was enveloped by their charming spicy sweet scent. I don’t think anyone could stand among the nasturtiums and not admit that these flowers are very happy. This flower so knows happiness that it spills over in cheerfulness with bright blooming faces of orange, yellow, red and all shades of those colors mixed together in swirling blends. Have you ever eaten this edible beauty in a salad?
Although I knew that it probably wouldn’t sell as well as fruit I decided that I was going to cook these lovely edible flowers up into a jelly. I gathered the fresh blossoms and buds into my apron skirt as I wondered what color a jell of them would come out to be. Back at the kitchen I started a pot of water to boil while I washed through the blossoms.
I placed all of the blossoms into a large kettle and poured the boiling water over them and then covered them with a lid and let them steep for a good ten minutes. When I took the lid off the water it looked dark amber in color. I strained the flowers through cheesecloth, keeping the juice, which I returned to the kettle on the stove. As I added sugar and pectin I watched as the liquid turned into a beautiful bronze red.
Ah! It is such a beautiful color! No artificial dyes needed. How glowing it looks in the jars when light shines through the glass. It will be nice to keep a jar of this to pull out on a snowy day in January, to hold it up to the light and remember July’s rich colors as I spread it’s spicy sweet flavor over a piece of toast.
Like I allready said I didn’t think that it would sell at market but it did pretty well. There were a few ladies that really got into my flower jelly and bought some for gifts to herb loving friends. And the conversations that the nasturtium jellies lead us into!
Two sweet pea lovers met at our stand as they were buying the jelly, they were so happy to find another who loved sweet peas as intensely as they. And I learned a few sweet pea tricks as I was listening in!
Hubby was stripping his cured garlic of its outer leaves, which he had not gotten to do until we were set up. His working with the produce seemed to draw people in. We got to talking together later that it is rare these days for people to even see food in the hands of the farmer. When the food passes through the hands of the farmer and not the hands of the machine does it make the product any different? Or is it only the man that the produce has passed through that is changed? Hubby delights in his garlic, he only grows seven different kinds. All in all it was a real good market day. We even sold one of my Moms paintings.
When we left market at mid noon, Amish man Dan paid us in barter for bringing his load of corn to market in our trailer. We were happy to take the scrapings of the corn harvest left in our wagon back home to our chickens. We picked out maple syrup, cucumbers and onions. At home we sliced the cucumbers and make the onions into rings to fashion into cucumber- onion salad because we were going to Farmer Bob’s pot- luck dinner.
I mixed in the usual vinegar, water, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar but I also added some of our lime basil and chopped up some of the colorful nasturtium flowers to sprinkle in it. Not too much, I wanted people to recognize the cucumber-onion salad that that our own Grandmothers made for our family reunions when we were kids. So I kept to the familiar taste with a slight twist, and an added dash of color. It was so pretty! I find that a grand way to keep such a dish cool on the way to the pot- luck dinners is to not put the full amount of water that is called for into the mix. But at the last minute when you are dashing out your door and tucking the chilled dish into the cooler with your ice packs, then you add tiny little ice cubes to the cucumber and onion mix, this will keep it sparkling cold, just give it a stir when you pull it out to eat, the cubes will have melted into ice cold water by then.
So I am glad that I wandered off from my supposed duties the day that the nasturtium flowers enticed me. You never know where such wonderings might lead you!
Copyright © 2004, by Trendle Ellwood All Rights Reserved.
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