Thursday, October 14, 2010

A FLOWERY SUMMER SALAD

This is one of my kitchen garden salads.
P1030401 edible
Up close....
P1030400 My salad mix
Shop salad food flavours go nowhere near competing with the glorious taste of the freshly picked leaves herbs and flowers from my kitchen garden.

13 comments:

TG said...

Looks very colorful. Were the flavours as colorful, too? :)

ZACL said...

I guess flavour, MKL is a very personal matter. Some people may enjoy the variety of light peppery tones of the Nasturtium flowers and their young leaves, also the mellow sweet cashew undertones of the Calendula. There were also a range of leaves and herbs in the bowl. Hopefully, they complimented everything.

Anonymous said...

That's looks good! Flighty xx

ZACL said...

Thank you Mr F. I may just be able to make up a couple more colourful salads, though most of the leaves and flowers are past their best now.

keiko amano said...

ZACL,

I love the salad. It's very attractive. I've never eaten many flowers before, but I won't miss the opportunity if I see one. The popular ones are salted cherry blossoms in tea and tiny fresh yellow chrysanthemums come with raw fish slices.

ZACL said...

Hello Keiko,

I was interested in the edible flowers you mention, in particular the 'tiny yellow chrysanthemum'. The chrysanthemum can be grown here. The ones I know are hardy plants and have quite a large flower.

I have never seen salted cherry blossom, but then, on the occasions when I am able to go into a Asian supermarket, I probably would not know what I might be looking at, as the signs may be in Japanese or Chinese.

The main flowers and leaves I have grown in the garden this year are Nasturtium flowers, also the smaller, younger leaves of the plant, (the bigger leaves can be chewy and not so full of flavour). I have also used Calendula, a plant that is also used in soothing creams and lotions.

I also have chives, a variety of mints, peppermint, pineapple and apple flavoured mint plants, and range of leaves of different colours that can be used for salads. This year I grew lots of flat parsley, which I think has a great flavour, and I had some coriander.

Other seeds I planted did not grow this year. The weather was too cold for too long. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the salads I could make up from the kitchen garden.

keiko amano said...

ZACL,

Yesterday, I had a Okinawan lunch with a young friend of mine, the same age as my daughter. The avocado and tofu salad came with an orchid-like purple flower. She kept looking at it. That means I kept looking at her looking at it. I told her she can eat it. She ate one flower petal at a time. So, I said, "Okay, I'll try it." And I ate a petal also. Mmm. It was chewy even just a tiny petal. It was kind of like mushroom. The fun part was before we ate it, of course. But I think we were prettier afterward?!

ZACL said...

Prettier people emerged after eating the flower petals, but not purple, I hope!

keiko amano said...

ZACL,

In recent weeks, I've learned that in France, so probably in England, too, purple is the color to avoid. In the ancient Chinese and Japanese tradition, purple is prized. Isn't that interesting? But when your skin is so white, I can imagine that some people think of purple as sickness. I never thought of it, but when my skin bruises, it becomes purple. That's not pretty.

ZACL said...

Purple is a very special colour for both good and bad reasons. At one time it was the colour of royalty and nobility. The dyes were too expensive for clothing for the general population. There was a time, I cannot remember the details, when the use of purple was licensed...a long time ago. Money to licence, a form of tax I suppose, would have been involved.

Purple skin colour usually indicates ill health, poor blood circulation etc. A high colour of red in a face can also be a health warning sign.

ZACL said...

PS, I don't know why purple is a colour to be avoided today. I wear lots of it with a variety of tones. This season, there are some wonderful purples in clothes in the shops. I am pleased about it. It can be attractively supported with bright and delightfully coloured accessories.

keiko amano said...

ZACL,

Thank you for your detail explanation. That makes sense. Purple comes in many different brightness and tone, and time and place and occasion are involved when we evaluate a color, and it has the history of more than one thousand year. We're lucky that we don't need a license to wear the color! I can go to UniQlo and pay only 1000 yen or so to buy a purple shirt. What a rip off our old civilizations were!

ZACL said...

How interesting...when I am in one of the UK's big cities I can also visit UniQlo. There is not a huge representation of the company, but I have seen it.

At one time Muji was the place we made a beeline for in the busy cities, we liked the notebooks and mini items. Today, Muji remains unchanged and looks tired.

And yes, I agree, our older civilisations were a rip off. I would also suggest that our current ones are as well. Is there any period in our histories where people were not ripped off, I wonder?