A work of art from the garden

Did you know there are lots of flowers that you can eat?  Can you guess which ones I found to put in this salad?

If you guessed roses, you guessed right.  I think I threw in some dandelion petals too but you can't really see those.  De-lish!

Mulberry Tree

Sometimes the question pops up... " Should I pick it, or should I paint it?"  That was the case the other day as I climbed the steps to our little tree house garage apt. to check out the mulberry tree.  They are nearing ripeness but still white.  In the mean time I had a flash back to when I was a young girl who loved to climb trees and sit in the tallest branches.  Soooo I decided to paint the tree instead.  It is almost finished but not quite.
Oh, and on my second day out I tasted the white mulberries and they were delicious.

Maybe now...

Would you like to bid on this painting?  It is on ebay right now for a few days
To bid

Wood Ears

A recent trip to the woods brought me several pounds of wood ears.  These are wonderful mushrooms that once cleaned and dried are easily stored in air tight bottles for winter soups.  Several pounds dried turned into a few ounces! 

I soak these for a while and clean them very carefully as they often have little worms or other bugs hiding at the base.  No problem.  Rinse them off, cut them in slices and dry in the dehydrator.  From what I understand they are better once they are dried and then re-hydrated later.  My research told me the Japanese highly prize this mushroom for soups.  I used mine all winter long that way.  Oh, if you have tons of mushrooms and are running out of ideas, my sister suggested that you grind the dried ones into a powder to add to almost any sauce or casserole.

This time of year you have to do a tick check upon arriving home around these parts.  Only one tick after 2 trips into the woods.  not bad.

Poke Sallet, Wood Ears and Honeysuckle

Yesterday I came across a ton... well maybe not a ton but several pounds of wood ear mushrooms.  I threw them in the dehydrator last night and have a nice bunch of dried mushrooms for winter soups ready to put in cans.  A trip to the alley behind my house brought in a nice haul of poke sallet.  While there I noticed a bunch of honeysuckle growing.  I think I will make another stab at honeysuckle jelly.  In the mean time a first cooking of poke w lots to freeze and some for supper too!

Honeysuckle, Rose Petal Jelly

I love Google.  I googled a recipe for honeysuckle jelly and decided to add a few rose petals for good measure and color.  I thought I had everything covered and went to get the pectin and mine was powdered and the recipe called for liquid so I did some very quick reading and my fingers are crossed that it will jell properly.  If not, I will do the old trick with cream cheese w jelly poured over it, served with crackers and just say, " I meant to do it." :-)

Eating Flowers

Did you know that there are a lot of flowers that are edible?  The easy ones are veggies in your garden that have gone past their supposed usefulness and are headed to seed.  I have been picking turnip, arugula flowers this week for salads and greens.

Other flowers available right now in your yard, garden, tree are redbud blossoms, violets and even the pedals of dandelion.

Paw Paw

I took a walk last night at the Gilcrease Museum and I am glad I did.  I have tried to plant native species of edible plants and trees at my own home and have a couple of paw paw trees.  They do not grow like a weed... they have been in the ground for several years now and have grown very little and have never, to my knowledge, produced a flower. Gilcrease Museum has a wonderful Native American and pioneer garden hidden at the end of a nature trail through the woods and past the ponds.  They have planted and labeled many native species that were used by early settlers and Native Americans.  Anyways I noticed some interesting deep violet/maroon flowers hanging from a tree and took a closer look.  They had a VERY UNUSUAL scent.  Almost like a vegetable smell.  Anyways they were beautiful and were reminiscent of flowers in the night shade family.