07.02.08
Posted in Musings at 11:01 am by trueepicure
I’m completely fascinated by the idea of edible flowers. Food for insects AND humans? Pretty cool stuff.
I’ve eaten Nasturtium flowers (and leaves) several times, and I’m growing some this year in my garden. Lavender flowers are also edible, and you’ll find them paired with lemons quite often, and I’ve seen several recipes for Lavender shortbread. Some scented geraniums are also have culinary uses; many jams and jellies that incorporate various Geranium “flavors”.
I haven’t tried fried squash blossoms yet, but they sure sound tasty. I was reading about wild Hibiscus flowers in syrup in a magazine the other day (Real Simple?) - that sounds like a great thing to put on top of vanilla ice cream. While we were preparing to get married, I saw loads of sugared violets and rose petals all over so many of the magazine cakes.
It’s a never ending festival of scents and flavors. I’m particularly partial to the idea of Lavender shortbread… hmmmm… I see some recipe testing in my future.
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06.29.08
Posted in Musings at 2:23 pm by trueepicure
Just made a crustless quiche with a recipe from the District Domestic. It’s a great recipe.
I changed up the recipe a bit:
Greek yogurt instead of the sour cream (slightly safer for E)
Lactose free milk
a few marinated sundried tomatoes
left out the Parmesan cheese
sprinkled a bit of fresh dill from our garden on top
Surprisingly, I didn’t miss the cheese or the salt and pepper that I thought I might need. The tomatoes and the dill were plenty. The eggs, garlic, and the yellow squash I used are all from the local farmer’s market.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with the remaining seven eggs that doesn’t involve large quantities of butter and sugar. 
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Posted in Environment, Flowers, Food, Gardening, Musings, Plants at 1:05 pm by trueepicure
It’s been raining so much here lately, that we haven’t been able to mow the lawn much. I know E isn’t particularly happy about it, but at least the bees are happy. They seem to like the clover that’s growing in the yard:
I’m trying to pay more attention to the bees… and to the smaller things in life that I tend to overlook because I’m busy or just plain not paying attention. Bees are on my mind more and more lately because of the news about Colony Collapse Disorder. I now have a number of veggie plants in the back yard, that won’t get pollinated unless the bees or other insects are drawn to the yard. Imagine what will happen if all of the bees die?!
So here’s to our slightly overgrown lawn, bees, and the other small things that might get overlooked.
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06.28.08
Posted in Food, Gardening, Local Food, Musings, Plants at 3:00 pm by trueepicure
The first basil harvest from this year’s basil plants. Kind of small, but it will be tasty with this weekend’s farmer’s market finds, including some lovely grape tomatoes.
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06.15.08
Posted in Flowers, Food, Gardening, Musings at 12:45 pm by trueepicure
It’s been a busy couple of weekends, but there has been garden work happening.
1. Eggplant ‘Black Beauty’, 2. Banana Pepper, 3. Tomato ‘Cherokee Purple’, 4. Tomato ‘Better Bush’, 5. African Daisy, 6. Herbs
I’m doing pots this year because we will probably be moving again. How far is anyone’s guess, but at least my tomatoes will be portable! 2 of the three tomato plants and some of the herbs (including the Genovese basil) are locally grown by smaller farms in the area. The rest of the plants were purchased at Home Despot, but they claim to be locally grown (all in the Maryland area, I belive). I don’t know how accurate it is that the HD plants are locally grown, as the pots indicate they are distributed by a local company but don’t necessarily say they were grown there.
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06.06.08
Posted in Gardening, Musings at 10:00 am by trueepicure
I need more focus in my blog-life.
I love to blog, but I haven’t been doing much of it, and I definitely haven’t been doing it consistently. I think I just need some direction, and a little bit of structure. I have a plan brewing… and I think it will work.
While I’m figuring things out, go read about the USDA Extension Program. It’s a really great program, and it’s incredibly useful if you are interested in gardening. Every state and U.S. Territory has an extension program - even the District of Columbia has one and they don’t even have voting rights. That’s a post for another day.
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06.04.08
Posted in Musings at 11:07 am by trueepicure
Last night I went walking with the dog just after the rain, and had the pleasure of walking past a large patch of lavender in a neighbor’s yard. I can’t quite describe the scent, but it was so lovely - spicy lavender and the sweet green smell of rain.
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06.01.08
Posted in Books, Local Food, Musings at 8:54 pm by trueepicure
I’m currently reading The World Without Us
. It’s a really fascinating discussion about what would happen if humans disappeared from the planet. I never really think about how much we have engineered the world for our purposes, but this book does an excellent job of describing how much we have invested in making our world habitable, and how our making the world habitable has pushed us into making the world inhabitable.
I found out today that Gary Paul Nabhan has another book out that I need to read. Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods
sounds like an extension of his book Coming Home to Eat
, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
In between all of the books, we’ve been having some wonderful meals. My last two trips to the farmer’s market and our visit to Eastern Market last week, have morphed into several delicious meals, including an impromptu lunch of whole wheat pasta, goat cheese, and local asparagus and tomatoes. A lovely oil and vinegar dressing with a red onion (probably from Georgia) tied the whole thing together for a truly satisfying and fairly healthy meal. We finished the last of the eggs from Smith Meadows Farm this morning, so I have to make a trip to the market next week for sure.
6/2/08 ETA to add correct link to Smith Meadows Farm
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05.29.08
Posted in Affirmation, Environment, Musings at 9:29 am by trueepicure
Some days you just have to enjoy the simple beauty the world has to offer. Forget about all of the worry, and just enjoy what is.
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05.08.08
Posted in Musings at 1:49 pm by trueepicure
I attended a technology and education conference yesterday. It was an interesting mix of technology wonks, educators, administrators, and political mucky mucks. It was a really great conference in a lot of ways - including helping us to rethink how we provide education in this country. Technology is a critical part of how we live and work, and for that matter, how we play, and yet I couldn’t help thinking that we are doing a huge disservice to our nation’s youth in not teaching them basic things like where food comes from or how to make a budget.
I suppose that the technology is just another way to learn basic things, and that it is critical for kids to learn how to survive in a digital world, but I worry that we are so focused on computers and cellphones, that we will lose our understanding of the physical world and all of the wonderful things in it.
I kept finding myself thinking about James Howard Kuntsler’s book World Made by Hand
during the conference. In World Made by Hand, the world economy has collapsed and the major economic centers of the United States have been destroyed. The people who have survived the Spanish Flu pandemic are slowing trying to rebuild their lives as farmers, salvagers, and traders. Electricity is scarce, and access to fossil fuels has all but disappeared. I keep thinking to myself that in our digital ways might be our undoing in the end.
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