Pictured: Flower Petal Pestos. Edible flowers, such as sunflower and nastutium, volunteer in legions in OAEC’s temperate gardens. These brightly colored sauces in small quantities are most efficiently used as a garnish or drizzle. Spoon delicately over crustini or slices of cucumber, or drizzle, Jackson Pollack-style, in the white space around a beautifully plated dish. For best control, pour into a squeeze bottle and doodle away.
Summer Recipe – Nasturtium Pistou
by Doug Gosling
Wait for it – the floral honey cayenne taste of the nasturtium kicks in at the end.
Ingredients (makes ½ cup):
- 1 ½ c nasturtium flowers, tightly packed
- juice of ½ lemon – about 2 T
- ½ c sunflower or other neutral oil (olive oil overpowers the delicate nasturtium taste)
- salt to taste
Combine everything in a blender and whiz until smooth. Taste and adjust the salt and lemon. Add a little more oil if a thinner consistency is desired.
Variation
For a brilliant purple or pink variation, try using stock flowers.
Cookbook News: Civil Eats Interviews Creator Olivia Rathbone
Olivia Rathbone, OAEC Kitchen Manager and Co-Author of the OAEC Cookbook, was recently interviewed by Civil Eats, a news source for critical thought about the American food system that aims to build more economically and socially just communities.
Learn why Olivia was inspired to create the cookbook; her advice on cultivating a diverse kitchen garden for beginning gardeners; and what gardening can teach us about cooking. Also, try out the Bay-Infused Cheesecake with Bay Nut Crust recipe listed at the end of the article!
“These recipes are about discovering and creating a relationship with the land through time. Our mission and work is tied into the promotion of eco-literacy, and our guests get to experience, on a gut level, what sustainability tastes like. In the spirit of Carlo Petrini’s Slow Food ‘protest of pleasure,’ we resist the industrialized food system not only through voicing our resistance to pesticide use, factory farming, and other unsustainable practices, but by living out the solution pathway and co-creating the kind of restorative, celebratory, land-based culture we want to see thrive.” –Olivia Rathbone
