Name: Poppy Seeds
Location: Gardens, Parks, Sidewalks
Months: June, July August
Edible Parts: Seeds
Caution: Make sure you correctly identify the poppy flower before proceeding.
Poppies of all sizes and colours make wonderful nutrient rich seeds to add a little extra to your cooking.
After the flowers have bloomed the pod develops and then dries out. All you have to do is tip it over and the seeds will pour out of the holes at the top of the pod.
What at first glance looks like a barren field with a few daisies actually turns out to be a little field full of camomile.
Name: Camomile
Location: Grassy areas
Months: April, May, June July
Edible Parts: Flowers
They look like tall slender daisies with feathery leaves. The yellow center is bulbous and smells strongly of camomile. Smell some camomile tea if you are unsure of what that smells like! The smell is very distinctive and unmistakable.
Name: Fuchsia (that’s ch-s not s-ch)
Location: Mostly gardens or public garden spaces
Months: Flowers and berries in summer/Autumn
Edible Parts: Flowers and Berries
Non-Edible Parts: Leaves, Stalks
Fuchsia is a great flowering plant to have in your garden or allotment. For one thing the BEES love it! So if you are adding it to any area, bear this in mind and place it away from seating areas and preferably in the middle of crop plants to encourage the bees.
There are lots of different varieties of fuchsia – some have large flowers, and large berries and others are light pink or purple or fuchsia coloured! However, none of them are poisonous. Each different variety has it’s own flavour and sweetness so try them out and taste for yourself what kind of berry they produce before you buy to make sure you get a strain that suits you. Some are super sweet and some are a bit bitter and have an after taste.
I purchased this plant here for my new permaculture allotment because of the following key reasons:
Dandelion Flower wine is best made when the dandelion flowers are in full bloom in the spring and fully open on a sunny day. The wine requires acidifying for the yeast so it tends to become a very citrus flavoured wine. For this reason we called this batch the Citrus Bang. We aren’t usually very fond of overly citrus flavours so we may change or ignore this recipe next year or use it as “Filler” wine only (wine we make only when we have made everything else available and have spare drums/demijohns).
This recipe makes a great light flavoured cordial and makes 1-2 bottles. Enjoyed best over a slice of lemon and ice cubes this is a perfect spring and summer drink. The flavour is very mild and sometimes outweighed by the syrupy nature of the cordial so those who have a sweet tooth may really enjoy this one.
Collect at least 100 dandelion flower heads fully opened and trim off the green bases. It’s okay to get a few green bits in with the petals and they usually get in the way.
Give the petals a quick wash/rinse but be careful not to loose all the flavour!
Boil the petals with roughly 1 pint of water and allow to cool and steep overnight in a covered bowl.
Add the juice from a half a lemon and strain out the petals thoroughly.
Weigh the liquid (a bit tricky I know) and for every 1g of liquid you have created add 0.95g of sugar. You can use different sugar types if you prefer but they will affect the flavour, for a clean basic flavour use white granulated.
Stir in the sugar and gently heat until dissolved (do not boil).
Pour contents into bottles and seal.
