pretty enough to eat
By mew
Tags: Capturing Beauty's Rainbow Challenge, easy to grow, easy to grow from seed, edible flowers, edible leaves, edible ornamental, flowers for salads, Foliage, for the edges of borders, kitchen garden, nasturtium, organic garden, plants for beginners, stained-glass blossoms, the Victory Garden, Whirlybird nasturtium
Category: Blog challenges, Easy/For Beginners, Flowers, Foliage
This flower is pretty enough to eat — and for once, you can do so. I like the idea of chowing down on pure Beauty. There’s all kinds of symbolism in that act. And the fact that the blossom in question has a strong peppery taste and is at home garnishing all kinds of savory dishes… that’s just the icing on the cake. Maybe we should change that expression to “the nasturtium on the chef salad.”
I don’t like icing at all. I love pepper. (Raise your hand if you’re surprised….)
For those of you unfamiliar with this lovely, she’s a Whirlybird nasturtium. That’s a series bred with the idea of lifting up the bloom faces to where they’re easier to see among the foliage. Traditional nasturtiums tend to get lost in all that blowsy greenery, with spurred, downward-facing flowers — not that anyone minds. For most of the summer, my plants have been almost exclusively foliage. I love their rounded leaves, which are also, incidentally, edible, and the way they soften the edges of the garden beds, tumbling gracefully into the paths.
I’d certainly sow them for the foliage alone. The blooms are just a bonus. A gorgeous and tasty bonus.
Just for your information, I would definitely recommend nasturtiums to beginning gardeners. Super easy to grow from seed, and because they’re drought resistant, you’re likely to be rewarded unless you have truly freakish weather or soil conditions.
She looks just like stained glass when the sun is shining. The sun didn’t cooperate for this photo, but I think the deeply saturated orange pigment is all the more visible under cloudy skies. That’s good, as this is my photo for Orange as I unofficially follow along with Capturing Beauty‘s rainbow challenge.
Once, while at a party, we were playing the game of “if” and the question for me was, “If you had to define yourself using a color, what would it be?” I chose orange, and a friend there said she would have also chosen orange if asked to define me. I’m not sure if I still feel orange. Perhaps I’m changing with time. But I still love orange and have a visceral response to it. Something about it corresponds to something in my soul.
What about you? Do you have a color that you instinctively respond to?
Victory Garden Redux 
What a beautiful flower.
I’ve read that nasturtiums are edible, and have seen them on cakes (in magazines), but have never tried them. With their colors being so vibrant, they certainly do make a beautiful statement.
I love the idea of using a blog to document a garden’s progress.
I also checked out your other blog. You’re a busy gal and a great writer. Thank you for leaving a comment on my blog, as that is how I found you. I LOVE how that works.
Happy Blogging!
I cannot imagine a cake with nasturtiums that are meant to be eaten. Yuck. Unless perhaps it was a cleverly disguised salmon mousse or something… but you know, the magazines only have to convince us of the visual dimension. Sugared violets or rose petals on a cake maybe… or flowers that everyone is aware they should carefully remove to the sides of their plates, perhaps.
And thank you for the compliments. I continue to visit your blog regularly, and I’m learning lots.
I define myself as kelly green. I thought maybe turquoise at first, and that seemed to fit with my Pisces personality, but definitely kelly green is the one. Bright and cheery, but earthy as well.
Kelly green! That’s a perfect fit for you.
Isn’t it fun to see ourselves as colors?
Wonder what color Avery and Dalton are… it may still be unclear 😉
I smiled when I saw the nasturtium. Years ago I had tons in the garden and when my Mom was visiting and we were walking around the garden I plucked one and ate one. We still giggle remembering the look on her face. We used some to decorate a cake and I agree that the orange is so pure and so radiant. Interesting that orange is so often chosen as the color for fast food restaurants because it’s so intense that people don’t linger.
I have to confess that when it comes to color, I totally captivated by whatever is in bloom in the garden. Right now I’m adoring the clear yellow of the autumn sun coneflower, but last week I was loving the blue of the lobelia in one of the hanging baskets.