Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tuesday's balcony lunch and Nasturtium

Right now it's tomato season on the balcony in the tiny town of B. We have our usual culprits:
-lettuce
-the never-failing cucumber
-cherry tomatos in excess (there's one yellow, and a tiny undersized red one hidden there)
-nasturtium (the red flower petals mixed in)
-olive oil (not from the balcony)

So what's with the Nasturtium, h? My Polish teacher knows I'm into gardening and gave me a few seeds two months back. For kicks I threw each in an empty spot. And boy did the suckers sprout up:

I researched online, the whole thing is edible. (OK, not that buggy leaf in the bottom right). The leaves and/or the flowers may be used raw in salads, or in a myriad of recipes. I was reading online that it's close to watercress in taste when raw, and when dried the leaves can be used as a substitute for black pepper.

Wowie does it have a sharp taste. I researched further, the younger leaves are less sharp, so I gave them a spin, no dice. I've resigned myself to only eating the red blossoms, as it's the only thing I can reasonably tolerate; as well as they look so lively in the salad with the bright red color. But in the meantime, because I'm not chopping off leaves, it's gaining steam. This was three days ago, and and since then I have 3 more blossoms.

One day I may wake up to a giant red flowered plant knocking on my closed balconey door (demanding I don't know what?) if I don't find an alternate use soon...

2 comments:

Jul said...

Interesting. Never seen that before.

And next year I am totally growing cucumbers.

heather in europe said...

jul:
I recommend Nasturtium, but only a seed or two. It's quite a proliferous plant...but then again, so are the mighty cucumbers. ;-)