My Wholefood Romance

Edible Flowers, grown and gathered.

June 23, 2014 By Meg With 6 comments

edibleflowers

I’m so happy to bring you some great info on edible flowers today! Edible flowers are an instant party starter in my opinion. They bring colour, fun and glam to almost any dish. Throw some nasturtiums over a baked potato, or some lavender in a dessert, and you have immediate pretty and uniqueness! They can also be used therapeutically, and in practice I regularly use liquid herbs made from some varieties along with their leaves/roots – in particular calendula (marigold), dandelion, lavender, chamomile, marshmallow, and fennel.

A few months ago I met the gorgeous Lentil and Matt from Grown and Gathered – pictured below. Together they run a small farm in country Victoria, and share their wonderful, unique harvest of vegetables, herbs, cut and edible flowers, and even home-made bread with Melbourne each week. My favourite part is their ‘flower exchange’, where you are encouraged to bring something to exchange for some cut flowers (if you want to!).

I am so happy to bring you some insight and wisdom from Lentil on edible flowers – what to look out for, and how to grow them yourself.

H.Walker_Grown&GatheredMarch-42

Lentil says:

So, what’ s edible?

CAUTION: To eat flowers, they need to be organic – flowers are often sprayed with all kinds of chemicals not intended for food, especially if they are imported. Many common flowers are also extremely poisonous, including: lily of the valley, daphne, foxgloves, anemone, daffodils, iris and sweet pea pods. So please don’t start eating your everyday supermarket flower or flowers you can’t identify as edible.

There are hundreds of edible flowers, most commonly used for a combination effect, adding texture, flavour and “style” a dish.

Some of the most commonly grown and used flowers include: roses, chamomile, herb flowers (basil, chives, dill, ), vegetable flowers (parsnip, onion, …

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Express Cashew Yoghurt – straight up, vanilla cream, and choc-mint.

June 16, 2014 By Meg With 2 comments

cashew cream

It all started with the above creamy vanilla cashew ‘cream’. Then I wanted more of a tang, so it morphed into a yoghurt situation, and then I made a choc-mint version – because everything should have a choc-mint version! If you are restricted with a dairy free diet, you will no doubt have a hyper appreciation of all things creamy and delicious. Normally, coconut milk is my go-to in these situations, but cashews make a wonderful alternative. I have added probiotics from powder in this recipe, rather than actually fermenting the cashews to make it quick and easy, but stay tuned for more dairy free ferments where I have used the traditional fermenting method. Use the yoghurt as you would any creamy or yoghurt topping – on breakfasts, pancakes, atop of curries, in Mexican fiestas, in smoothies, or just enjoyed with a handful of nuts or some seasonal fruit.

Cashews are high in magnesium, which is one of my favourite minerals as it is all about helping out muscles and nerves to relax. Magnesium also assists healthy blood pressure, and can prevent muscle cramps, headaches, migraines and PMS. Cashews have a wonderful healthy fat profile, have a lovely dose of zinc and copper, and a great, mild flavour that lend themselves to well to loads of different dishes. Because of their creaminess, they are an awesome alternative for yoghurt and cream, when you are after that sort of texture.

cashew yoghurt 3

This is a very versatile recipe. You could use different nuts, add lime juice instead of lemon, adjust the thickness by adding more or less liquid, and if you don’t have psyllium you can use 2 tsp soaked chia seeds in its place.

1 cup raw, unsalted cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

2/3 cup water (or …

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My Wholefood Romance Fermentation Series Part 1: FERMENTING VEGETABLES

June 2, 2014 By Meg With 18 comments

fermentedVeg1 Welcome to the wonderful world of FERMENTATION! I’ll be your host, Meg. I’ve been wanting to write about this for a long time, as it is a topic close to my heart – and I have a book coming out soon on fermented beverages!! Fermenting is also a very big topic, so I have decided to break it down into a few episodes. This first foray into fermentation is all about culturing vegetables. It is one of the least intimidating ways to ferment, as you don’t need any special starters or equipment. Just a little patience {insert Guns n’ Roses style whistle….any late 80′s early 90′s music fans out there? Anyone??}.

Fermented foods and drinks are magical! Most noted for their positive effects on the digestive system, they work to promote an optimal balance of bacteria in the gut. Healthy gut bacteria is essential to the health of the whole body, and unfortunately many of our dietary and lifestyle habits such as sugar, caffeine, processed foods, toxins and stress are harmful to these precious bacteria. Fermented foods and drinks work to maintain, protect and nourish our intestinal cells, and can also alleviate some common digestive conditions such as IBS, bloating, and reflux to name a few. In addition to their wonderful digestive talents, fermented foods and drinks can improve the function of our immune system, help to regulate our allergic response and reduce susceptibility to allergies, improve detoxification, and can contribute to healthy skin and hair. More on that to come.

The greatest thing about making fermented anything is that they are simple, cheap, delicious and easy to make at home, and they are a lot of fun! Making your own ferments is essentially making your own probiotics.

Saurkrautsqueeze 2

I say that fermented foods and drinks are magical, because the process …

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Gorgeous, Glowing Skin and an AMAZING Giveaway from Tata Harper!

May 19, 2014 By Meg With 14 comments

TataHarperfield

Dear Beautiful Readers,

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for being the wonderful people that you are. I love sharing information with you all – even if sometimes I wonder if anyone is reading, and the I will receive an email, a comment on Instagram or Facebook, or sometimes people will tell me directly how much they love and are inspired by the blog, or how their family use the recipes, or how much better their health is, and it just makes my heart explode.

I have been wanting to do a giveaway for a while, and when the opportunity came up to team up with Tata Harper, I jumped at the chance. Our skin is our largest organ, and I think it is sometimes easy to forget that what we put on our skin is absorbed into our bloodstream, just like anything we put into our mouth. So although this is not a food related post per se, I think it is perfectly relevant. I am ecstatic to be able to give away two prizes of Tata Harper products worth over $200 each. As my readership is mainly split between Australia and USA, I wanted to allow residents of both countries to be eligible – hence the two prizes. But more on that below.

TataHarper2

Just in case you are not familiar, Tata Harper is a 100% chemical free skin care company, that make the most divine lotions, creams, oils and tonics. Tata founded the company after being unable to find the products that she wished existed. That is her in the first image, on her beautiful organic farm in Vermont, USA, where a lot of the ingredients are grown – gorgeous! The products are hand-made on site. I have been lucky enough to use them …

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