Hate to see waste

Sunflowers and fennel. Will probably work just as well in a sallad as in a bouquet, and in addition to that this picture shows what my worms will wiggle in in the future. I went down to my allotment the other day. I can still find vegetables in the mass of weed. (People are taking liberties with my patch since it looks deserted - not good. I hope to keep the chard, at least.)

The fennel have survived the first frosty nights. My theory is that the weed works like a blanket, and now I have bulbs that are big as handball balls. I picked a few of them to see if they will work in a casserole, and to get them into the fridge I had to cut off the 'antennas'. Then I realised that the 'dilly' stuff at the end would be possible to dry and use as bedding in the vermicompost - thus I spent an extra half an our cleaning them. The old sunflower bouquet had some leaves that seemed to be useful so they went the same way - ie. up to the linnen sheets in the study to dry and then down the vermicompost. Sometimes I wonder if I may be a tad too economical.

Experiment

This sunflower was picked by mistake at the allotment yesterday. I'm no friend of big and bold flowers, so I'm surprised how well it fits into our kitchen - which is decorated in turqoise and mild yellow tones. And while the flowers lights up our kitchen table I can study its finer details fit for angel bookmarks.

Sunflower is said to be edible, and who am I to refuse an experiment? I picked a yellow leaf and put into my mouth - with a considerabel amount of suspicion. Mom taught me that flowers are poisonous, and the voice of your inner mom is never silent. In addition to that the leaf tasted like perfume, that oldfashion kind with lily of the valley and lilac base, and left a bitter aftertaste. I have to admit I wondered if I would be sick and spent the rest of the evening watching over my stomach. But, I survived!

If I would use sunflower in my cooking I would go for Middle East inspired food, where rosewater is used regularly and where that hint of perfume is desirable. Hm, perhaps it's already used? The climate is right for the plant down there, and there's a good will to use plants creativly.

The small bowl contains another experiment. I picked the tomatoes from my previous plants before I tore them all down. By then they where minute, and I wanted to see if they could ripe eventhough they where dark green. They've taken a few weeks to blush, and they collected some dust bunnies meanwhile. Like most tomatoes made for commersial cultivation their skinns is pretty thick, and it'll be interesting to see if there's something more inside when I try them out for lunch today. I'll post some further report tomorrow.