GARDENS IN TAUPO

Taupo Times, Volume III, Issue 119, 7 May 1954, Page 8

GARDENS IN TAUPO

FLOWERS FOR THE LARDER

(By

Flora)

In our modern flower gardens our aim is to produce, during all seasons of the year, a riot of colour, and to make each plant produce its best and biggest flowers for our pleasure. But in other days there was more to it than that, for practically every plant grown was expected to provide, not only a feast of beauty, but also some variety of actual food. It is amazing, in this age when canning and refrigeration. and speeds of transport, have added so much to our list of available foods, to realise how many of the flowers still grown in our gardeng were once called upon to provide food and delicacies for the household larder. Who for instance would dream of pickling broom-buds? What a time the old folk would have had in Taupo during November, for that is the use to which they were put. Or placing before the family a primrose pudding, one of the chief ingredients being two breakfast cups of primrose petals mixed with breadcrumbs, milk, eggs, suet and dried fruit? Very strange indeed to our modern ideas seem some of the recipes given by Miss Flora White in her book "Flowers' as Food." Here are a few that appealed to me. Besides acacia-juice and gum arabic being used from the Acacia Tree, the flowers were placed in batter and fried.

The chrysanthemum was used in many ways in Japan, leaves and flowers being boiled and eaten with soy, while the flowers, after they had been blanched in salt and water, were added to the salad. Many are the recipes that use the humble cowslip of the Engiish hedgerows. Cowslip cream sounds very appropriate, while cowslip tea was recommended for sleeplessness. It was made the same way as our tea of today. The flowers were dried in the sun till quite brittle, then kept for later use. Sometimes the dried or fresh petals were used in cakes for flavouring instead of currants, and were highly recommended.

I really think in Taupo we should make use of the prolific crop of dandelions our lawns produce at times. We could utilize both flowers and leaves. The yellow petals would make delicious Dandelion Wine, or you could make a dande- * lion salad flavoured with bacon dressing. In far Eastern countries much use was made of young bamboo shoots, an excellent pickle being much esteemed. In England the bamboo did not grow to any great extent, so an imitation of it was made with yourig shoots of the elder, and apparently after they had been in pickle for several months there was very little difference. The shoots beside being pickled could be used instead of asparagus, while the elder flowers were used in fritters or to flavour vinegar. If elder blossoms were boiled in gruel this concoction was very effective as a cooling diet in fevers. K Even the yellow tiger lily blooms were used, or if out of season squash flowers instead. They were put on as a garnish when roasting duck, as we use bacon today. For a change you could put marigolds into the beef stew. Roses, too, were used for many dishes. The flowers of the vege-

table marrow were stuffed with force-meat, and this is still a popular dish in Greece and Turkey. Violets too, could be either crystallized set in jelly or'put into apple marmalade. All of which, no doubt, were very nice once you had acquired the taste for them.