At the end of July 2018 we collaborated with curious cook and finder of weird and wonderful wild things to eat, Clare McQuillan (@claremcqq) for a Hedgerow Picnic Supper Club. We invited photographers Simon & Lorna (and their new little one Isla Mae – just a babe in arms) from Taca Works to capture the evening in images. They have created a magical ‘storyboard’ of the event and these are some of the images I want to share here. Continue reading
This week, on the 26 July 2018, The Edible Flower is two years old. Happy Birthday to Us!
After the amazing response to last year’s “One Year In” blog, we thought we’d follow up a year later with something similar, though no VAT discussions in this one!….
To date, The Edible Flower has cooked 4,293 meals. We’ve bought and prepared £25,434 of ingredients (not including the many kilos of organic vegetables and salad we’ve grown). A big part of what we do is make decisions about what food we buy. Continue reading
Last month we were lucky enough to take an amazing food tour to Ukraine with Experience Ukraine and the chef Olia Hercules. Olia is a Ukrainian chef, now living in London. Her passion is preserving the traditional recipes of Ukraine and the surrounding region, by visiting home cooks, documenting their dishes and then bringing these recipes to a wider audience. Continue reading
Each summer we run a series of Twilight Gardening sessions on Tuesday evenings. It’s a lovely way for us to share some of the lessons we have learned developing The Edible Flower Kitchen Garden. Continue reading
It’s a cliche, but I first ate this dish from a street vendor on the Khao San Road (the infamous backpacker district in Bangkok) when I was a student. I was travelling on a shoestring, I’d landed in Asia for the first time having been brought up in the not very adventurous food scene of Northern Ireland in the 1980s & 90s. I was totally blown away! What was this salty, spicy, sour and sweet concoction? Slippery noodles, fiery chilli, soft tofu, chicken or prawns and crunchy peanuts on top and all cooked in less than two minutes and for a cost of about 25p. Continue reading
This is hardly a recipe at all but is something I cook all the time, perfect when I crave the clean, slightly bitter taste of greens. It is a brilliant way of using up leftover greens that are slightly past their best and that half cabbage that is lurking at the bottom of the fridge, though it is also amazing with fresh greens straight from the garden. It can be made in a matter of minutes and is great for a hit of vegetables alongside a curry or as a main course with some steamed rice and crispy tofu. Continue reading
In April and May 2018 we built a clay oven at The Edible Flower. We couldn’t have done it without a our intrepid team of helpers who came to ours every Tuesday evening for 6 weeks to dig, mix, squelch, scoop and build. Thank you all so much. Continue reading
This is a Spring pavlova to make the most of early season rhubarb and the end of the citrus season, well before any of the soft fruits or stone fruits are in season in Europe. I love desserts with fruit, much more than with chocolate, so Spring and the Hunger Gap can always feel challenging for puddings. Continue reading
Last year Erin worked with a group of young teenage girls teaching them some basic meals to cook at home. It’s fair to say a lot of the girls were pretty sceptical about cooking and eating vegetables, but then they met Erin!
These recipes were all developed to persuade the girls that cooking at home and recreating some takeaway options doesn’t need to be difficult. Continue reading
