“Budding” appetites at edible flower lecture

PITTSFIELD – “We’re going to be eating lots of flowers today,” said the instructor at the latest lecture in a series at the Berkshire Athenaeum.

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Mary Ellen Warchol, with her husband, John, owns Stockbridge Herbs, a farming operation in South Deerfield. For the second time this summer, they presented a program that was part of “Boom! Next Chapter.”

The free lecture series, running through September, covers a variety of subjects. Sessions are held in the Berkshire Athenaeum auditorium, One Wendell Avenue.  The programming provides information and ideas on pursuing a healthy, creative and productive retirement for baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. 

People of all ages, however, are welcome to attend the lectures which are sponsored by the library as well as by Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum, the Ralph Froio Center and Berkshire RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program).

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Grant funding for series

A library services and technology grant, a federal source of library funding administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, provided funding.

At the “Edible Flowers” lecture, Madeline Kelly, reference services supervisor at the athenaeum, introduced the Warchols.

“They educate us, they entertain us, and they feed us,”  she said.

Mr. Warchol, a former English teacher, distributed the “tools” of the evening which included plastic forks, spoons and napkins.

Mrs. Warchol told the curious audience to gradually introduce flowers to their systems. She also told them to know the origin of flowers they plan to eat in order to avoid those that have been treated with pesticides. Consequently, supermarket flowers cannot be on the menu as they most likely have been treated.

Denise Lemay, Mrs. Warchol’s sister, who is a profuse garlic grower, helped chop, decorate, pour and serve samples for everyone in the audience at the well-attended program.

Daylilies, yes; regular lilies, NO

While daylilies can be eaten, other lilies must never touch the lips as they can be toxic. The darker a daylily is, the more bitter its taste, the audience learned.

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Mrs. Warchol made a fresh herb and flower cheese spread that included sour cream, cream cheese and chevre (goat cheese). The latter gives it tang, she said. However, if a person dislikes chevre, it can be eliminated and replaced with more cream cheese.

The lecturers told the audience to pick daylilies a day in advance of using them and to refrigerate the flowers upsidedown on cloth and covered.

Also, always remove the stamens of flowers.

Two kinds of garlic

Mr. Warchol shared how garlic was one of the first things planted at the family farm. There are two varieties, the soft, white California garlic and hard neck garlic.

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The latter keeps well for many months, he said. In the spring when the snow melts in New England, garlic will send up “scapes,” which look like tall spindles with curly ends. The plants’ flowers are cut off and the scapes are harvested in July.

Currently, there are 700 garlic plants growing at Stockbridge Herbs.

Mr. Warchol added lots of humor to his part of the program. For example, his late mother was a “city girl” from Millers Falls who came to the farm as a young bride, he said.  She was a less than perfect cook.

Once, she made biscuits that didn’t come out too well so she threw them out to the chickens. 

“One chicken choked on a piece of biscuit,” Mr. Warchol said. “The family ate chicken that night for supper.”

No more lavender

The Warchols used to grow lavender on the farm, and Mrs. Warchol put it in many recipes.

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“I tried lavender brownies, lavender sherbert, lavender shortcake and lavender cookies,” Mr. Warchol said.

He added to the audience’s delight by telling them the buds of cooked lavender resemble the droppings of a small rodent.

At one time, the couple grew 4,000 lavender plants, but no longer. The lavender field has now been plowed under, he said.

Easy to grow basil

It’s very easy to grow basil, Mr. Warcol told the onlookers.

“You can almost put dirt into your palm, sprinkle basil seeds on top, go stand out in the rain, and it’ll grow,” he said.

During the course of the evening, the audience sampled the fresh herb and flower cheese spread, fresh herb salad with strawberry vinaigrette, flower butter and cool as a cucumber herb and flower yogurt soup.

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For dessert, there was Shaker jam cake with rose syrup and lavender cream.

Mrs. Warchol said she’s had the cake recipe for 30 years. It originally came from Hancock Shaker Village.

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“It’s a lovely, moist cake that freezes well,” she said.

There are several recipes using lavender on Mr. Warchol’s blog, the link of which is lavendergrower.tumblr.com.

Gourmet cupcakes coming up

The next lecture in the series will be “Making Gourmet Cupcakes” on Thursday, July 25. Because ingredients have to be purchased, registration, by calling the library, is required.

Posted by Susan M. Wicker Guerrero on July 5, 2013. Filed under Community Events,Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry