Nasturtiums, reaching out, to the left of the mint.
We discovered nasturtiums at a family meal where one of our cousins brought them to the table, literally. She's a professional landscape-artist-awesome-gardener; and her backyard is a mini-farm with just about every produce item you could imagine. The typical tomatoes, zucchini, peppers; but also blackberries, hops, asparagus, raspberries, radishes - anything that could possibly grow on her hillside in central Vermont! At this particular dinner, she presented a gorgeous salad of homegrown greens, freshly made vinaigrette dressing and these little, sweet-looking orange blossoms scattered on top.
For garnish?
Also for eating.
Yes, the blossoms and leaves are a nice, tasty touch to a salad. They are spicy! Not loaded with many Scoville units of heat; but they do offer a delicious, peppery touch to the dish. And they look wonderful!
When in the ground, they tend to spread out, so if you have a garden bed in your yard, they could fill it well. The lily-pad-round leaves present a beautiful appearance as ground cover. We've just been growing them in containers on our porch, so they kind of spilled out the front and created this wonderful cascading "waterfall" of bright orange blossoms. They blossom in shades from white to butter-yellow to fluorescent orange and hot red.
Nasturtiums are also super-easy to care for, so if you have a spare spot in your garden next summer, try them! You'll be able to create the most impressive salads, garnished with Nasturtiums; and bring them to all your picnics and pot-lucks. Your friends will love it - ours do!
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