Nature is finally in full swing! Sparrows are calling us out of bed in the morning and flowers and the season’s first vegetables are springing up in the garden, awakening our spirits. The first sweet strawberries or crunchy peas are rejuvenating our appetite for garden-fresh food. And doesn’t everything taste better when you know how it grows and where it comes from? How wonderful it is to watch berries growing on fruit bushes! Every day, you can see how the sun’s rays provide the plants with the necessary warmth for growth, and how the earth sends its energy into the plants so that, eventually, we can pluck ripe fruit from the branches.
Anyone can start their own garden, as you can grow your own sprouts on cotton wool bed. Put some cotton wool in a rimmed container, sprinkle seeds evenly over the cotton wool and keep moist. Keep the container at room temperature and you will have your sprouts –i.e. your own salad – in 2-4 days! If you’re having soup, salad or a sandwich for lunch, you can quickly grab a handful of the sprouts from your own garden as use them to garnish your meal. The great thing about sprouts is that they’re full of vitamins and give us lots of energy! You can grow all kinds of seeds, e.g. cress seeds and red radish seeds. Sunflower seeds grow into small plants and you can grow fine sprouts from white radish, pea and even broccoli seeds. You’ll be surprised how differently they all taste!
Don’t forget that you can also eat flowers. When you’re out walking with mum and dad, keep your eyes open for edible blooms such as sweet violets or the first lavender. You can gather red clover, daisies or marigolds. Even the first rose petals can be collected for the kitchen. The key thing to remember is that the blooms must be organic, which means they have been grown without poisonous substances such as pesticides. We only want to serve up healthy food after all! You can stir yellow marigold petals or lovely blue starflowers into a soft butter. Or has anyone baked a Sunday cake? You can cover it with dark chocolate icing or fine butter cream – but a handful of colourful petals strewn on top of the icing will give it the most beautiful decoration you could ever imagine. Mum and dad will certainly have nothing against your cutting yourself a large slice on Sunday!