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Cheese Rind: Which Ones Are Edible and Which Are Better Not?

Anyone who likes to eat cheese often encounters uncertainty about the rind as to whether it is edible or not. A few tips can help with orientation.

Cheese rind: edible or not?

As a rule, the question of whether a rind is edible or not can be answered quickly for you if you have bought a packaged cheese. On the packaging there is usually an indication of whether the bark is edible or not. If the bark is “not suitable for consumption”, it is often an artificial bark made of wax or paraffin or a plastic coating.

If the preservative E 235, also known as natamycin, is used, this must be noted. According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, it is harmless to consume small amounts of the substance. However, if you want to do without it, you should remove the bark. In principle, it is recommended for pregnant women, the elderly and people with a weakened immune system to always remove the artificial bark, otherwise health problems could occur. This risk should be avoided at all costs.

However, some cheese rinds also mature naturally. This is a bacterial flora that forms the fresh milk during maturation. The rind often plays an important role in developing the full flavor of the cheese and should therefore not be removed; unless the rind is too hard and therefore not edible. Types of cheese that have a rind with a characteristic taste are, for example, blue cheese, Emmental, Roquefort and Parmesan.

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Lifestyle

Make Your Own Edible Christmas Decorations

Every year in the time leading up to Christmas, the question arises of how to decorate for Christmas. Which color and style should the Christmas decorations have this year and how can you implement your creativity inexpensively? We have creative ideas for making edible Christmas decorations yourself with little money.

Decorate for Christmas

If you rummage through the boxes with Christmas tree balls, fairy lights, angels, Santa Clauses, and reindeer before the first Advent, you will always find broken decorations or less trendy colors. So that you can still decorate for Christmas, you should consider redesigning the entire decoration for Christmas. And with a little imagination and dexterity, you can create an inexpensive and all-natural alternative to the usual plastic balls and plastic ornaments. Because making edible Christmas decorations yourself is fun and can be redesigned every year.

Ingredients for making edible Christmas decorations yourself

The beautiful Christmas decoration is often far too expensive for the fact that it is only used once a year. In addition, you usually need several decoration sets so that you don’t use the same decoration for the Christmas tree and the rest of the apartment every year. Therefore, an edible Christmas decoration can be just the thing to bring variety into the house every year. For this you should look out for certain sweets and foods when shopping in the run-up to Christmas:

  • Biscuits such as cinnamon stars, speculoos, or gingerbread in various shapes.
  • Traditional foods such as cinnamon sticks, anise stars, dried apple, or orange slices.

Make ideas for edible Christmas decorations yourself

As soon as you have gathered the necessary groceries and ingredients, you can start. Of course, you can also bake cookies yourself and get creative with them. Because cookies are a good way to decorate the Christmas tree. As a result, we have collected some ideas on how to decorate your home with festive and Christmas decorations:

1) Decorate the Christmas tree with edible Christmas decorations

You can decorate your Christmas tree with gingerbread hearts, stars, and pretzels as hangers. To do this, take a fabric ribbon about 10 cm long and attach the edible decoration to it. And speculoos also looks great on the tree. To do this, thread a thin gold cord through the small opening and hang up the delicious biscuits. You can attach the decorative apples to the stem and crown the top of the Christmas tree with an almond-decorated gingerbread angel from the bakery or Christmas market. And stored in a dry place, everything – apart from the ornamental apples – will last until the next Christmas. Also, note valuable tips for buying a Christmas tree.

2) Christmas decorations for the window sill

Cinnamon sticks, orange and apple slices, anise stars, and cinnamon stars are ideal for Christmas decorations with little money. Attach them with floral wire to the fresh Advent wreath or to other fir branches that you can place on the windowsill. Then combine this with a chain of lights and you already have nice smelling jewelry and a cozy living room for Christmas.

3) Groove marzipan balls for decoration

Marzipan balls are not only delicious, but they also make a good Christmas decoration. You can also easily make this edible Christmas decoration yourself. Because all you have to do is dress up the balls with edible gold powder. You can also dip some of the balls in white or dark chocolate and decorate them with colored sprinkles. You can then decorate your tree with them or use them as table decorations.

4) Make the salt dough and use it as a decoration

A cheap way to decorate at Christmas time is to make salt dough. Because decorating the Christmas tree with salt dough is not only sustainable, it also looks good. And the good thing is, this is a fun activity for the whole family. So take an afternoon and get creative. So you can punch stars, fir trees, or figures out of it.

5) Decorate with sweets for Christmas

You can also bake cookies and use them to make your Christmas decorations. Because from the self-made Christmas village to the Christmas tree, you can make a lot out of it.

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Cooking Tips

Drying Walnuts: This is How The Nuts From The Garden Become Edible

Walnuts from the garden must first be dried before they can be eaten. Find out here how best to dry the delicious nuts and what you should bear in mind when doing so.

Why dry fresh walnuts first?

During the walnut harvest, the nuts are not picked from the tree, but picked up from the ground. Ripe walnuts usually fall from the tree by themselves between September and the end of October. You should then collect them quickly: If soil moisture penetrates through the wooden nutshell, mold will form after a short time.

The walnut harvest can extend over a longer period of time because the nuts do not all fall off at the same time. It is best to check the ground under the walnut tree every day for freshly fallen, ripe nuts that you can pick up.

A walnut tree can easily bear up to 130 kg of fruit. If you want to store a large amount of walnuts, be sure to dry them first. This is the only way to prevent your harvest from spoiling.

Drying walnuts: This is how you prepare the nuts

After harvesting, you should prepare walnuts as follows:

Clean: The wooden walnut shell may still be surrounded by the soft outer shell. Remove these thoroughly and completely with a brush, otherwise mold can form. It is best to wear gloves when working: this way you avoid the peel discolouring the skin on your fingers and hand.
Never wash the walnuts with water, as moisture can spoil them quickly.
Sort: Dry only pristine and ripe walnuts. If they have black spots or appear shriveled, this indicates mold or parasites. These walnuts absolutely must be sorted out.

How to properly dry walnuts

After these steps, you can dry the walnuts. Pay attention to:
The right temperature: It is best to dry the nuts in a room in the house that is around 20 °C. Suitable are, for example, an insulated attic, the boiler room or the house entrance. But make sure that the room is not too warm.
The Right Place: Dry the walnuts in fruit crates lined with newspaper. Wooden frames over which grids are stretched are also very suitable.
Enough space: The most important rule when drying: Only place the walnuts in a single layer in the fruit box or on the grid and leave enough space between the individual nuts. Make sure they don’t touch. The air must be able to circulate around the nuts so that they dry evenly and do not form mold.
Sufficient time: The walnuts need about 4 to 6 weeks to dry completely. Turn them every few days so they dry evenly. Finally, check if the nuts are dry: open one or two and take a good look at their kernels. If it’s not brittle, but rather rubbery, the nut isn’t dry enough.
Once the walnuts have dried, you can store them. Fill them in a basket or in a potato sack and keep them in the pantry. There they stay fresh for up to 12 months.

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health

Edible Flowers and Dried Edible Flowers

Edible flowers and edible flowers and dried edible flowers. Simply plant edible flowers in the garden or window box or buy real edible flowers. Dried edible flowers for refining salads or as a decoration for cakes.

Use of edible flowers

Edible blossoms and flowers as well as dried edible blossoms are not only delicious but also a visual eye-catcher and also healthy. You can easily plant edible flowers, whether in the garden or in the window box. All flowers have special effects on health. Some are well-known medicinal plants that have been used for medicinal purposes since time immemorial. The flowers can be enjoyed pure or in salads or used to refine drinks and desserts. Edible flowers are a healthy addition to the menu, adding color and flavor to any dish.

Plant edible flowers in the garden

Many of the flowers found in the garden, such as the magnolia, tulip, and fuchsia, are also edible. If you don’t have a garden, you can buy the dried flowers commercially. Here you will find our tips on ordering and sending flowers online. However, flowers from the flower trade are usually not suitable for consumption. Some supermarkets or health food stores can sometimes find pre-packaged salads with edible flowers. However, these are not always fresh and are worth checking out.

Dried flowers can be found in many health food stores with spices or tea. You don’t necessarily need a garden to enjoy the edible flowers, as they also thrive in a box on the balcony or windowsill. Also, note our tips and tricks for watering flowers. It is important that the flowers are not sprayed with pesticides and have not been treated with artificial fertilizers. We have 16 home remedies for this as plant fertilizer and flower fertilizer.

Prepare the edible flowers

In preparation, examine the edible flowers for insects and remove them. Then the flowers are washed. However, they taste better if they are not soaked. The flowers should be harvested in the bud and preferably early in the morning when the aroma and the active ingredient content are most intense. You can only eat the flowers if you are sure which plant it is and know it is not poisonous. It’s best to learn which flowers are edible and which are poisonous. Genetically modified flower varieties are also discouraged.

Craft Dried Edible Flowers

In order to be able to produce dried edible flowers, you need a dark and well-ventilated place, such as an attic. It is important that the air circulates well so that the buds can dry. You will also need a tray or grid and clean kitchen towels. It is best to pre-dry the buds first. To do this, lay out your tray or grid with kitchen towels and place the buds on them at enough distance. Then you put the sheet in a dark, well-ventilated place. After about 3 days, the flowers will have dried a little.

You can now carefully separate the individual petals from the buds and distribute them on the tray lined with towels. You can also leave small buds where it would be too cumbersome to separate the tiny petals, such as daisies. Then you put the sheet back in the place to dry. After another week or so, most of the buds will have dried. It is best to test whether the flowers are crackling. When they are dry and crackling, you can put them in dark mason jars and put them in a dark place to store them. You can now use them for tea or to decorate cakes. Here you will find instructions and tips for drying herbs.

Tasty edible flowers

You can grow the nasturtium on the balcony. The orange to yellow flowers is very decorative in salads. The round, green leaves are also edible. The taste is slightly spicy and reminiscent of pepper. That’s why it goes well with all spicy dishes. The petals of the rose are edible and taste mild and sweet. They go well with all desserts and are decorative on cakes. Small rosebuds go well with the tea. You can easily make jam from rose petals, juice, and jelly.

In the Orient, rose oil and roses are very often used in the kitchen. In addition, violet blossoms have a very strong aroma. They taste just like they smell. Its sweetish aroma is suitable as an addition to all sweet dishes and cakes. The violet blossoms are also known as candied violets. The flowers are briefly boiled in a sugar solution and then dried. You might also be interested in our Valentine’s Day tips with the best recipes.

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Food

Eat Passion Fruit: These Parts Are Edible

Eating passion fruit is healthy and the fruit is full of vitamins and nutrients. But which parts of the exotic fruit can you eat and what about their ecological balance?

Passion fruit is easily confused with the closely related passion fruit. You can tell them apart by size and color: Passion fruits are small, purple to purple fruits. Maracujas, on the other hand, are larger and more yellow-orange in color. However, passion fruit is mainly suitable for making juice, as it is very acidic and therefore hardly edible on its own.

Passion fruits, on the other hand, are easy to eat and have a pleasantly sweet and sour taste. In terms of nutrient content, they are in no way inferior to their orange relatives: they are rich in vitamin C, various B vitamins, potassium and iron. You can eat both the pulp and the seeds of the passion fruit. The shell, on the other hand, is not edible.

Passion fruit: What can the little vitamin bomb do?

If you want to eat passion fruit, you should make sure that it does not ripen. They also don’t last very long. So when buying passion fruit, it is best to look for a dark color and consume it within a few days. If your passion fruit looks a little wrinkled on the outside, don’t worry. It just means the skin has lost moisture. However, it is a sign that you should eat the fruit as soon as possible, otherwise the pulp can dry out and the passion fruit then no longer tastes particularly good.

Tip: You can recognize a ripe passion fruit by the fact that it feels heavy, like an egg. This is because it still has a lot of liquid in it and the pulp hasn’t dried out too much.

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Edible Flowers: These Flowers Are Edible

They ensure a good mood in the flower bed or balcony box – and on the plate: edible flowers.

Many cannot imagine a balcony or a garden without something in bloom. And rightly so: flowers are colorful eye-catchers in the garden, on the terrace and on the balcony.

The splashes of color in green aren’t just there to draw admiring glances. They also fulfill an important task: flowers attract bees, bumblebees, butterflies and other insects so that they can fertilize the plant and fruits such as apples, tomatoes or raspberries can develop.

Edible flowers not only as decoration

But many flowers are also edible for us. Depending on the plant, we can use the petals or even whole flowers in the kitchen. And not just as a decoration: With their sugar-sweet to peppery-spicy aromas, edible flowers give dishes and drinks a special touch.

Some edible blossoms are also valued in the natural medicine cabinet: tea made from lavender blossoms, for example, is said to help with stomach and intestinal problems and problems falling asleep. Infusions made from mallow are said to have a cough-suppressing effect. And the flowers of chamomile have even made it onto supermarket shelves as a tea infusion.

Edible or poisonous?

Flowers, vegetables, herbs and shrubs: Edible flowers can be found in every category. Unfortunately, they do not show whether flowers of a certain plant or species are edible. To be on the safe side, you should inform yourself in advance and be sure of what you have in front of you before you harvest and process it. If you are unsure: better leave it alone.

The blossoms of wild garlic, borage, buckwheat, daisies and elder are usually considered edible

The following flowers are inedible or even poisonous: columbine, Christmas rose, monkshood, angel’s trumpet, foxglove, laburnum, autumn crocus, lily of the valley, buttercup, hemlock, sweet clover, deadly nightshade and nightshade plants such as tomatoes.

You can do this with edible flowers

Edible flowers have many uses in the kitchen – fresh, dried, raw, cooked, made into syrup or jelly, or preserved in vinegar and alcohol. Herb and vegetable blossoms usually refine savory dishes, flower blossoms are particularly suitable for sweet dishes and drinks.

For example, you can spice up green salads with the freshly plucked flowers of nasturtium, cornflower, borage, rocket and daisies. When chopped, they transform herb quark, dips and herb butter into colorful eye-catchers that you can smear on bread and baguette or serve with boiled potatoes, steamed vegetables and grilled meat. You can turn elderflowers in batter and fry them and serve them as a main course. The same goes for zucchini: simply fill the blossoms with cream cheese – or the corresponding vegan alternative – and enjoy with a salad.

Edible flowers also in desserts

You can use edible flowers in many ways: If you prefer something sweeter, you can decorate desserts and cakes with candied rose petals or violets. Homemade pralines and broken chocolate become real eye-catchers with dried blossoms of lavender, rose, marigold and cornflower. They also give herbal salt and biscuits a special touch.

But edible flowers not only look good on the plate, they also look good in glasses and cups. Dried rose and jasmine blossoms refine green teas, while cornflowers and marigolds provide splashes of color in herbal mixtures.

Blossom ice cubes are culinary eye-catchers in summery cocktails. You can make a liqueur or dessert wine from fresh dandelion flowers. Fresh violets are useful for flavoring vinegar and sugar; you can also process them into syrup. Incidentally, elderflowers are also suitable for the latter – if you don’t want to make jelly or fry them.

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Cooking Tips

Edible Plant Parts – No Case for the Bin!

Admittedly, we were really wide-eyed when Wanda completely cleaned a kiwi with skin and hair during the breakfast break for the first time. Isn’t that poisonous…? we asked. nope was the answer.

You really can’t explain why some parts of the plant make it onto the plate as a matter of course and why others are categorically spurned. It is worth it to us to take a closer look at the topic with an open mind.

When supposed waste becomes a kitchen star

After the preparation of fruit and vegetables, the compost heap is sometimes larger than the meal itself. Valuable and tasty plant parts are often thrown away in the process. affluent society. ignorance. Habit. Wanda slyly felt about it and so she groped her way curiously and made a little space on her plate for seeds, peel and leafy greens. Result: A lot of the avoided accessories of our plant-based food are not only edible, but also tasty, healthy and included free with the vegetables! Time to finally get the plant parts out of their “garbage image”…

Of hard shells and soft cores

Seeds, skins and leaves usually have one thing in common: a densely packed supply of nutrients. In addition, a high fiber content, which comes from a significantly lower water content in these parts of the plant. Your digestion will be happy!

Three parts of plants that are often avoided and their properties at a glance:

The peel – guardian of vitamins?

A widespread thesis is that there are many vitamins under the outer cell layer, the shell. Is that even true? Most of the time yes. In the case of potatoes, however, the vitamin content tends to decrease towards the skin. But that’s usually true. This is also the case with apples, whose vitamin content in the skin is about seven times higher, according to Prof. Bognar (Federal Research Institute for Nutrition). The peel is also often many times richer in proteins and minerals. No wonder that it is often automatically eaten with many types of vegetables and fruit. In the case of a raw tomato, this is for practical reasons alone, as it is only held together by its skin.

Shell Facts:

Antioxidant plant compounds serve to protect the fruit from sun exposure and oxygen
In the shell are polyphenols and vitamin C
These act not only in the plant, but also in the human body as antioxidants and protect against aging processes and cell damage
Apple peel is particularly popular against constipation due to its high pectin content
Vitamin C in citrus peels has a dehydrating effect

The core – power center for new life

The core, botanically more correctly referred to as seed, fruit, drupe, is the basis for the propagation of vegetable and fruit plants.

Seed Facts:

The seed naturally contains nutrients that are intended to promote the growth and further development of the seedling
In the case of stone fruit, the edible seed is in the hard stone fruit, which must first be dried and then cracked (almonds, apricots). The same principle applies to popular seeds such as pumpkin or sunflower seeds
While stone fruit has to make do with just one seed, tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins, for example, contain several dozen seeds that are edible without any problems
The components of seeds are scientifically evaluated in a differentiated manner for human consumption, which is why you should inform yourself and weigh up before eating (see information on avocado seeds below).
Kernels that are not used in the food industry are being used more and more to generate energy by being burned, such as corn cobs or olive kernels.

The leafy green – Important for the red blood

Chlorophyll – a boring term for plant pigments, which used to be discussed in biology classes and which for a long time only really interested hobby aquarists. But ever since the green smoothie era began, chlorophyll has been on everyone’s lips as the green happiness of health. And not without reason – there is a lot of power in the green foliage of the plants…

Leaf Green Facts:

Chlorophyll is essential for photosynthesis in plants
Chlorophyll is similar to the human blood pigment hemoglobin
It promotes the absorption of iron and magnesium
It is blood-forming, blood-purifying and cell-strengthening and therefore also good for brain function
Tip: If you harvest leafy greens while the plant is growing, keep in mind that the fruit will then be smaller

You have to try these unusual plant parts!

Fruits

fruit Edible plant part possibility of use
pineapple Peel It is very firm at first and needs to be soaked after washing. Then you can simmer them for the infusion. This can help you lose weight, have a detoxifying effect and be good for kidney stones or high blood pressure.
banana Peel The yellowish peel is edible and is said to have antibiotic and anti-fungal properties. In South America, the peel is cooked or eaten raw. Try some pureed zest in a smoothie!
strawberries Green hood The small green caps of the strawberry can be eaten without any problems. They contain an extra shot of antioxidants and flavonoids.
kiwi Peel Have you ever bitten into a kiwi like an apple? This is common in New Zealand. For this you simply have to cut the hair of the kiwi z. B. Rub off with a vegetable brush. Alternatively, you can also buy a Golden Kiwi directly.
mango Peel Skin and fruit are edible. The peel contains many antioxidants and has an anti-inflammatory effect. The greenish mango peel is not poisonous, at most it has an unusual taste. The peel can be eaten raw or processed into a smoothie or lassi. You can also cut them into small pieces and enjoy them as a candied snack. Approach cautiously at first!
watermelon Peel If you peel the green skin, you can grated the melon peel as a salad, or use it pureed in a soup or smoothie.
citrus fruits Peel The grated peels of lemons, oranges or limes are very popular for baking. You can also let them dry and enjoy them as a sparkling tea.

Vegetables

 

vegetables Edible plant part possibility of use
fennel fennel green It is suitable as a spicy herb for pasta and soups. The feathered part of the green is eaten. Blanched in hot water for 2 minutes, it can spice up any dish as a decorative, tasty herb.
Herbs like parsley, dill and basil stems Not only the fine leaves of many herbs, but also the slightly stronger stalks are good in smoothies, salads and soups and give them a special flavor. So, don’t be too strict when sorting!
Kohlrabi leaves The leaves of kohlrabi can also be processed into vegetable chips, pesto, soup or in a salad.
pumpkin peel, seeds and flowers And that doesn’t just apply to Hokkaido. You can eat the peel, seeds and flowers of almost all edible pumpkin varieties. If the shell is too hard, you can boil it in a broth. You can easily bake the kernels in the oven.
Corn leaf hair In Chinese folk medicine, health-promoting properties are ascribed to the golden hair of corn. It is eaten as a tea or as a raw snack and has a sweetish milky taste.
carrots leaf green Have you ever tried carrot green pesto? Then it’s high time! Simply mix together with sundried tomatoes, garlic, maple syrup, oil and salt
leek leaves You always cut off the firmer, green leaves and only eat the white part? Just put the green parts in the pan a little earlier, then they will be just as tasty as the white ones.
radish leaf green From the green leaves of radishes you can z. B. make a wonderful pesto or a delicious soup – try our recipe!
Beetroot leaf green The green and red patterned leaves of the beetroot can be prepared like chard in a smoothie, in a salad or steamed and have a similar taste.
celery leaf green The leaves of the celery are great to use in a smoothie or puree in a soup.
asparagus (white) Peel The woody shells of white asparagus are usually cut off, as they greatly limit the tender pleasure of eating asparagus. However, you can still cook them in a vegetable broth with butter and cream. The nutrients and flavors are transferred to the water and a strengthening soup is created. The shells are skimmed off after cooking.
zucchini peel, seeds and flowers Baked zucchini blossoms as a garnish for salads or soups look great and are even loved in gourmet kitchens. Plus, this is a delicious way to curb the zucchini glut.
onion/ garlic Peel Onion skins are particularly rich in quercetin. The taste, however, takes some getting used to and is not really digestible. We recommend boiling the bowls with (leftover) vegetables as a warming broth and skimming them off before consumption.
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Edible Flowers and Blossoms

Edible flowers and blossoms are real eye-catchers in your garden and on your balcony. And in terms of taste, they are an enrichment for summer salads, desserts and much more.
In the vegetable garden, edible flowers mixed with vegetables can also be very useful!

Which flowers and blossoms are edible?

Some flowers of vegetables and herbs are perfectly edible. Nevertheless, you should be very sure before consuming it, as there are also inedible and even poisonous flowers. We have created an overview of the edible vegetable blossoms, flowers and herb blossoms.

When harvesting flowers and blossoms, be careful not to let them fall off the side of the road as this is a popular dog litter box. Growing the flowers yourself also ensures that no pesticides have been used.

Grow edible flowers and blossoms in your own garden

You can grow edible flowers in the vegetable patch, on the windowsill or on the balcony. There are great seed mixtures of different edible varieties or you can choose your favorite varieties, such as the spicy nasturtium or the radiant cornflower for sowing.

Most edible flowers are annuals and, depending on the variety, are sown directly into the bed by the end of April or even by mid-May. You can find the exact sowing times on the packaging of the seeds.

Edible herbal flowers

The flowers of all edible herbs are also edible. Herbs are propagated by cuttings, which requires a little patience. It is best to buy an organic herb pot from a retailer and divide it among your beds. Herbs are theoretically perennial, but do not survive the cold temperatures well. In winter you can overwinter them indoors as a whole plant or just keep a few cuttings for next season.

Try the flowers of chives, borage and oregano. These are especially delicious!

Edible vegetable flowers

You probably figured it out: Most of the flowers from your home-grown vegetables in the garden are also edible. But beware! There are a few toxic exceptions that you should never eat: Potatoes, eggplant, and all bean blossoms shouldn’t be on the menu. You should keep your hands off that.

Other flowers such as squash or zucchini flowers are edible. This knowledge is particularly helpful in the high season of the zucchini harvest. Make processing easier for yourself by not letting a few zucchini grow at all, but harvesting the flower directly. They are delicious baked and out of the oven.
The flowers of fennel are also typical edible flowers that are often dried and made into tea.

Edible flowers in the vegetable patch

Planting flowers in your vegetable patch is always a good idea. With their bright colors and scent, they attract beneficial insects that will help you pollinate your vegetables. The strong scent clouds also deter pests.

The mixed culture of vegetables and flowers requires a little more space, but it looks good and tastes good.

Our top 3 mixed cultures of vegetables and edible flowers:

Borage and pumpkin or zucchini plants
Marigolds and tomatoes
Nasturtium and potatoes (never nasturtium and cabbage)

Harvest edible flowers and blossoms correctly

You should harvest edible flowers and blossoms in the morning and when they are fresh. So the highest content of essential oils is still contained in the plant. Shake the flowers briefly so insects can fall out. The flowers only have to be washed off if they are heavily soiled. Plants stay fresh in a glass of water.

Growing your own is the safest, as the plants have not been sprayed and are safe to eat.

Nutrients of the flowers

Edible flowers and blossoms are high in essential oils. These oils are used in medicine to treat various ailments.

Here some examples:

Rose against wounds and minor burns
Nasturtium (mustard glycosides) has an antibiotic effect
Daisies purify blood, purify the liver, against rheumatism and skin ailments
Elderberry anti-inflammatory and antibiotic, expectorant, antipyretic, diuretic, anti-rheumatic

Preserve edible flowers

There are many ways to process the colorful flowers and use them decoratively. Some like nasturtium and marigold are more suitable for savory dishes. Others, such as rose petals or lavender, are good in sweet desserts or as blossom sugar.

We know flowers like chamomile traditionally as dried tea. But fresh blossoms in bread dough, as colorful herb butter or cooked as jelly refine your dishes.

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4 Edible Wild Plants to Collect in The Fall

Many wild plants bear fruit in autumn and thus provide us with nutrient-rich food for free. We introduce you to four interesting wild plants and show you how you can use them in the kitchen.

If you go for a walk regularly in autumn, you can also keep an eye out for edible wild plants and thus obtain food directly from nature. You can easily recognize many plants by their colorful fruits.

Wild plants in autumn: the mountain ash

You can recognize the mountain ash, also known as the rowan berry, by its small, spherical and red-colored fruits. These usually grow in small bundles on the branch. You can harvest them between August and October. However, only the fruits of the sweet rowan varieties are edible. Other varieties contain too many bitter substances, which makes the small berries inedible.

You can recognize the Moravian (or edible) mountain ash, for example, by the multi-pinnate leaves, which are darker and larger than the leaves of other varieties. The rowan berries of this rowan species are also significantly larger with a diameter of about 13 millimeters.

Thorny, but with sweet fruits: the hawthorn

Another wild plant that bears fruit in the fall is the hawthorn. It belongs to the rose family and grows as a small tree or large shrub. It reaches a height of about 500 to 700 centimeters. Its long sharp thorns are particularly characteristic. In spring you can also recognize it by the magnificent white flowers, which look beautiful but smell unpleasant.

The fruits are ripe in August and September. They have a diameter of about one centimeter, are uniform and dark red in color. You should only harvest the fruits after the first frost, when they are really sweet and tasty.

Well-known wild plant in autumn: the rosehip

One of the best-known types of fruit that grows on wild plants in autumn is the rosehip. Rose hips are the fruit of different types of roses. They come from the blossoms of the rose. Particularly common types of roses that form the aromatic fruits are, for example, the dog, mountain or wine rose.

You can harvest the rosehips themselves in October and November. They are rarely available from September. In addition to the characteristic and mostly pleasantly scented rose blossoms, you can recognize the rose hips themselves by their spherical or oval shape. The fruits are usually red, orange or yellow in colour. However, some varieties also have a greenish to brownish tinge.

It hurts, but it’s healthy: the stinging nettle

You can use all parts of the nettle plant as a spice or medicinal herb. Leaves and roots are available all year round and contain, among other things, significant amounts of vitamins A, C and K as well as calcium, iron, magnesium and high-quality vegetable protein.

In autumn, the wild plant provides us with its seeds in particular. You can recognize stinging nettles by their oval-shaped leaves, which end in a point at the front and are deeply notched at the edges. The burning pain that emanates from the leaves is also particularly characteristic. You should therefore be careful when harvesting.

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Yellow Broccoli: Is It Still Edible?

Is your broccoli yellow in the fridge and you’re wondering if you can still eat it? We’ll give you the answer and show you the best way to store broccoli.

Yellow Broccoli: Is It Still Edible?

If your broccoli is yellow, you can still eat it, even if it has lost its flavor and most of its vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals.

In order to curb food waste, we therefore recommend that you eat yellow broccoli instead of throwing it away. You can process it into various dishes: for example, into a broccoli soup, a broccoli and potato casserole or as oven vegetables.

This is the best way to store broccoli

So that your broccoli does not turn yellow in the first place, there are a few things you can do when storing it.

For short-term storage of a few days:
Place broccoli in a glass filled with water like a bouquet of flowers. Then store the broccoli further back in the fridge to keep it as cold as possible.

For long-term storage of up to one year:
You can freeze broccoli to preserve it for a longer period of time. The best way to do this is to cut the broccoli into small pieces and blanch it. That means you put the broccoli pieces in boiling salted water for about five minutes. Then you scare them off with cold water. When the blanched broccoli is cold, you can put it in the freezer.

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