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Might look like the Dutch fan block at the World Cup in South Africa, but on closer inspection, it turns out to be a mass planting of Tropaeolum or Nasturtium (literally “nose-twister” or “nose-tweaker”) at Stein’s nursery in Gonsenheim.

And actually (Leif), virtually everything of the plants is edible.

The leaves and blossoms go well in a salad, giving it a peppery taste similar to watercress. And if you snip off the base of the flower, you can suck out the sweetest nectar.
Unripe seeds? Pickle them like caperberries.

True story:
Mother – having grown up in the UK – plants nasturtiums along the front fence at our place in New Zealand.

3 minutes later, you can’t see the fence and they’re halfway across the road.

Joan Evans comes along and says “For goodness sake, Peg, why are you planting WEEDS?”

26 Jun This entry was published on 26 June, 2010 at 11:00. It’s filed under Mainz and tagged Botanics, stein, True stories. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.