May 27, 2012: Over the Memorial Day weekend in 2012, I had a friend in town who enjoys the outdoors (& plants in particular) & food as much as I do. So I did what I often do when planning for guests: I checked the Fresh-Picked calendar to see if there was something scheduled she might like. I found an edible flowers class out in Carnation, and so that seemed like a no-brainer to plan that day around.
Before the class, we stopped for a brief hike at the very pretty Tolt-Macdonald Park.
I will admit it was made slightly less idyllic by the fact that there were slugs everywhere. Every foot and a half on the trail. I mean so many slugs.
There were also a lot of salmonberries, though, and we had a short impromptu picking session.
Not edible, but another plant we found out on the trail is this, which I believe is manroot, a kind of wild cucumber (but again, inedible).
My friend spotted one of the plants tendrils that had caught on another plant and stretched into this crazy old telephone cable-looking cord.
After the hike, we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the park with this as our view.
Then we headed up to the lovely Dog Mountain Farm. Dog Mountain Farm has offered classes on topics like bread, preserving, mustard and more. They are now scheduling private classes.
We got there a little early so we took a look around at the various critters.
They have goats (the card in the one's mouth is an alert about the electric fence. Kind of him to point it out for us)...
...sheep...
...shy horses...
...additional, even more adorable baby goats...
...and friendly older goats that charmingly rest heads on railings...
...and goats that are so pregnant they look like a mandolin...
...cats and bees and dogs and chickens and a lot of other critters.
But we were here for flora, not fauna, so class started with Cindy, the owner of the farm, taking us on a tour of some various edible flowers, like this tasty calendula...
...and borage...
...and tasty and beautiful chives.
After we'd collected a variety from around the farm, we headed back to the outdoor work area to start our projects.
First up is floral butter balls, a simple but beautiful way to incorporate edible flowers into a menu.
Cindy likes to use these little individual butter dishes for presentation.
Then we picked which of our flowers we'd use for crystallizing.
Cindy demoed how you carefully paint each section of the flower with a mixture of egg white and vodka (the vodka helps it dry faster), then coat in caster sugar.
Then we tried it out.
For bigger flowers. hanging them while drying help them maintain their shape.H
I am not terribly good at fine work, but these that my friend did turned out beautifully.
We enjoyed some tea with rose-scented sugar.
And before we left, we picked up a dozen of the farm's duck eggs.
We came home, washed up our salmonberry haul...
And made a delicious cobbler using one of the duck eggs from Dog Mountain.
We also grilled some asparagus we picked up for a bargain price at Remlinger Farms as we headed out of Carnation. (And no, that's not a Duraflame log as someone thought when I tweeted this picture - just some matches.)
And it all came together for the second al fresco meal of the day. If you have the chance to take a class at Dog Mountain, I'd recommend it. And, I'd *especially* recommend making a day of it by taking a hike at Tolt MacDonald as well. If you get out there soon, you, too, might find some salmonberries to enjoy (but I hope slightly less slug action).