Description
🚚 The fastest delivery time : 3-5 day delivery.
🐝 Supplier / Origin : Fa Liu Farm / Tai Po, Hong Kong
🔖 Certification : ZFP Restore Fund Supported Farm
🌱 Supplier introduction : Fa Liu is Ms. Liu Ting Chun, a teacher of the Green herbal medicine class. She has been managing a private farm for ten years. Green (绿藤) joined the organization in the last year, 💚Hope to transform into a #lifeeducationfarm that combines folk wisdom and promotion of physical and spiritual health, practicing #regenerative farming and #community integration experience 💚
The characteristic of Fa Liu is the quiet valley scenery, rich biodiversity, and natural mountain streams passing through. There are more than 100 kinds of horticultural flowers and Chinese herbal medicines planted in the field, and the seasonal vegetable fields are being cultivated one after another, and we are constantly learning from the obstacles. 🌱
As a farm being rebuilt by hand, a farm with rich biodiversity, it is worth visiting and learning with partners: how can we transform the farm by ourselves, and how should we face other life besides crops...
🛍 Product Information :
Nasturtium Leaves come from the plant Tropaeolum majus, commonly known as garden nasturtium or Indian cress. The entire plant—including the leaves, flowers, stems, and young seed pods—is edible. The leaves are round or shield-shaped (peltate) with wavy edges, offering a distinctive peppery, mustard-like or watercress flavor that starts mildly sweet and develops a spicy, zesty kick.
Flavor
Nasturtiums are just plain delicious. The leaves start out sweet, and end spicy and hot, a bit like mustard greens or cress picked in the summer. The flowers have a pleasant flavor, and taste just like you'd imagine a flower would taste-aromatic and floral.
Nasturtium flowers have a bit of the spicy-ness of the leaves too, but they're no where near as potent. Either way, they go great together on a dish. If I'm pinching pennies, I'll order only the leaves, since they're much cheaper, and have a longer shelf life than the flowers.
Native to the Andes in South America, nasturtiums are now grown worldwide as both ornamental and culinary plants. The leaves are nutrient-rich in vitamin C, iron, and antioxidants. They are most commonly used raw in salads for their vibrant green color and spicy bite, but can also be chopped into pestos, wilted into soups or risottos, stuffed like dolmas, or sautéed. Younger leaves tend to be milder, while mature ones are more pungent. Historically valued in traditional herbal practices for their cleansing properties.
Location: Tai Po, Hong Kong
Farm Size: 28,700 sq.ft / 0.6 acres
Produces Grown:
Mulberry, lemon, papaya, coffee beans, watercress, daikon, carrot, coriander, lettuce
Regenerative Practices to Implement:
Mulching, compost application, alley cropping, nutrient management
Carbon Sequestration Potential: 2T CO2
Supply Period： From March To May
🥗 Recipes (English Version)：
Usage Tips:
Suitable for raw salads or as a garnish.
Avoid using too much to prevent excessive spiciness.
Best for home-grown produce to ensure no pesticide residue.
Chef Tips
Nasturtiums are not only beautiful, but are edible, and incredible. With how good they taste, It's surprising to me that more people don't know about them.
Most of our friends in the industry are aware, but the general public doesn't seem to know yet. I even know one chef who makes the flowers into ice cream, and it's delicious, and you don't need an ice cream blender!
(See that recipe in Chef Jeremy Fox: On Vegetables)
I used to work part time at a flower shop. After I told her how much I love these, she started pitching them to customers on the basis of being edible, not surprisingly, she sold much more of them when people know they serve a dual purpose.
If you're growing the nasturtiums yourself, remember that a little pruning here and there is good for growth, don't be afraid to clip leaves and flowers here and there to eat, it spurs the plant to create more.
Make sure if you're picking flowers to eat, or sell, that you pick them at the best time: after the dew is gone, but before the sun makes everything wilt.
Eating
Lots of chefs like to garnish things with flowers, they're pretty, but often that's about it. We eat with our eyes though, and if there's an edible flower you can eat, or serve, it's going on the menu.
From a kitchen stand point, all you want to do with these is throw them raw on plates and salads, it's ok to dress the leaves lightly, but the flowers will wilt quickly tossed in a dressing.
There are a number of different species, but the pretties in my opinion are the variegated nasturtiums-they have a bi-color, mottled looking leaf.
When you pick nasturtiums to sell or refrigerate for eating (i.e. put in a plastic container) put a large leaf on top of the small leaves to keep them sheltered from light and the elements.
