Pomegranate Birthday Feast

Cheesecake topped with home grown pomegranate, calendula petals and a Brazilian cherry

Pomegranate and Quinoa Salad

Orange and Pomegranate Salad

 

We had harvested our first two pomegranates and decided that we would share these treasures with two good friends by creating a birthday meal for them incorporating them.  We made a Warm Chicken with Quinoa and Pomegranate Salad and served it with homegrown chokoes and beans. We also made an Orange and Pomegranate Salad which was also delicious. For dessert we made a very basic cheesecake into something spectacular by adding pomegranate, calendula petals and a Brazilian Cherry.

It was great to share fresh produce from our garden with friends and we were delighted with the beauty and taste of the pomegranates and really hope that we will harvest many more in the future.

Calendula Lip Balm

 I have just received the latest edition of The Backyard Farmer and found a wonderful article on making Calendula lip balm.

 So here are the petals of  a few of the flowers after being picked and bruised in the pestle.

And here are the petals, soaked in oil in a pot, here they will stay for three weeks to extract the oil, in preparation for making the lip balm.

Calendula, Comfrey and Spring Onions

 I have been reading about the benefits of Calendula and am pleased that the ones that we have planted are growing so well. At this stage we are not using them, other than to attract insects and make the garden look more beautiful, but once they are more established we will be.

 

We have now got several established Comfrey plants and whilst we knew if their benefits for the soil etc we had no idea that they had such lovely flowers. They are tiny but exquisite.

 

 Here is another shot of the Comfrey flowers as you can see I am really enjoying using Instagram as it makes editing photos so easy!

This is the flowers and seed head of one of our Spring Onions. We simply buy bunches from the shop and then plant them straight into the ground and then chop them and use them as needed. They will probably never reseed but the insects love them and they are lovely to look at too. You can learn more about them here, here and here.