This page is for recipes that we enjoy from preparing what we grow on our farm. There may also be some from readers like you who may have an interesting recipe. Enjoy!
Quart-sized mason jar. Fresh spiderwort flowers, freshly blooming. 3 tablespoons of raw honey. Fresh water.
1. Two cups of flowers. 2. Gently add some honey to the flowers. You can experiment with how sweet you like it. 3. Add water, almost full. 4. Close the jar and wait for 3-5 days. 5. It is ready when it is bubbly. Since you can eat the whole plant you can leave it in or strain it if you prefer to only have the liquid. 6. Serve cold.
Blue Dye (from Spiderwort)
From Sharon Brown, Dave's Garden:
8 cups of water, 8 cups of blue flowers, no green!
Combine flowers with water and bring to boil, then set away from heat and let set overnight.
Come morning, strain the plant out, and save the blue water.
Dissolve 1 tablespoon alum with 1 teaspoon cream of tarter in a small amount of hot water, and stir into dye. Use a long wooden spoon and be sure it dissolves good.
Add white fabric, soak over nite or till it is as dark as you want.
The alum sets the dye in the fabric and the cream of tarter makes the dye a brighter color and softens the fabric.
Spiderwort Stems
There are a number of ways to cook the stems of spiderwort. Any recipe for asparagus will work. Here are a couple of our favorites.
Grilled: Toss spears in olive oil and spices to taste (we like salt substitute mixes), and grill for 1-2 minutes, turning regularly. You want them to stay crispy.
Boiled: Fill a skillet that will fit all the stalks in a single layer with about 3/4 inches of water and bring the water to a boil. Place the spiderwort stems in the skillet, cover with a lid and cook for about 2 minutes.
You can blanch it, which means plunging it in a bowl of ice water immediately after cooking. This prevents it from continuing to cook.
Blanching is a common thing to do with fresh vegetables before freezing, as it stops enzymes that could otherwise allow the vegetable to lose color and flavor over time.
We have also used spiderwort stems in stir fry dishes, curries, and soups. Add the flowers after cooking for a beautiful garnish.
Cherokee people parboiled (lightly boiled) or fried spiderwort and mixed it with other greens.
(optional) Seeds: you can eat them green like peas. Or dry and crush them once they turn brown. Native Americans mixed this powder into other dishes. We personally think this is a lot of work.
(Note: Substitute your favorite lettuce or mesclun mix and fruit for any of the above ingredients you may not have)
Chop up the leaves and fruit into bite sized pieces, remove seeds from fruit Mix salad ingredients together Garnish with flowers
Serve with a fruity dressing or rosemary infused oil and vinegar base.
Longevity Spinach Stir Fry
Use longevity spinach instead of kale, spinach or other greens. Prepare your favorite stir fry ingredients, adding longevity spinach toward the end.
Garnish with fresh edible flowers or chia seeds on the plate.
Summer Immune Boosting Smoothie
Serves 1
Florida wild blackberries, mulberries or other berry to taste (fruit will mask taste of greens - we like to taste them, but not everybody does)
One banana. About 10 young leaves of Spanish needle (Florida edible and medicinal weed - it's everywhere). About 3 leaves of Longevity spinach. A tablespoon elder flowers, fresh, frozen or dried (substitute a quarter of an orange, spiderwort flowers or other ingredient if not available). Tablespoon chia seeds. Add water or ice to desired consistency.
Blend ingredients. Drink, knowing you just drank a number of immune boosting, health giving ingredients that taste delicious!
Longevity Spinach Omelet
Add olive oil to a pan. Add 1/4-1/2 cup sliced mushrooms, 3 leaves of longevity spinach, sliced green onion to taste. Start your 3 egg omelet in another pan. Season with basil or rosemary, garnish with Thai basil. When ready, fold veggies into your omelet.
You just added some wonderful nutrition.
Other Florida Summer Dishes
Add a few leaves of longevity spinach to your seminole pumpkin squash soup for added nutritional boost.
Fry up some longevity spinach with okra.
Cook up your favorite collard recipe using longevity spinach and chaya (tropical tree spinach) - both have more nutrition than collards or kale.
