A stint at cooking school is probably the catalyst for my deviation sometimes in the vegetable garden.
Any vegetable, its flower or leaf that is an odd colour or shape always catches my interest.
I purchased some tea the other day (my latest fad), and it was a brilliant blue, and I mean brilliant blue!
The colour comes from what is called a butterfly pea.
These are brilliant to pop in a summer drink to add a bit of colour, freeze into ice cubes, or you could steep some and use them as a natural colouring for icing on cupcakes.
I will also let you in on a secret; up Coromandel way, there is a company making blue gin from harnessing the natural pigments of the butterfly pea.
Add tonic and it changes colour, so it is true when they say playing with your food is fun!
Another plant you might like to try growing this summer is Roselle, a beautiful annual hibiscus.
The bright-red calyxes can be used to make a zingy tea, syrup or jam, or used to give champagne cocktails a red glow.
The leaves can also be eaten, and their citrus tang makes them perfect to use in Asian cooking.
Both of these can be grown from seed and are available from local seed suppliers.
If you have the space, planting an elderberry tree means you can make elderberry cordial, or even wine from the gorgeous elderberry flowers, and I can assure you, it tastes delicious.
I don’t have an elderberry tree, but I am lucky I can raid a friend’s.
I have been known to stop my car and collect elderberry flowers from a roadside tree that I know hasn’t been sprayed.
Lemon balm, pineapple sage, lemon verbena and mint all taste great in summer drinks, and even watermelon or strawberries can make a refreshing mojito!
Use the fruit from your citrus trees in your summer drinks, and remember, basil and pineapple pieces are great added to soda water.
Even sliced-up cucumber with bruised borage leaves in a large jug filled with ice is a welcome relief on a scorching hot summer’s day.
Add the blue borage flowers to lift your drink to another level!
Who has rhubarb? Then try rhubarb water accented with fresh ginger for another flavour twist.
So maybe start thinking about setting aside a ridiculously small patch of your vegetable garden and turning it into your cocktail or mocktail garden.
Just a thought, it could be a reward for all that work you will be doing over summer, growing and harvesting your produce!
Elderberry cordial recipe
Ingredients
1kg white sugar (don’t freak out about the amount of sugar, remember you are only putting a small amount of this cordial into a glass each time).
3 lemons
4 limes
50 elderflower heads
65g citric acid
Method
Put the sugar in an enamel, glass or ceramic bowl with 1.75 litres of boiling water.
Stir to dissolve the sugar, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool completely.
Zest and slice the lemons and thinly slice the limes.
Add the zest and fruit slices to the cold sugar solution.
Shake the flowers to displace any hidden insects and remove the stalks.
Add the flowers to the bowl with the citric acid, then stir.
Cover with clingfilm and leave for 36 hours in a cool, dark place.
Strain through a fine sieve, then strain again, this time through a sieve lined with a fine muslin cloth.
Decant into sterilised glass bottles and keep in a cool, dark place for up to 2 months.
Once opened, refrigerate and use within a month.
To serve, simply add a small amount of the cordial to a glass and top with soda water.
I like to add a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice and a slice of lime.
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