We have The Garden School at BLOOM this year situated in the “Budding Bloomers” area. We are hoping to inspire future generations of gardeners by teaching children (and many adults) how to make plant pots from newspaper and then sow a nasturtium seed into peat free compost.
Nasturtiums are ornamental and edible. The simplest way to enjoy tem is to tear the leaves and petal into a salad. I love to use nasturtiums as pesto. featured here is our own lower food miles version that ses Irish produced rapeseed oil, irish goas cheese and sunflowers are cheaper than pine nuts, it is delicious.
we have a free nasturtium recipe booklet available for free download from The Garden School website. There are also some videos on how to make the pots!
http://www.thegardenschool.ie/THE_GARDEN_SCHOOL/BLOOM_2012.html
Nasturtium Pesto – Lower Food Miles Version- Recipe
Ingredients:
50g nasturtium leaves
2 garlic cloves, crushed
6 green nasturtium fruits
50g sunflower seeds
75g of Kilmallock organic goats cheese
juice of half a lemon
150 ml of olive oil Rapeseed Oil
Some salt, according to taste.
Method:
Throw everything into a food processor. Let it whizz around for a couple of minutes. The mixture should be well blended, a nice green colour.
The mixture can be used straight away, but this quantity will give you enough to fill a couple of small jars. When filling the jars pour a little oil on top of the pesto to seal them and help preserve them. They will keep for a few weeks.