Simple Elegance: Candying Organic Edible Pansies

Organic Poached Pear Tart with Candied Pansies

Pansies in my Garden

Now that it is Spring, I will be using the variety of edible flowers in my garden to garnish and enhance some of my favorite recipes.  This week I will be using Pansies from my garden for candying and decorating my favorite poached pear recipe.

Container Pansies

Pansies have such old fashion charm and are a favorite as they come in so many different colors -- single and combinations. These velvety flowers also have soft mild flavors and delicate fragrance--primarily the blue flowered ones.  Did you know that when eating Pansies,  unlike most edible flowers, you can eat both the petals and the pistils and stamens. In fact, you can eat the pansy sepals as well! Before you add these beautiful edible flower to your favorite recipe, be sure that the Pansies are not sprayed with pesticides and are grown organically.

Pansies Ready to Candy

To candy pansies you will need the following:

1. Art Brush
2. Fine Baking Sugar
3. Egg White lightly beaten

4. Organic Pesticide Free Pansies
5. Plate for drying



 Watch how easy it is to create a beautiful candied Pansy on my very first video post produce entirely on my HTC cell phone!

Bouquet d'Art @ the De Younge

Each Spring, with much anticipation, I look forward to attending the Bouquet d'Art at the De Younge Museum in San Francisco. It is one of my favorite things to do each Spring, and is an established seasonal tradition in the Bay Area where floral designers create arrangements that are inspired by the art in the collection.

My fave Spring bouquet created for an 80th Birthday!

 I absolutely love this event because it combines my two passions art and flowers. In my early career I was an art curator/ historian, and now I am a floral designer, avid organic gardener, and entrepreneur.

One of the reasons that I launched Today's Bouquet is that I wanted to establish myself as a floral designer, and then participate in this perfect storm of creative expression. I will be tweeting from this event to share the inspiration of the talented participants! #bouquetdarts #favoriteSFtradition!

Hope to see you there!

Lucky Clover

I am hoping to find a lucky clover growing in my recently soaked garden. Nor Cal has been lucky to get a few recent rain storms the past few weeks as our area was facing a terrible drought for the months ahead. Each passing storm helps replenish our local reservoirs; and also offers new possibilities for planting with the prospect of normal water levels in our area.  Bulbs are blooming, and rose bushes are already leafing! Starting to feel like Spring in the Bay Area. With a little luck of the Irish,  March will bring more much needed rain.