I picked Them, Cooked Them, and Ate Them!!

June 22, 2007 This morning I got up very early (for me!) and met our neighbor, Gina, to go pick the flowers from her zucchini plants. She said we would need to leave at 6:00 am so that the flowers would still be open. We walked to her "campo" (in this case, a piece of land outside of town where a person has a garden and/or animals). Gina showed me how to pick the flowers and told me not to touch the flowers on the ends of the zucchini. I asked her how you knew the difference in the two flowers (thinking before the zucchini appeared), but I don't think she really understood my question which probably means I didn't ask it very well! Anyway, I noticed that the ones we picked had one pistil and the ones at the ends of the zucchini had maybe four of them (so, I just googled this and actually the pistil is only in the female plant and the male plant it is called a stamen!).

After we finished picking maybe 30 flowers, we walked around her garden looking at her other plants. She had lots of onions planted, but she complained that most of them had flowers which apparently is not a good thing. She also had garlic and pulled one up and gave it to me (which Larry used tonight in our dinner!). She also had potatoes and she told me that most years they get enough potatoes to sell some, but this year they had "pocchi" (only a few). She dug down under a bush and found two small potatoes and then put the dirt back around the plant.

Before heading home Gina fed the chickens (guarded by no less than 3 padlocks!) and the pigeons, and of course, their "tartuffi" (truffles) dog! I was pretty nervous on the way home because she insists on walking in the street and pays no attention to oncoming cars!

When we got home she showed me how to take the flower off of the stem (remove the 5 or 6 tiny leaves at the base of the flower--then carefully tear down between 2 petals--then go around the base until the flower is completely separate) and told me to wash them and then lay them out on paper towels. I soaked them and when I rinsed them off I still found several ants and other small critters.

Later, Gina came over and helped me make the batter. She started with 2 eggs (that she had just given me this morning from her chickens) and after beating them for several minutes she decided it wasn't enough so we added another egg as well as "sale" (salt). She then added flour (there was no measuring going on here) until the batter was very, very thick. Next she added milk and continued to mix. I guess it was too runny because she added a little flour and then a lot of flour. Then, of course, it was too thick so she added more milk! She did this back and forth several more times until she was satisfied with the consistency or maybe it was that she was satisfied with the amount of batter or a little of both. We then dried off the flowers and went over to her basement kitchen to cook them.






Each flower is then dipped into and sort of rolled around in the batter and put into a frying pan of hot oil. When they are golden brown you turn them over and push down on them with a fork. When you take them out of the oil a small amount of salt sprinkled over the top makes all the difference in the world in the taste. Remove any pieces of fried batter in between batches.

When it was my turn I asked Gina to take some pictures of me. I showed her how to use the camera and told her that when she could see me in the screen to push the button. I told her to take several pictures so that I could get a good one. I thought they were so funny I decided to put a few of them here!










For those of you adventurous enough to try it--here's the recipe and the finished product!

3 eggs---------------------- flour
2 tsp salt ------------------ milk

Beat the eggs and salt for a couple of minutes by hand. Add enough flour to make almost a paste consistency. Add milk and continue to mix (we used a whisk) until the consistency is that of cake batter. Now, since this won't be enough you will need to add more flour and then more milk! Or figure out a better way to get a bowlful!

After removing the flowers from the stems soak them in water and then rinse off. Place the flowers flat on paper towels to dry.

Fold the flowers (holding them by the sturdy part)and drag them through the batter pushing down the edges into the batter and then dropping them into hot oil (corn or sunflower). When they are golden brown turn the flowers over and push down on them with the fork. When brown on both sides remove from oil and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Enjoy!