Want to eat unusual pancakes… with a spring flavour…

The elderberry flower will give a very light sweetness to the crêpes. And hurry… the season of flowers elderberry flies (a good month of May and June).

You need two to three large clusters of flowers to put in the dough.

Ingredients
250 g flour
250 ml of beer (the same amount of flour)
500 ml of milk (the double )
4 eggs
Salt
Some alcohol of your choice
Mix everything and let it rest a bit.
Add the flowers in batter. Heat the pan. With some oil on a tissue, grease the pan each time you make a crêpe. Pour a ladle of batter. When the edges turm brown, turn it. Let cook a minute.

Place on a plate, sprinkle with sugar (which will melt with heat) and add so on your pancakes. Eat them when they are cold (the flavour of flower is light, when eaten warm, it does not taste as much !).

Sloe or Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is a small bush that grows in hedges in Brittany (France). It blooms between March and April. They can help against a difficult digestion or a light constipation.

No wonder as Blackthorn is the brother of the plum tree.



The fisrt recipe is done with fresh flowers.

Massage oil done with fresh flowers of Blackthorn (digestion).

Ingredients :
One third fresh flowers of Blackthorn
Two third of olive oil (better an organic one)
3 weeks

Once you picked the flowers, put them in oil. Open the bottle every day so that humidity will evaporate and the flowers won’t mould. Shake every day.
After three weeks, use it to massage your tummy when you have digestive disorders. You can use it for your children too.

Recipe of herbal tea with sloe flowers (constipation).

Once you’ve dried the flowers, you need : 2 teaspoons in simmering water. Let it infuse for 10 minutes. Drink it 3 times a day during a week.

Read it in French : Recette d'huile de massage et recette d'infusion à base de felurs de prunelliers

The elderberry flower gives a very nice and light sweet taste to pancakes. Season of flowers elderberry goes so quickly… then hurry ...

You need two to three large clusters of flowers that you will shell in the dough.

Ingredients

250 g flour
500 ml of milk (the double of flour)
250 ml of beer (the same amount of flour)
4 eggs
Salt
Some alcohol of your choice

Mix the ingredients and let rest the dough. Once the dough rested, shell flowers in batter.
Put on your stove. With an oily tissue, grease the pan. You will reuse it for each new pancake. Pour a ladle of batter. When the edges of the pancake turn brown, it is time to return it. Let cook a minute.

Place on a plate, sprinkle with sugar (which will melt with heat) and add so on your pancakes.

Read it in French : Recette de crêpes aux fleurs de sureau

Origine
The nasturtium is native from South America. According to sources, it comes from Peru or neighboring Andean countries (Colombia, Bolivia and even Brazil). Jesuits, during the 16th C imported it into Spain. It then conquered Europe as an edible and medicinal plant.

Description
Linné, a famous swedish botanist fixed his name in 1753 Tropaeolum majus. In Europe, the plant exists in many varieties. Annual, it is sensitive to frost. Its flower (five petals) 3 to 5 centimeters varies from yellow or red.



Its size is adaptable to your garden: dwarf (30-50 cm) for your flower pots or climbing varities (several meters) on your walls ... or creeping as ground covers ...
It has another peculiarity ... it is waterproof, water do not wet the plant but it forms drops that slide ... It is called the lotus effect ...

The growth : seedlings or cuttings
Plant indoor in February and replant in April when the weather is ok. The nasturtium likes sunny places. The plant is fragile (the stem snaps easily ... avoid windy areas). If despite your good care, it breaks, put the cuttings in sheltered soil. In a few days you will have roots. The seeds are done in July, after flowering ... Let dry until next year.



Utility ... in gardens
Aphids: Organic gardeners love them .... Very useful for gardening, flowers attract aphids .... You will just burn have to burn the blackened flowers with insects.

In the kitchen
This plant is edible, everything is (from bud to flower, seeds and leaves ....). The leaves and flowers are considered as a stimulant, they taste like watercress. They are used as flavorings in salads ( peppery flavor). In Italy, they are used to decorate dishes of fish or meat. The fruit or soft buttons can be soaked in vinegar. It tastes like capers. Spanish people aromatize their vinegar with the flowers. They often add the tarragon and pepper.

Medicinal Properties
Essential oil has antibiotic effects .. It is also used against urinary infections or flu. Or to treat bruises: crush the leaves until you get an oil. Brush the blue. It itches a little.

Sources : Wikipédia Allemagne, Espagne, France, Grande Bretagne, Italie et Portugal. Sources: Wikipedia Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy and Portugal.

Read it in French : Plante ornementale et décorative, aromatique et comestible : la capucine

One day, my girl was leafing through a toy’s catalog and suddently stopped on a page: Mom, I want that!
That was a cooker, pinkish, cute, multifunction (washing machine and integrated oven…) ... A little wonder that any little girl would dream of…

Before saying something like : Ok, we go get it, I have a quick look at the price... Ouah !!! It's quite expensive this little amazing toy !
And all of a sudden, I have a brilliant idea : I’ll do it myself… I made a course to cardboard furniture recently, I'll try to practise what I’ve learned…

The idea was nice but it was not easy at all... but my little loves the result… And she helped a lot to achieve it.



You will need to realize it :

Time, time, time ...30 hours of free time if you’re beginning with cardboard furniture
Cartons better if they’re big
A cutter
Craft
Painting
Magnets (for the oven and washing machine doors)
Straws (for tap)
Rope (for the resealable tablet)

I leafed through several catalogs of toys, wooden toys, to find a model to copy. Mine is unique but it did give me ideas to adapt what I could do with what I wanted to do: a rectangle with holes and doors ...

You have to think twice or more the templates you ‘ll need, where you want to make the holes ... kitchen units have to be solid (it's a toy for children !), the size (we have a small house, you can do it customized!), the practical side of the kitchen, the sealing of the toy (water and cardboard are hereditary enemies !)... I had so many questions and doubts that I wanted to give it up… But as I had insistent requests, I finally began to do it…

It's not perfect (I would do it differently now if I had to do it over again) but as a first try, I was happy… and my little girl too !
She helped me to assemble the pieces, to glu, to paint the object that seemed to go on and on and never stopped or finished. It's long.
It takes time, you need room to spread out, and room in order to store the furniture, waiting for a break to continue. A bit of organization is necessary. But once finished, the cooker runs all the time: dishes, laundry or cakes in the oven ... the tablet to eat ... Your child is just to busy…



The advantage of a toy designed like this is that I did it in order to fit it in my small house. I planned it for a corner of the kitchen so it does not bother me but it is still in the area where she / I, we spend time.

She loved to help me to do it to be abble to play right away with it!

Cheer up ! If you start now, you can be done for Christmas or do it for the birthday of your little!

You can find eldertrees everywhere in Brittany along paths, in cities and on the coast. So just go for a walk and pick them.
Be careful when picking them to find the right eldertree. The one you want is two to five meters high, it blooms in May and June, the white flowers custers smell nice and the berries, later are black.

Pick them with stems, it is easier to cook and cut it down before eating. It is still edible but not very good.



Here is the recipe for about 20 flowers clusters :
180g of flour,
1 egg,
200 ml of water,
some rum,
a yeast packet.

Mix all the ingredients and leave the batter resting for one to two hours .
Cook oil and when it is warm enough – let a drop of your batter into the oil, if it comes back up, the oil is ready. Take a cluster and dip it in the batter.




The batter must be liquid to wrap the small flowers delicately and to make a light fritter where you will still taste the flower; if the fritter is too thick you won’t taste the flowers. Drop the cluster full of batter in oil, wait one or two minutes, when it is brown, it is done. Then strain it on paper, cut the green stems and serve it warm with green salad.

You can also eat it sweet. You do exactly the same and just add sugar on the fritters when they are done.

Read it in French : Recette végétarienne de beignets à la fleur de sureau

Do you know that dandelion is a french name… dent de lion which means lion teeth… because of the shape of its leaves.

In April, land is covered with dandelion flowers. Yes indeed, this plant is useful and the wonders of the dandelion are to be discovered…

First of all it is an easy plant to find…It grows almost everywhere, even in weird places like walls or concrete…



But be careful not to confuse them with other plants : more than hundred species are alike and have also yellow flowers. But they are not as tasty or even they can be toxic.

How to recognize a dandelion ?

The flower smells honey and if you eat its heart, it slightly sweet and taste like honey.
The stem is hollow and oozes a white liquid.
There is only one flower per stem.
Once it’s faded, the plant has fine hairs… that’s the best way to recognize them.



Its leaves are dentated : that’s the origin of its name, remember…
In French we call it pissenlit (piss in bed) because of its diuretic properties.
What to do with it ?

In France, the classical salad with potatoes, bacon and eggs.
The leaves can also be eaten cooked as spinach.
The roots were used during the second world war as a substitute to coffee.
The flowers, melliferous (plants that bees used to make honey), are used to make a wonderful jelly.



Read it in French : Vertus des plantes sauvages : le pissenlit

5 good reasons to go on this island!

Getting away
One day walk and break
It can be visisted most of the year (late March to All)
Enjoy flowers and sea spray !
And finally, greet a seal!

After 15 minutes of ferry through currents and reefs, you arrive on Kernoc’h harbor.
As 600 inhabitants live on the island, there are ferries quite often to get there : out of season several times a day and in season every 30 minutes. Whenever you want to go there… it is possible… till 7 PM.



The island measures just over 3 kms long at high tide. Because at low tide ...the island is much bigger… One day walk, you have plenty of time to discover Batz.



And as each side is different, it is very pleasant to walk around it. One side, you’ll discover Roscoff and the mainland, opposite the ocean.

And the shore of the island itself is very various : rocks, dunes, shingle or sandy beaches of extremely fine almost white ... It's not all, depending on the tides, the landscape changes again and again.



And despite all, the island does not live only on tourism ... With its nearly 600 inhabitants, it also lives on agriculture ... And therefore has a real life ... It is the island of flowers, they grow everywhere thanks to the mild climate : flowers of the fields (wild cloves, wild gorse, poppies, camomile ...),



dunes flowers (eryngium…), or common garden flowers (hydrangeas, geraniums, ...) or even exotic flowers that have spread out from the exotic garden.
At the end of last century, Georges Delaselle installed a colonial garden on the east of the island. He grew tropical plants (the climate is very mild in Batz) ... After decolonization, the garden changed its name for the name of its founder.

The park has been abandoned for several years but since 1986 it has been rehabilitated, hosts tropical plants and trees. Cedar, eucalyptus and dracena (palms of New Zealand), agave (cactus from Mexico used to make Mezcal) echium are all around the island.



If you walk to the ocean side, you will find beautiful white sandy beaches ... you’ll disturb birds or even sometimes … seals ... Further, on the far west there is a chaos of stones called : Toul ar Sarpant, the hole of the snake. That side hosts also a swamp with its fauna and flora.



The last facet of the island is the sheltered side, which faces Roscoff. And there anjoy a crepe or a drink after your nice walk…

On your bike, with your foot, enjoy the island.

Read it in French : Randonnée sur une des îles du Ponant : l'île de Batz

April is the month for harvesting dandelions. Take your knife and pick flowers, some buttons and young leaves. You’ll make the meal of the day. Try to avoid to places where dogs like to … or where foxes run (the disease they transmit is hard to heal) or where cars leave their gaz…



The jelly is so nice. It looks like honey (colour, smell and texture) and it is really good.
No wonder because the flower is melliferous (it attracts insects that make honey). Taste a flower. It is honey…

Well the recipe now

Quantity for a mug of flower well packed. Harvest as much mugs as you want and add the quantity necessary.
250 ml water
175 g sugar
A quarter of lemon in slices

Remove stems. Wash the flowers.
Pour into a saucepan with the water. Boil softly (5 minutes for a mug, 10 for 2…). Filter and strain the flowers to collect all ther liquid.
Add sugar.
Cook over low heat until the consistency of a syrup. Times varies on the number of mugs you used (for 2 mugs about 45 minutes). Transfer to pot and let cool upside down . Store also upside down.



Salad with buttons of dandelions, leaves, potatoes, soft-boiled eggs and bacon

Like bitter salad. You’ll love it… Pick some young leaves and buttons.



Ingredients
Dandelions
Lardons
Eggs (2 per person)
Potatoes (2 to 3 per person)
Dressing (with french mustard)

Wash them. Cook the potatoes in slices, the eggs (6 minutes). Fry in a sauce pan the lardons.
In the bowl, put the salad, add the potatoes, the lardons and the eggs cut in half. Finally the buttons of dandelions.
Delicious, is n’t it ????

Read it in french : Miel de pissenlit et salade aux boutons et fleurs de pissenlit

The best season to eat this vegetable runs from May to November, for the one produced next to your door, in small Britain.



To choose a beautiful artichoke, a Breton one, le camus de Bretagne (green globe for US)… You have to recognize it : it is not the same as the mediterranean one, it is bigger (2 to 3 heads for a kilo). Then for a good one, you need to check the stem : it has to be fresh (not dry).

To cook it : you need to use two different boiling water

The first one is to wash it (the acidity will go), boil for 5 minutes and don’t cover. The water will be green.
The second is to cook it. Depending on the size of the vegetable, cook betwenn 15 to 30 minutes in boiling water. To know if it is cooked, remove a leaf and if it is tender, you can strain and wait till it is cold.

Recipe for french dressing :
3 tablespoons oil
1 of vinegar
a large teaspoon of french mustard.

Eat the leaves one by one dipped in french dressing. Savour the heart once you removed the inedible “choke”. You can also peel the stem and eat the tender center.
Be careful you have once cooked to eat it during the day because the artichoke oxidizes quickly.

Read it in French : Recette de l'artichaut à la vinaigrette

Everybody knows the french crêpes ! And what about the crispy dry ones ?

This crepe is extremely fine, crisp to perfection. Without preservatives or additives. Ideal for ice cream and water ice this summer.

The gavotte has changed since 1920, date of the beginning of its fame. It has different tastes : milk and dark chocolate, caramel with salted butter ...



As very often in the kitchen, the food's great discoveries are due to an error of the cook... who forgot an ingredient in the dough or cook it too long ...

The gavottes are part of those great culinary mistakes ... Here it is not a cook but a woman of Quimper, a Madame Cornic, who at the very end of the 19th century cooked too long his pancakes and the gavotte is born...

The crepe industry began at Quimper, (100 crepes an hour) in 1920. Success !! 30 years later 1500 pancakes were produced in 60 minutes. And as the success continues, a factory is created in Dinan.

Today the group Locmaria includes several brands of biscuit in Brittany. The company signed the Pact of the United Nations for sustainable development ... respect for human rights and environment. In short, a product in accordance with our planet ...

Read it in french : Gavottes ou crêpes dentelle : une spécialité bretonne