About the herbs, their healing powers and the insects around them

 

While helping& learning in the herbal farm "Stilfser Bergkräuter" I was spending a lot of time among colourful flowers and came very close to a lot of hungry and thirsty insects....we were meeting every day at the same place around and on the flowers. Not only are we, people, collecting the flowers for teas, but the bees, butterflies and other  insects enjoy their nectar too . If I judge by the aroma of the herbal fields I understand them.

But of course there is the (secret) site of their healing power too. Did you know that:

- the peppermint (pic 1 and 2, in GE "Pfefferminze") delivers good effects by pains in the stomach-intestines-area and by colds;
- the calendula (in pic 3, in GE "Ringelblume") is used (because of its anti-flammatory influence) in cremes for wounds and scars;

- the bea balm (picture 4, in GE "Indianerssel") has an amazing bergamot-aroma and in tea supports us getting rid of nasty colds;
- the white common yarrow (last picture, in GE "Schafgarbe") is helping by problems with the digestive system as well as by women problems;

 

Last but not least, most of the leaves/blossom may be enjoyed raw, like below I prepared myself a dark bread with goat butter and sage& oregano leaves and fresh flowers from mallow and nasturtium, very yummy was it!

In the Italian mountains, the village Stilfs and herbal teas of Siegi and Traude

Welcome to the charming mountain village Stilfs, in the middle of Vinschgau (Südtirol/Alto Adige)! Now please take a a deep breath and let the fresh aroma of the herbal gardens of Siegi Platzer fill in your whole body&soul! In this tiny and cozy place at 1500m the local nature lover&connoisseur Siegi together with his partner Traude grow and collect organic flowers in the middle of the National Park Stilfser Joch. Their herbal tea collections and dried cooking plants are heaven not only for tea lovers. The mixtures take you on the trip in colours, flavours and pleasure, without any added aromas (and no green or black tea leaves)...

Today I will take you behind the scenes and we may see how Siegi and Traude collects every day the flowers on their herbal fields. In the middle of the rainbow colours of marigolds, mallows, cornflowers, chamomile, mint and sage...after the picking process you are also welcome to have a look in the colourful herbs drying hall...Last but not least once dried the manually collected herbs are mixed to different aromatic combination just before being dispatched to the final customer. If you are curious about the available flowers and plants as well as tea mixtures, please visit their absolutely beautiful homepage.

And below is a panorama of the village where the teas of Siegi and Traude grow and collect the Italian sun, Stilfs!

Summer on my balcony: green herbs and colourful edible flowers!

 

Even if I don't have a garden, I never stopped loving having green plants around me. So during the warm moths of the year the balcony at home becomes our ("tiny") garden, thanks to the great care&dedication of Nico. Due to its limited size (1 by 3 meters) its of course nothing big, but I am so happy with our yummy selection of green herbs and colourful flowers.

 

We have been growing and enjoying watching following plants&herbs in the past months:

-> rosmarin and basil (for giving the final touch to Italian dishes and salads);
-> 3 types of peppermint, lemon verbena  and camomile for fresh&delicious teas (or ice-teas depending on the weather);
-> marigold and cornflower for their fantastic colours but also for their healing powers ( for wound-cremes or in teas);
-> sky blue borage and yellow& red nasturtium: for their edible blossoms (the first one has a refreshing cucumber flavour, while the yellow/red/orange flowers of the second surprises one after the first honey touch with its peppery aftertaste);
-> and last but not least my absolutely favourite flowers (my great-grandmother was always having some in her garden): the pansies (in Bulgarian "теменужки");

 

And here today I am sharing also some impressions of how I do use this yummy green treasures while cooking.  Personally I do love to add freshly cut mint leaves to my fruit salad (like in the picture above). I have also put on the top for the salad the edible flowers of borage&nasturtium. The blue borage flowers decorate on the next picture as well my home-made tiramisu desserts! The drying herbs (for teas in the coming winter months) are a lovely&aromatic deco at home too... Hope you have enjoyed my balcony-flower-herbs-tour!

Summer flowers and herbs in Black sea resort "St. St. Konstantin and Elena"

While walking around the resort "St Konstantin and Elena" at the Black sea coast I could not stop admire old the wildflowers and herbs.....The white acacia trees, the puple mallow flowers, the honeylike smelling lime-tree, the strong red colour of the poppy flowers...They are all around.

Not a lot of people are aware that the mallow (first picture, also called in de: "Malve", nl: "kaasjeskruid", bg:"камбулка") is a very famous herb, which helps heal heavy caughs.

As for the acacia blossoms, they deliver the juice for the bees and I just got a fresh jar of acacia honey the other day....

Some hotels in the resorts have some creative flower decoration such as the dolphins and the peafowl.