Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Chrysanthemummification


Another sign that summer has past is the flower displays
in front of my neighborhood grocery ...
rows and rows of pots of chrysanthemums.
Generally, they seem to be offered in three or four colors:
yellow, orange, red and a sort of brown.
It's definitely time for the chrysanthemummification of
the neighborhood gardens with little wads of color that will
survive the cold and snow.


I didn't know until I checked the spelling of the word, but chrysanthemums were originally cultivated by the Chinese as a herb for cooking. 
I wonder if they were used by cooks like they are used in the local yards, spread about like pepper used by people who don't know of other seasonings.

3 comments:

dive said...

Hee hee. Love the post title, Speedway.
Those mounds and pillows of chrysanthemums look beautiful and cheerful. I don't know about the cooking side but I've used the flowers before in salads. They look better than they taste.

Speedway said...

Dive, I stole this info from Wikipedia:

Yellow or white chrysanthemum flowers of the species C. morifolium are boiled to make a sweet drink in some parts of Asia. The resulting beverage is known simply as "chrysanthemum tea". Chrysanthemum tea has many medicinal uses, including an aid in recovery from influenza. In Korea, a rice wine flavored with chrysanthemum flowers is called gukhwaju.

Chrysanthemum leaves are steamed or boiled and used as greens, especially in Chinese cuisine. Other uses include using the petals of chrysanthemum to mix with a thick snake meat soup (蛇羹) in order to enhance the aroma.

Yep, I agree, they probably look better than they taste.

dive said...

Yum!