If you grow your own chives, you'll know that they produce a pretty lavender colored flower. From those flowers, we get seeds. I've been growing the same pot of chives, that I started from seed, for close to 10 years now.
What can you do with chives other than snip them onto a baked potato? Well, there's a lot you can do with them. I like to dehydrate them and powder them up and use them in seasoning blends. I also love to pick the flowers and make vinegar with them. They make an amazing base to vinaigrette dressings.
First, I'll show you all yesterday morning's livestock sighting down in the rock pit.
They like to graze down there. We like to watch them grazing down there. We see deer here almost every day. There were 4 does, but I couldn't over to get the other 2 in a photo.
I asked Bob if he would go out and pick the flowers off of the chives so that I could make vinegar. He agreed.
I did have to tell him to not pull the chives out by the roots.
He used his pocketknife. That was completely fine with me.
He came in with a fairly decent amount. They will continue to flower, so I'm not worried about not leaving enough blooms to reseed. There will be plenty for that and to make more vinegar.
I divided the blooms between 2 half-pint jars. I also snipped in some fresh chives.
I topped off the jars with white wine vinegar.
After that, just put the lids on, put in a dark, cool place for 3 or 4 days and then strain the vinegar. I plan on putting it back into the white vinegar bottle.
Now, I am waiting for my garlic scapes to come on. I hope it's soon!
Enjoy!
Conda here, can you use those "pickled" chives and blossoms in any recipes?
ReplyDeleteI strain them out, but they are edible. You could use the fresh flowers on a salad, but after they steep in vinegar, they won't really be good for anything after 3-4 days.
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