Snacking on animal fodder is a delicious experience. The tender green leaves, the slightly chewy stalks but the flowers! Ah the flowers. They are a riot of sweet purple that drizzles down your throat. The experience is exhilarating. Of course if I were a bee I would bee all over those purple flowers but as a human - with a tendency for foraging in the gardens - nibbling lucerne flowers is irresistible. They may be best eaten in a salad but we BuckarooBabies prefer galloping in the fields and stopping only to sample blossoming lucerne. The purple treat is always worth writing home about.
When I first heard about edible flowers I thought the person was slightly touched. Eating flowers? Really! I love honey but I'm not a bee. Over time I learned about the healing power that is not limited to plants but also their bright flowers. I began to nibble on a petal. Just here and there. Some are surprisingly sweet!
At the moment our lucerne (alfalfa) fields are a picture of purple. The goats, sheep and cows are literally chomping at the bit to be let lose in there! And I don't blame them. It really is like eating cake as your main meal! Imagine wandering almost waist deep in the sea of green topped with purple, gazing across the valley at the magnificent mountains, feeling the air vibrate with the buzzily working bees. So calming. So comforting.
How do I know the flowers are sweet? Well first the taste is in the honey! We call it champayne honey because it is a very pale colour and tastes like .... well ... champayne! When you chew on the flowers you can taste the honey. If that doesn't convince you the healing power of the herb should. Because, yes, though we have fields of lucerne/alfalfa, it is actually a herb! Loaded with minerals and vitamins, used over the millenia to treat anemia, jaundice and arthritis, lucerne is excellent for digestive issues as well as lactation (ask my goats) so you would do well to include it in your diet. Even in the form of alfalfa sprouts.
No wonder the animals are bellowing at the gate! At this point - when the lucerne is a field of purple - we have to decide. Let in the four legged hordes or bale for winter. Based on the rain we do at least one cutting and baling a season. Just to ensure we have food for our animals if the winter is a hungry one.
I love watching those little girlie bees working. Did you know they are always girls? The drones are kept in the queen's harem for her necessary procreation. The busy bees harvesting and cross pollinating ensure the survival of their hive as well as all our fields and flowers. It is a remarkable eco system.
Insects are intriguing creatures. But bees are in a league of their own. Sacrificing their lives for their colony. Flying up to 5km a day to make, in their short life time, only as much as half a teaspoon of honey. Although less than 30grams of honey would fuel one bee's flight around the world! Who worked that fact out is beyond me. Let me nibble on those delicious flowers and contemplate the little honey bee.
