Amatory Blue. Eryngium maritinum, Sea Holly, Zandvoort aan Zee, The Netherlands
There was a drop in temperature of almost 20 degrees between this morning and the last two days; and the westerly winds brought much needed rain. We went anyway to have lunch and to look at the sea at Zandvoort. It was a bit wet for a leisurely walk, but on the way back to the train station I spotted this pretty Sea Holly in some dunes.
Much like Skirret - about which I wrote a couple of days ago - and Salsify, the roots of Sea Holly can be prepared as a vegetable. In older times - the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - they were candied and used as an aphrodisiac. In fact, Shakespeare mentions them in that context. For their more culinary use you might consult the cookbook put together by Elizabeth Grey (1582-1651), Duchess of Kent: True Gentlewoman's Delight.
Amatory Blue. Eryngium maritinum, Sea Holly, Zandvoort aan Zee, The Netherlands
There was a drop in temperature of almost 20 degrees between this morning and the last two days; and the westerly winds brought much needed rain. We went anyway to have lunch and to look at the sea at Zandvoort. It was a bit wet for a leisurely walk, but on the way back to the train station I spotted this pretty Sea Holly in some dunes.
Much like Skirret - about which I wrote a couple of days ago - and Salsify, the roots of Sea Holly can be prepared as a vegetable. In older times - the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - they were candied and used as an aphrodisiac. In fact, Shakespeare mentions them in that context. For their more culinary use you might consult the cookbook put together by Elizabeth Grey (1582-1651), Duchess of Kent: True Gentlewoman's Delight.