I am promiscuous in terms of taste, I willingly and happily allow myself to be dragged along by the season, the flower eater admits

She goes on nature walks armed with pruning shears, a shovel, gloves, collects wild edible plants, and tests how they will grow under her supervision. If she accidentally forgets the bags, she shoves the catches straight into her purse.

“It’s impossible to list what I have here, it’s a lot. I think that the most interesting thing in my garden is the flower bed, which I have professionally called the herbarium. I grow weeds on it, which grow in unsightly places in nature,” she said.

Some weeds are considered to be pioneer plants, mostly annual, fast-growing, that take hold in the wasteland. “Such spinach for free,” laughs the trained ecologist. Among her favorites is the giant merlik, which, when small, has a beautiful pink center, but is not commonly found in Prague.

The fruit grower from Bojkovice searches for and returns ancient varieties to gardens and orchards

Homemade

“Plants in nature, in order to survive, create various substances, in principle it is their own defense against fungi, rodents, bugs, people. Because they grow in different places, they have a different portfolio of those substances. Each represents an interesting source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants,” explains why their consumption is beneficial.

He compares individuals from greenhouses to chickens from cage farming. “The flowers get what they need, so they don’t need to toughen up. And the taste is nothing,” he shrugs.

According to her, it is important to know which part and when to eat. For example, dandelion leaves are no longer good in May. Now is the right time for a bugle. He immediately plucks it from the flowerbed. “I discovered it a long time ago, when the embankment was being built for the railway station in Bubenč. He moved in there, and I used to go there, as if to a flower bed,” revealed Vlková, who is one of the great believers of strange garlic. He encourages people to pull it, as it is an invasive plant, unlike wild garlic. “The more people eat it, the happier nature will be,” he says.

“Obviously bird’s eye, it’s high time because it’s in flower, definitely nettles, for me the most amazing spinach ever, dandelions, I’m not even talking about them because I think it’s automatic,” he goes on to list what’s appropriate to put on the menu right now .

She passes on her knowledge to those interested in the various courses she organizes in her garden, which she officially opened a few days ago after the winter break, and also in Divoká Šárka or in the Suchdol orchard, one of the first in Prague to be renovated.

She wrote her first book about edible plants ten years ago. He admits that some recipes ended up in the trash. “I write recipe books, but I cook spontaneously,” she revealed.

She bought the garden in Suchdol twelve years ago. He spends every day among perennial beds, a Mediterranean corner, a collection of garlic, sagebrush, weeds and other greenery. In winter, when he cannot indulge in fresh catches, he is pleased with the produce from the summer. Not only with dried herbs, he can preserve a lot. “Crunch like cucumbers, dandelions like capers, tapenade from green nuts. I have fun with berries in the fall,” he smiles.

“I’m promiscuous in terms of taste, I willingly let myself be dragged along by the season,” she answers with a smile when asked what she enjoys the most. He is looking forward to finally sowing the radishes, which he grows not for the root but for the delicious pods.

QUIZ: Do you know the pests that destroy crops in gardens?

Gardens