Pauline's Lucky Market Garden

HIBISCUS FLOWER CAKE                     It's Hibiscus flower harvest time at our farm, and we are having some more fun with them in our farm kitchen. This time we used them as a cranberry substitute and baked them into this lovely, moist cake. Try it yourself using our recipe. We sell our hibiscus flowers at our farmers market stand at the Artisan Alley Farmers' Market in Deland FL.   It will take a bit over an  hour. Also called "roselle" and  "Florida cranberry" the part we use and call "hibiscus flower" is not truly the flower but actually the seed pod surrounded by tart tasting sepals. These are removed and can be used dried or fresh. We used them fresh in our cake. This delicious cake makes 10 servings INGREDIENTS 4 cups hibiscus flower sepals (start with about 68 whole fresh flowers ~3/4 lb) 1  1/2 cups sugar 2 cups water zest from 1 orange 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teasp

Summer on the farm is coming to an end.  That is great news for us at our central Florida tiny farm! As it cools down below 90 degrees it is time to regrow all the great greens, herbs and veggies we had in the spring backwards!  After months of scorching weather here we CAN'T WAIT to have cucumbers, zucchini again and then afterward beans and GREENS!!! But before we seem ungrateful for the veggies that got us through the heat, I have to say how nice it has been to have had a fruitful crop of eggplants that have given us all kinds of good eating! So as we approach the last eggplant harvests we are sharing another yummy recipe. We hope you like it! To make a lovely EGGPLANT SPREAD:  "Baba ghanouj" Ingredients 6 small EGGPLANTS (skin on halved lengthwise) 1/2 cup tahini 3 cloves garlic 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (2 lemons) fresh minced parsley to garnish optional Salt and pepper to taste Method Preheat oven to 350 ° f. Roast  eggplant halves  cutside