Refreshing and citrusy, this cocktail is a perfect blend of tart and sweet. The pansy simple syrup adds an herby sweetness that tames the zing of the fresh orange juice & yuzu juice for a balanced flavor.

Don’t have any oranges around? You can substitute pulp-free bottled orange juice.

Ingredients:   Makes 1 Drink
2 oz Vodka
1 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz Yuzu Juice
1/4 oz Pansy Simple Syrup
2 1/4 oz Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice (could substitute bottled)
Edible Pansy and/or orange slice to garnish

Directions:
1. If you’re using fresh oranges, cut an orange in half and cut 1 orange slice to reserve as a garnish.

2. Squeeze juice from remaining orange halves into a measuring cup/jigger until you get 2 1/4 ounces worth of juice.

3. Fill a mixing glass with ice and pour orange juice into the glass.

4. Add vodka, cointreau, yuzu juice and pansy simple syrup and shake with a cocktail shaker.

5. Strain into a martini glass.

6. Garnish with an orange slice and/or an edible pansy.

Mixologist: Katie Wallace

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Browse More:
Cocktail & Beverage Recipes
Edible Flower Recipes
Yuzu Recipes

We omitted parmesan cheese from this risotto.  We know that probably sounds like sacrilege…but the morels made us do it.  They’re so delicious – we wanted them to take center stage.

Drink Pairing: Chardonnay

Ingredients:                         Makes 4 Servings
4 tbsp of Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 quarts Vegetable Stock   (quantity can vary, so have a little extra on hand)
2 cups Vialone Nano Rice (could substitute other risotto rice, modifying stock quantity & cooking time)
½ cup White Wine
½lb Fresh Morel Mushrooms (could substitute reconstituted dried morels in a pinch)
1 tbsp minced Fresh Thyme Leaves
Salt & Pepper

Caramelized Onion Butter:          (you’ll have extra for other recipes)
2 1/2 Onions, peeled & thinly sliced
1/2lb of Unsalted Butter
3 large sprigs of Fresh Sage
Salt

Optional: Flat Leaf Parsley for Garnish

Directions:
1. Make the Onion Butter: Slowly caramelize the sliced onions.  Add them to a food processor with the 1/2lb of butter, sage, and salt to taste.  Process into a uniform butter & reserve in the fridge until you need it.

This step can be done a day or two ahead of time (even longer if you freeze the butter).

2. In a pot, warm the veggie stock.

3. Melt the plain butter in a wide frying pan.  Continue to cook it until it browns and emits a nutty aroma.

4. Add the rice and briefly toast it, stirring occasionally until it’s lightly browned.

5. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.

6. Add ladles of hot stock, stirring frequently…only adding more stock as the last infusion is absorbed (see how to make risotto for the full technique).

7. Once the rice is tender, remove the risotto from the stove and stir in the thyme and six tablespoons of the onion butter.

8. In a separate cast iron skillet or frying pan, melt 1 tbsp of the onion butter and add the morels.  Saute the morels until cooked through, then add them to the risotto (for a better presentation, hold some back and put them on top after plating).

9. Taste the risotto and add salt & pepper as necessary.  Serve garnished with flat leaf parsley if desired.

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Browse More:
Morel Recipes
Risotto Recipes
Mushroom Recipes

The sun is shining, the birds are singing…the call of the grill starts to sound in the hearts and minds of America.  If you want big flavors with little effort, there’s only one thing to turn to – specialty sausages!

Here are some of our favorite grilled sausage recipes:
Fennel Game Sausage Sandwich Recipe
Pepper, Onion & Bitter Greens Sandwich Recipe
Grilled Sausage Pizza Recipe
Beans & Sausage with Brown Butter & Sage Recipe

If you’re in the mood for something fancier, try combining sausages with other fine meats & poultry to make a mixed grill – see how to make mixed grills for our tips.

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Sausage Recipes

We held the steak and asparagus with a birchwood fork while we cut the food – despite being made of wood, the fork has an impressive ability to grip food and keep it in place while you’re cutting.

We filmed our tests so you can see the results below. For the first test, we cut a piece of sirloin steak on one of our hexagonal palm plates:

It took about 30-something cuts to cut through the steak (we’d guess around 35). We measured a cut as one motion in one direction, not a full back & forth movement. Cutting through the steak took approximately 8 seconds.

For the veggie test, we filmed the knife cutting through steamed asparagus:

The knife sliced through the asparagus in about 5 cuts and it took only 2 seconds.

We hope this test answers your questions about how sharp birchwood knives are, but if you have any more questions, we will happily cut up more food in our kitchen.

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Browse More:
Palm Plate Information

Super simple & super tasty.  It doesn’t take much to make asparagus and wild ramps shine.

Ingredients:
Asparagus Spears, Halved Lengthwise
Wild Ramps
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil

Directions:
1. Clean the ramps (how to clean ramps).

2. Toss the ramps and asparagus spears with salt, pepper and olive oil.

3. Put them in a cast iron skillet or oven-safe frying pan.  Move to the oven and broil until cooked through.

4. Serve.

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Ramps Recipes

“Floats” field definitions – “Flat” is ideal, the whole blossom is facing up, out of the water. “On Side” means that the blossom is turned on its side often not displaying the blossom at its prettiest.

	Variety	Size*	Flavor	Floats	Shelf Life*
	Arugula Blossoms	½” by 1″	Like arugula	On Side	3-5 days
	Bachelor’s Buttons	1-1 ¼” blossom + ¼-1″ stem	Slightly grassy	Flat	9-10 days
	Borage Blossoms	1″	Cucumber-esque	On Side	5-6 days
	Calendulas	3″ by 2 ½”	Minty, floral, grassy	Flat	9-10 days
	Camellias	1 ½ to 3 ½” wide	Soapy	Flat	10-12 days
	Chive Blossoms	1″ by ¾” blossom + 5″ stem	Oniony, spicy	On Side	5-6 days
	Cilantro Flowers	½” wide bunches on 3-6″ stems	Cilantro	Flat (w/ stems removed)	5-6 days
	Dahlias	2-4 ½” wide	Bitter, slightly spicy	Flat	10-12 days
	Dulce Buttons	Micro	Very sweet, herby	?	Up to 10 days
	Elderflowers	1/8″ wide in varying bunches	Mild individually, bitter in bunches	Varies	5-6 days
	Fava Flowers	About 1″ long	Snap pea/fava flavor	On Side	3-5 days
	Fennel Blossoms	½-1″ wide bunches + 2-4″ stems	Strong, sweet fennel	Flat (w/ stems removed)	5-6 days
	Fuschias	1 ½” wide, 2 ½” long	Bitter, sour, peppery	On Side	2-3 days
	Garlic Flowers	¼-½” blossom, 1″ w/ stem	Garlicy, musky	On Side	3-5 days
	Karma Orchids	2″	Mild – slightly bitter	Flat	Up to 14 days
	Marigolds	2 ½” wide	A little bitter, a little spicy	Flat	12-15 days
	Micro Bachelor’s Buttons	¼-½” wide, ¾” long	Slightly grassy	Flat	8-10 days
	Micro Blue Sapphires	½” wide	Very mild, cucumber-esque	Flat	3-5 days
	Microflower Blend	Smaller than a quarter – smaller than a dime	Often bitter	On Side (but varies)	Up to 10 days
	Micro Fuscias	½-1″ wide, about 1½” long	Bitter, sour, peppery	On Side	2-3 days
	Micro Marigolds	½-1″ blossom + ¾” stem	Very minty & citrusy	Flat	9-10 days
	Micro Marigold Florets	½” by ¾”	Same as marigolds, but stronger	On Side	10-12 days
	Micro White Mums	1″ wide	Intensely bitter	Flat	6-7 days
	Micro Orchids	Roughly the size of a quarter	Mild, slightly bitter	On Side	Up to 1 month
	Micro Pepper Flower Purple	½” wide	Bell-pepper-esque	Varies	2-3 days
	Micro Pepper Flower White	½” wide	Bell-pepper-esque	Varies	2-3 days
	Micro Sun Daisies	1-1 ¼” wide	Bitter, mustard-y, grassy	On Side	9-10 days
	Nasturtium Flowers	Medium	Peppery	?	Up to 10 days
	Pansies	2″	Wintergreen mint	Flat	Up to 10 days
	Squash Blossoms	Medium – Large	Very mild	?	2 days max
	Rose Petals	1″-1 ½”	Rose – can be soapy	Flat	5-6 days
	Whole Roses	1″-2″ diameter	Rose – can be soapy	On Side	Up to 10 days
	Szechuan Buttons/Buzz Buttons	Small	Grassy w/ tingling sensation	?	Up to 14 days
	Violas	1″	Minty & grassy	Flat	7-8 days

* All sizes & shelf lives are estimates.

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Edible Flower Recipes & Information

Bibimbap is a Korean rice bowl served with a dizzying array of condiments and toppings that you stir together at the table.  They are a study in a torrent of very strong flavors being mixed together and somehow achieving perfect harmony.

They’re very spicy, very sweet, very high in umami and very, very, very good.

Drink Pairing: OB Beer (Korean Lager)

Ingredients:                         Makes 4 Servings
Two 10oz Grass-Fed Beef Ribeye Steaks
2 cups Bean Sprouts
1 tbsp Dark Sesame Oil
1 tbsp sliced Green Onion Tops
3 cups Sushi Rice
1 cup Kimchi, cut chiffonade
4 Eggs
1/2lb Fresh Organic Maitake Mushrooms
2 bunches Scallions or Fresh Wild Ramps, cleaned (How to Clean Ramps)
2 tbsp Fresh Cilantro, chopped

Gochujang Sauce:
4 tbsp Gochujang Bean Paste
2 tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Dark Sesame Oil
1 tbsp White Sesame Seeds

Marinade:
1 tbsp Gochujang Bean Paste
2 tsp Chile Flakes
3 tbsp Tamari Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Sake (could substitute Mirin, White Wine or Rice Wine Vinegar)
2 tbsp of Sugar
2 tbsp Dark Sesame Oil
2 tbsp minced Garlic
2 tbsp grated Ginger
2 tbsp White Sesame Seeds
½ cup grated Asian Pear or Tart Apple (small holes on a box grater)
½ tsp ground Black Pepper

Additional Sesame Seeds for garnish
Additional Sesame Oil or Delicata Squash Seed Oil to finish

Directions:
1. Put the steaks in the freezer for about an hour – until they firm up, but haven’t frozen solid.

2. Lightly toast all the sesame seeds in the recipe (3 tbsp, plus extra for garnish) in a dry pan until lightly browned.

3. Mix together all the marinade ingredients.

4. Slice the beef very thinly (as thin as possible 1/16” would be great) , and cover it with the marinade.  Marinate in the refrigerator for anywhere from four hours to overnight.

5. Blanch the bean sprouts: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the bean sprouts and continue to cook for 2 minutes.

Drain the water off of the bean sprouts and toss them with 1 tbsp of sesame oil & the sliced green onion tops.  Store them in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use them.

6. Make the gochujang sauce: Add all the sauce ingredients to a small bowl and stir vigorously to combine.

7. Cook the sushi rice: Rinse the rice until the water runs clear.  Then soak it in fresh, cold water for fifteen minutes. Drain off the water & let the rice rest for ten minutes.

Move the rice in a pot with six cups of water.  Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit, covered, for 15 minutes.

8. Sear the maitake mushrooms and ramps/scallions together in oil over medium high heat.  Once they’re crisped & caramelized, add the cilantro & salt to taste. Move off the heat.

9. Fry the eggs sunny-side-up.

10. Remove the meat from the remaining marinade (but don’t dry it off)  & put it in a large, un-oiled, frying pan.  Cook over medium-high heat until it reaches your desired level of doneness.  Add salt to taste.

11. Put the cooked sushi rice in bowls.  Top the rice with the ramp/scallion & mushroom mixture, blanched bean sprouts, chiffonade kimchi, the beef and a fried egg.  Top the egg with the gochujang sauce and additional sesame seeds if desired.

12. Finish each bowl with a drizzle of delicata squash seed oil or additional sesame oil.  Serve.

Note: To make your bibimbap extra awesome, serve it (carefully!) in traditional dolsot stone bowls – heated to the point that they’re rocket hot.

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Browse More:
Grass-Fed Beef Recipes
Rice Recipes

There’s nothing boring about this bean salad – the ramps and morel mushrooms bring some of mother nature’s most amazing foraged flavors to what was once a humble side dish.

Drink Pairing: Pilsner

Ingredients:                                               Makes 6 Servings
1/2lb Fresh Morel Mushrooms, halved  (could substitute reconstituted dried morels in a pinch)
1 tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 bunch Wild Ramps, cleaned (how to clean ramps)
1 tsp Champagne Vinegar
2 cups Dried Beans (rice beans, marrow beans or giant Peruvian lima beans)
1 Bay Leaf
¼ cup Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, very finely grated (microplaned)
Salt & Black Pepper

Directions:
1. Soak the beans overnight.

2. Move the beans to a pot in their soaking liquid (enough to cover by an inch of water).  Add a teaspoon of salt and the bay leaf.  Cook at a low simmer, gently stirring occasionally.

Note: if using multiple bean varieties, we recommend cooking them in separate pots (each with their own bay leaf) until each variety is tender for best texture.

3. After the beans have cooked for a while, add a pinch of additional salt. Add additional hot water as necessary to keep the beans submerged. Continue to simmer until tender.

4. Separate the ramp greens (tops) from the bottoms.  Finely mince the bottoms, cut the greens chiffonade (into thin strips).

5. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

6. Add the ramp bottoms and sweat until translucent.

7. While the ramps are cooking, briefly dunk the morels in cool water to remove any sand or grit.

8. Add the morels to the ramps & continue to cook until they are tender.

9. Add the cooked, drained beans.  Cook until the beans are heated through, then add the ramp greens, champagne vinegar, salt & black pepper to taste.

10. Serve hot, cold, or at room temperature topped with the parmesan cheese.

Note: If you’d like to use a couple of different bean varieties for a blend of colors & sizes (as we have here), we recommend simmering each variety separately for the best texture.  That way you can take each off the heat when they’re ready.

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Browse More:
Morel Recipes
Ramp Recipes
Bean & Lentil Recipes

Mother’s day is coming!  Are you ready?

There’s nothing like breakfast in bed or a nice brunch with friends & family to spoil the mom(s) in your life.  Here are some of our favorite recipes to help you plan.

Mother’s Day Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
Morel Bruschetta Recipe
Cheese, Cranberry & Honey Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms Recipe
Peppered Brown Sugar-Glazed Bacon Recipe
Toast with Yuzu Marmalade
How to Make Compound Butters – Make a honey or maple butter with nuts for waffles/pancakes!

Egg Recipes:
Baked Eggs with Morels Recipe
Uni Scrambled Eggs Recipe
Bacon Quail Egg Breakfast Sandwich Recipe
Gruyere Morel Frittata Recipe
Green Nettle Pesto Eggs Recipe

Potato Sides:
Pan Fried Chive Potato Cakes Recipe
Bacon-Sausage Potato Hash Recipe

Baked Goods:
Huckleberry Clafouti Recipe
Blue Cheese Bread Pudding Recipe

Mother’s Day Brunch Beverage Recipes

Cocktails:
Yuzu Drop Recipe
Elderflower French 75 Recipe
Huckleberry Daiquiri Recipe

Non-Alcoholic Beverages:
Iced Hibiscus Tea & Lime Hibiscus Cooler Recipes
Lavender Lemonade & Lavender Huckleberry Lemonade Recipes

Presentation Ideas
How to Write Messages on a Plate with Chocolate
Edible Flowers make plates beautiful!

New Nut and Nut Meals

Pecan Halves                                                  Pecan Meal

Whole Hazelnuts                                            Hazelnut Meal

English Walnuts                                              Macadamia Nuts

Whole Almonds                                               Almond Meal

As you can see, we have added a lot of new items to our nut section. The almond meal and whole almonds can be ordered either blanched, or with the skins-on.

New Spices

Amchur Powder

Fenugreek Seeds

Dried Fenugreek Leaves

Our spices just got more exciting with the addition of tart & tangy amchur powder, made from finely ground green mangoes.  We’ve also added dried fenugreek leaves and fenugreek seeds, perfect for curry, tandoori dishes and East Indian cuisine.

New Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

We now carry conveniently pre-hulled pumpkin seeds, which make a great addition to trail mix, salads, snacks, baked goods…or you can just eat them by the handful!

New Pasta

Squid Ink Orzo

Visually striking squid ink orzo has been added to our orzo, couscous & fregola collection. This orzo has simply been colored and flavored with cuttlefish ink (commonly referred to as “squid ink” whether it is from squid or cuttlefish).

New Bulk Truffle Oils

You can now buy high quality, yet affordably priced truffle oil by the case with our new D Dalla Terra bulk white truffle oil and bulk black truffle oil. They are both all natural (chemical free).

Fresh Lemon Verbena

The newest member of our bulk fresh herbs is fresh lemon verbena. With its potent, bright lemon-floral flavor & aroma, it’s a great way to add lemon flavor without the added acidity, sugar, and liquid lemon juice brings to a dish.