If Van Gogh had a Blue Period, this is my Flower Period. Inspired by the wonderfully creative Loria Stern, I'm obsessed with using edible flowers in baking and incorporating them into my cooking -- from cookies to buns to jam and whatever else my imagination can dream up! My Rose Pistachio Cardamom Buns are truly a work of art, and the Lemon Verbena Shortbread Cookies (pictured above) are the only cookie I've ever recommend eating flipped upside-down.

I have a Peach Rose Petal Jam recipe for you below, but before that let's dive into the mold-a-licious events that unfolded at Sqirl. Safe and proper canning technique is so important for storing food to prevent bacterial growth and botulism. So SO many things went wrong at this Los Angeles darling restaurant. The crazy part is that safe and proper canning isn't all that hard to do -- it's just boiling water and mason jars. 

We wouldn't have flowers without bees, and bees make honey, so naturally there's a Salted Honey Pie calling your name down below. 

Baking With Chickens fans on Instagram weighed in on their top mosquito repelling and itch-stopping remedies. I share my favorites below, plus the one device that totally works without poisoning bees! 

I had an epic fail bake day recently where everything came out wrong. It happens and I was long overdue to make a sacrifice to the baking gods. It happens to everyone! I dusted myself off to bake another day. May we all dust ourselves from the dumpster fire that is 2020.

Bok-bok-BAKE!

Christina

Eat Your Flowers

Egg-stra! Egg-stra! Read All About It.

A roundup of egg-ucating and hen-tastic news and info from around the internet. If you see something cool, share it with me and it could end up here! 

Make Jam at Home (Mold-Free)

If Sqirl-gate hasn't totally turned you off from jam, making a batch of homemade jam from fresh seasonal fruit and sugar could not be easier! You do not need to pay $14 for a jar. If you don't intend to eat all the jam right away, can it to store for later using a water bath method. No roses? No worries! Try this Nectarine Lemon Verbena Jam recipe instead. 

Peach Rose Petal Jam 

A luscious, rosy summer jam made with sweet peaches and handfuls of fresh rose petals with no added commercial pectin. A Baking With Chickens Original Recipe 

Time to Prepare: 1.5 hours

Makes 4 half-pint jars

INGREDIENTS:

1 lemon, juice, seeds and zest (for natural pectin) 

2 pounds ripe peaches, pitted and sliced into chunks with skin on

2 cups granulated sugar

Pinch salt

2 cups of organic rose petals (generous 2 cups or more)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Put cut peaches, sugar, pinch of salt, lemon zest, and lemon juice into a large pot. 

2. Put lemon seeds with fruit pith into a cheesecloth bag (so it's easier to fish out before canning), put into the pot with the fruit and sugar. As the fruit cooks down, submerge the bag into the liquid. Sprinkle rose petals into the simmering liquid and stir to incorporate. 

3. Boil on medium, switch to low/med simmer for about an hour until the liquid starts to have a thick jammy consistency. Stir consistently with a heat-proof spatula. When the jam is getting thick and syrupy, pull out the cheesecloth bag and discard. 

4. Use the cold plate test method to see if jam consistency is right. Place a small plate in the freezer, drop a small amount of jam onto the cold plate, wait 30 seconds and push the jam to see if it wrinkles slightly to check the consistency. Should be thick, gooey, and like molten lava, not thin and runny. If you’d like to use a thermometer, setting point for jam is 220 degrees F. 

5. Pour jam into clean, sterilized mason jars. Can using a water bath method if you’d like to store the jam, or just spoon into a container without canning and eat it all before it goes bad.

6. Slather that jam on a piece of toast and enjoy while sipping a cup of tea in your garden. 

The Bee's Knees

Wait, do bees have knees? What about flea's eyebrows and canary's tusks?

I got this gorgeous hunk of honeycomb (pictured above) and fresh honey from my beekeeper friend Camille. We wouldn't have beautiful flowers, fruits, veggies, honey or honeycomb without BEES! Bees are the hardest working tiny creatures out there.

To make one pound of honey, bees must visit 2 million flowers and fly over 55,000 miles, and will be the lifetime work of approximately 768 bees. A single honeybee will only produce approximately 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. In one year, a typical beehive can produce anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds of honey. Think about that math for a second. Suddenly I feel very unproductive and lazy, I have produced zero teaspoons of honey in my lifetime.

Bees are at risk and dying in record numbers due to the widespread use of pesticides. They are responsible for pollinating much of the food that we eat. They're awesome little creatures that deserve our respect, not fear, flailing arms, and poison. Here are 10 ways you can help save the bees, via thehoneybeeconservancy.org.

Your Weekend Baking Project

Speaking of honey, this Salted Honey Pie recipe is the bee's knees, err... flea's eyebrows! I drizzled this spoonful of honey and honeycomb on a slice simply for the photo, it tastes much better on its own without a drizzle of honey but i'm not going to stop you. 

Flaky Maldon Sea Salt makes all the difference with this pie. Don't just use regular table salt or whatever you have laying around. Treat yourself and buy some fancy flaky salt. If you're wondering what else you'll use that fancy salt for the answer is Sycamore Kitchen's Salted Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies. Worth the investment. 

I Love Mosquito Bites!

Said No One Ever

Tis the season for mosquitos! Mosquitos love me. I once had 73 mosquito bites from head to toe after a weekend surf camp trip at the Maryland Shore. My right eyelid was swollen from a mosquito bite in my 3rd grade school photo. Other than eyelid, the bottom of my foot and on my finger joint knuckle are the other most annoying places to get bitten. 

On Instagram, I asked for everyone's top mosquito repelling and itch-reliving tips and tricks. Here's what they had to say, in order of works great to suspect. 

Mosquito Repelling

1. 1. Themacell Backpacker Camp Mosquito Repeller
2. 2. Fan (mosquitos are weak fliers)
3. 3. Mosquito Net / Tent
4. 4. Orange / Lemon / Spearmint Oil
5. 5. Lemongrass, citronella, marigold, lavender plants
6. 6. Dryer sheets 
7.  

Itch-Relief

1. 1. Scotch Tape (you laugh but it works!)
2. 2. Vick's Vaporub (the camphor and eucalyptus)
3. 3. Therapik Itch Relief Device
4. 4. Bug Bite Thing Tool 
5. 5. Rubbing alcohol / Tea tree oil / Witch hazel 

Did you know that mosquitos bite chickens?! It's true. Mosquitos spread fowl pox from wild birds to backyard chickens. Fowl pox is a contagious virus that's like herpes for chickens, or the human version of chicken pox. Raspberry got hit hard with fowl pox last year and poor thing looked like a goblin for 2 weeks. So preventing mosquitos around your chicken coop is just as important as keeping them away from you!