Ireland: You can nibble your way around this breathtaking Cork garden

“Dahlia!” proclaims Adam. “Incredible plant: the flower petals are edible, but really what we want are the tubers.

By Kate Ryan
Echo Live
Sept 17, 2019

Excerpt:

It seems fitting that the first thing thrust under my nose on arrival is an edible plant, for that is the entire premise of The Garden of Re-Imagination.

“Absolutely everything in the garden is edible,” says Kloë.

“We want to show people how a garden isn’t just about aesthetics, it can be about discovery and nourishment too.”

Our tour about the garden starts straight away. In the crevices of the flagstones are bunches of wild strawberries — they are everywhere. Most of them have been harvested now, but there is still the odd one here and there — small, misshapen but brimming with the most gloriously intense strawberry flavour. In the entrance hall I had spied a jar of these wild strawberries macerating in brandy.

“If only you weren’t driving,” says Kloë. If only…

On the same shelf, I also spied Nasturtium seeds — poor man’s capers, peppery pickle bombs certain to brighten up those earthy, rooty flavours later in the year.

In the garden, there are pockets of Nasturtium flowers everywhere: red, orange and yellow, ivy-green leaves, tumbling over walls and terraces. The flowers, leaves and seeds are all edible — and delicious. Soon, it becomes apparent that many of the plants thriving in the edible garden have more than one use.

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