Our local farmer's market opened back up for the summer today, making it possible to find organically grown (meaning not sprayed with poisonous chemicals, and so safer to eat) violas to add to our garden.
To celebrate the find (not an easy one in our area), I made up a batch of viola topped sugar cookies for the girls to enjoy, while they listened to book two in the Herb Fairies series.
Book one, as it turns out, features a chickweed fairy. The Man of the House assures me I will not find any of that growing in our yard (not if he has anything to say about it), so we'll have to pass on the recipe cards, and stick to the craft and coloring sheets that go along with that book, for now.
The books cost $7.50 each - not a bad price when you consider that includes a .pdf print version, a Kindle version, and an audio version of the stories, as well as coloring sheets, recipe cards, and back issues of a children's herbal e-zine to match up with each title. Unfortunately, you have to purchase them by subscription, and pay for all thirteen books in the series (which are to be released one per month after the initial two) at once, and after midnight tonight, they will not be available again until mid-2013.
You can find out more about the learning series through HerbFairies.com or LearningHerbs.com. I will say, my 5, 7 and 11 year old daughters love them, and even though they have a fairy theme, the fairy-tale type magic they offer up is mild, and the characters are adorable.
Of course, you don't have to be reading a story about a viola fairy to enjoy viola cookies.
Inspired by a shortbread version, I made ours with sugar cookie dough (naturally), rolled out and cut with a flower shaped cookie cutter, and placed onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet...
...topped with viola flowers, that had been washed and dried (remember you probably don't want to eat the ones that have been sprayed with chemical fertilizer)...
...brushed with egg white, and sprinkled with sugar...
...baked for 13 minutes at 350° F, and sprinkled with a touch more sugar (so they'd sparkle).
The flowers don't add much in the way of taste, but they're awfully pretty on the plate.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
8 comments:
Very pretty cookies! R would love the books and cookies.
Those cookies look so good! I wonder if the books are available in the UK, they sound like just my dd'd thing! I'm off to investigate now, thanks for sharing :-)
Looks very Spring-like!
Yummy! Though they almost look too pretty to eat! What a great idea. We looked into using violas to make lollipops, but that got a bit too complicated. Cookies, I could handle. I'm also going to have to look into that book series as we love fairies around here.
Well, you answered the question I was wondering as I read it, what the flavor is like.
I love the idea of these books.
Cookies look very spectacular. I am still going back and forth on the books - I am personally not much into fairies either.
Very nice cookies! It's really special to see the cookies with flowers!
YAY for the Farmers Market!
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