A recipe for compote:
You’ll need some
peaches,
And some
apricots.
Peel them if you like, and cut them up. Put them in a pot with water to cover and sugar (or honey, or stevia) to taste. Toss in:
Herb flowers- these are oregano. They grow wild in the garden and are a great favorite with the butterflies.
Simmer for five or ten minutes and let it cool. Compote is nice chilled- it’s quite refreshing on a summer day. Bits of cooked fruit in a light syrup- it goes down pretty easy. It might seem like food for invalids, but since an invalid would require comforting, nourishing fare, perhaps that’s not such a bad thing.
Thyme flowers would be nice, in fact that’s what gave me the idea: I was reading a book called Mes Tartes by Christine Ferber, whose book, Mes Confitures, is my current favorite jam book (although the titles are French, these are English translations, by the way).
Her tarts are quite intimidating sounding and I have not attempted one yet. (I’m sure I’ll do it when my mom is with me in the kitchen this summer.) She had one tart, though, involving apricots and flowering thyme. That thought stuck with me.
When Ali brought a handful of the last, almost overripe apricots from the tree at the bottom of the garden, I mixed them with peaches from the tree by the kitchen, which have been falling even though they are slightly underripe (the whole kitchen area smells like peaches now,as the fruits ripen). I thought the result was quite tasty. The flowers taste like oregano, of course, but there is also a distinctly flowery flavor to them as well. It has made me curious about other herb flowers. I’ve not cooked with lavender much, for instance, but I’d like to.
Garden Correspondent 
Sounds wonderful–since I am always pinching back the herbs, finding such ideas for the flowers is grand! I have seen a recipe for an herb flower pesto–the flowers substituting for basil.
That is precisely what got me interested in the idea — why not pinch those flowers back with something in mind to do with them? I love the idea of flowers in pesto — I’ll have to try that this summer.
Looks wonderful I love how you cook with flowers!
There is always the temptation to eat flowers, so why not?
I love seeing a tree with it’s branches laden with fruit, just like the 2 branches that you’ve shown us here. It says Summer better than I ever could. I bet your compote of both apricots and peaches is delicious! What a great idea!
That is pretty much my feeling. I really have the sense that spring is good and gone.
Apricots and flowering thyme sounds a gorgeous combination
It does have a ring to it, doesn’t it?
Tree ripen apricots and peaches, oh how I would love some right now. They should be appearing at our farmers’ market pretty soon, can’t wait.
It’s a summery feeling to eat them, isn’t it?
OOOOoooooOoOooO! Peaches and apricots! Oh how delightful! 😀