We love: organic edible flowers from Maddocks Farm

Middleagedad will only allow me to have one dinner party a year as he is not a fan of them. I think I might have put him off them right back when our sons were younger and we were busy making all those new friends you make when you meet parents at the school gates. Bright and friendly please-be-my-new-best-friend chats inevitably lead to invitations to supper, not all of which turned out to be fun. If only there was an app to help one identify who has the world’s most boring husband/partner.

Also, when you are first starting out as a parent, it’s quite easy to get caught up in that whole madness of needing to prove that you are a complete domestic goddess and have delightfully behaved, A star achieving children as well as a fascinating job and a gorgeous other half and for a fleeting moment, the Dinner Party seems a great vehicle to achieve this. Obviously the sane amongst us abandon that pretty quickly, but not before a bit of collateral damage sticks, hence the DP limitation from MAD.

Now I’m older, I am SO much wiser on the whole idea of Dinner Parties; easy food, great cocktails and a selection of people you actually like make for a  magic mix. That and knowing where to go for food that adds a bit of dazzle with no extra effort from you. So we come to the really wonderful Maddocks Farm organic edible flowers. 

It was the Cocktail Gardener that connected me to Jan from Maddocks Farm, and having chatted over the phone from the middle of a field (her end) about what I was cooking, Jan suggested flowers to use to make my dinner party look like something out of a Martha Stewart photo shoot.

I ordered the dinner party flower box, plus a floral spicy salad bag a week before the event. The box – carefully packed – arrived the day before and went straight into the fridge. Well almost straight in, I couldn’t resist unpacking it an taking a look, the floral fragrance that came out of the little packets was heavenly.

There were enough flowers to add snap dragons and borage flowers to cocktails, rose petals, allium and calendula heads to the herby couscous salad and pansies and sweet peas to decorate the pudding (chocolate almond torte). It was a floral fest.

The party went so well MAD even said he wouldn’t mind another one this year. I’m putting it down to the flowers.

You don’t need a dinner party as an excuse either, Jan does flowers for cocktails, to crystallise and a fabulous list of flowery salads as just a lovely change from your local supermarket (for those not growing their own). Fabulous.