Foods associated with Eostara include:

• eggs, egg salad, hard-boiled eggs, honey cakes, first fruits of the season, fish, cakes, biscuits, cheeses, honey, fish, and ham

• seeds such as sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds, and pine nuts

• sprouts and leafy, green vegetables.  Plants/herbs associated with Eostara are daffodils, jasmine, Irish moss, crocus flowers, and ginger

• Scott Cunningham suggests in his books different uses for edible flowers during this season, such as flower dishes including stuffed nasturtiums or carnation cupcakes.

Flowers for cooking:

Make sure your flower petals are completely pesticide free and cleaned well.  Don't purchase flowers from florists for cooking unless they're selling them as food-grade flowers.  An even better bet is to grow and use your own.  White and other pale flowers don't cook as well as darker colors, and in cooking roses (for Litha rather than Eostara) the red and pink flowers are the best choice for cooking (other kinds discolor when heated).  Nasturtiums come in red, orange, or yellow, all suitable for cooking.  If you use carnations, grow your own to ensure they're not dyed. Make certain that you use a pot marigold (Calendula) rather than an African marigold (Tagetes).

Eostara Carnation Eggs

Makes 24, for a picnic or potluck. (Have you ever noticed how quickly the eggs dissapear at events? Don't be shy - make plenty!)

1 dozen eggs
1 red or pink carnation blossom, petals only, pesticide-free and rinsed, chopped
   (substitute if no carnations: 1/4 cup, loosely packed chopped nasturtium, marigold, or calendula)
1 tsp butter
2 Tbsp minced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
1 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp fresh snipped chives
1 tsp dried onion flakes
1/4 tsp grey mustard
salt and pepper, to taste

Bring 12 eggs to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes. Run them under cold water and then let cool in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the minced onion and garlic. Saute briefly until a little soft.  Add the chopped carnation and stir to coat with butter then quickly remove from heat and set aside.

Carefully crack and peel the eggs. Cut them in half, lengthwise. Remove the yolks and set aside the whites for later. Put the yolks in a separate bowl, add the cider vinegar and mash well with a fork. Add the onion/carnation mixture and the remaining ingredients. Start with 1/4 cup mayonnaise, adding more until you get the texture you desire.

Spoon mixture into a one-quart plastic bag. Close bag. Push contents toward one bottom corner. Snip about 1/2 inch off corner of bag. Squeezing bag gently, fill reserved whites with yolk mixture. Chill at least 3 hours to blend flavors.

What carnations taste like:  spicy, peppery, clove-like.

Eostara Ham Rollups

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp finely minced onion
1 tsp finely minced pine nuts
1 tsp horseradish
Worcestershire sauce, to taste (a dash or so)
a lot of thinly sliced smoked ham

Blend cream cheese, onion, horseradish and Worcestershire sauce until of spreading consistency. Separate meat slices. Lay out five slices slightly overlapping on an 18" piece of aluminum foil. Lay out two more rows to form a rectangle of meat. Spread with cheese mixture. Roll up as jelly roll using foil to bring up meat at beginning of roll. Use fingers to roll until complete. Chill. Just before serving, slice into one inch slices.

Individual Eostara Ham and Egg Casseroles

For 4 casseroles you'll need:

1/4 cup chopped onion
3 Tbsp chopped celery
1 tsp curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp butter
4 pieces Canadian bacon or ham
8 hard boiled eggs, sliced thickly
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a pan and saute onion and celery until onions are translucent. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the curry powder.

In each small casserole dish, place first the Canadian bacon, then the onion/celery mix. Put a layer of hard boiled egg slices on top of this, then pour about a quarter of the chicken broth over. Top with a quarter of the grated cheddar. Place the individual casseroles on a baking sheet and bake at 350 until cheese begins to turn brown and is melted.

Noodles in Faery Butter

From A Kitchen Witch's Cookbook, by Patricia Telesco.

This is a sweet side dish which, with its bright color & scent, inspires thoughts of spring frolic, abundant buttercups, and pranks by the Fae. People of the Middle Ages loved sweetened or spiced butter, especially honey or sage butter.

4 hard-boiled egg yolks
2 tablespoons orange or rose flower water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sweet butter, softened
1 lb. noodles (any kind), cooked
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sweet basil
1 orange, sliced (garnish)

Beat the egg yolks, sugar, butter, thyme, basil, and orange water in a small bowl until smooth. Mix enough of the butter with the hot noodles to coat the noodles with a golden-yellow color. Garnish with orange slices. Yield: 8 Servings

To ensure Faery good will, especially if you seek them out, it is an excellent idea to leave the last fruit of any harvest out for the Faeries, and also a small portion of any of your Sabbat feasts.

Ham and Corn Custard

2 Tbsp onion, minced
1/4 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 Tbsp butter
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup cooked ham, diced
1 cup corn
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced
1/4 tsp grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp salt
pepper, to taste

Saute onion and ginger in butter until tender. Beat eggs in a bowl; add milk, ham, corn, parsley, lemon, and seasonings. Stir in onions. Pour mixture into a buttered 1-quart casserole. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 30 to 40 minutes, or until custard is firm.

Baked Salmon with Nasturtium Sauce

2 Tbsp plain lowfat yogurt
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp pickled nasturtium seeds
1/2 Tbsp white wine
1/4 tsp grated lemon rind
1/8 tsp white pepper
2 (4 oz.) salmon steaks
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp mead (or white wine + 2 tsp honey)
lemon slices and fresh nasturtium blossoms for garnish

Combine yogurt, mayo, shallot, nasturtium buds, vinegar, lemon rind, white pepper, and white wine. Mix them well. Cover and chill for at least an hour.

Rinse salmon steaks and pat dry. Spray a 1-quart baking dish with cooking spray, then place salmon inside. Arrange onion slices over salmon and sprinkle with minced garlic. Pour mead over salmon. Cover and bake at 350 for 15 to 20 min. Or until salmon flakes easily when tested with a fork. Discard onion.

Transfer to individual serving plates and spoon 2 teaspoons of the chilled sauce over each salmon steak and garnish with lemon slices & fresh nasturtium blossoms if desired. Serves 2.

Note: if you don't have nasturtium buds, you can substitute capers.

Pickled Nasturtium Pods or Seeds

After the blossoms fall, pick off the half-ripened Nasturtium seed pods. Continue as your crop develops to drop them into a boiled and strained mixture of:

1 quart white wine vinegar
2 tsp pickling salt
1 thinly sliced onion
1/2 teaspoon each allspice
1/2 tsp mace
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 peppercorns

Keep refrigerated and use as a variation for capers.

Taken from The Joy of Cooking,
Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker,
Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., New York, 1975.

Nasturtium Butter for Fish

4-6 fish steaks (salmon, cod, etc), broiled
1 stick soft butter (not melted)
1 Tbsp minced shallots
1 clove garlic, minced
6-8 chives, finely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped nasturtium petals

To a stick of softened butter add the minced shallots, garlic, chives finely chopped, salt and pepper to taste, the lemon juice, and the chopped nasturtium petals. Blend thoroughly. Rub about a tablespoon of the flavored butter on each portion of the cooked fish.

Simply Stuffed Nasturtiums

1 shallot, minced
1/2 tsp freshly chopped parsley
1 Tbsp small capers
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
24 nasturtiums, pesticide-free and rinsed
black or green olives, whichever you prefer, 24 slices

Mix together the softened cream cheese, shallot, parsley, capers, and garlic powder.

Place nasturtiums on a tray or large platter. With butter knife, press about 1/2 teaspoon cream cheese into center of each nasturtium.  Pat capers dry on paper towels. Push an olive slice into the center of the cream cheese in each flower. Serve stuffed nasturtiums immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve, no more than 1 hour.

Laurie's Stuffed Nasturtiums

Posted by Laurie Otto on April 07, 1996 at Algy's Recipe Exchange.

Take tuna fish and mix with chopped parsley, capers and sweet pickles, then blend with mayonnaise. Go into your garden and pick the largest and most perfect nasturtiums you can find and stuff each with a teaspoonful of this mixture. Put on a dish and pour over French dressing. This can be garnished with other flowers, a very striking one would be borage.

Honey Orange Eostara Cake

6 ounces self rising flour
6 ounces honey
1 ounce butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 Tbsp milk
1 large orange, the grated rind from

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line a 2 lb. loaf tin. Cream the margarine and honey together in a bowl, mixing thoroughly. Add the egg and beat vigorously. Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder and add alternately with the milk, to the creamed mixture. Sprinkle in the orange rind and mix well. Spoon the mixture into the tin. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, glaze with honey and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm, sliced and buttered.

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