Looks good! What hostas do you use? Are some better than others? How does a Montana compare to a Royal Standard??

debra

I've been on the lookout for you to post, you skipped right over forsythia this year! Very nice!

Beautiful plating, as always. I love seeing your food photography.

I hate to burst your bubble, but that's asparagus. Look at the head. Hosta pips don't look like that.

bkay

My money's on dcarch knowing the difference between asparagus and hosta. What asparagus variety is leafy?

That looks yummy! Is the filling hosta too?

Beautiful, dcarch! from where did you fetch your edible flowers? What’s in the ravioli?

You are wonderfully imaginative. Thanks for inspiring me.

Gorgeous, dcarch! I think you could hold your own with any of the famous chefs when it comes to beautiful plating!

I've wanted to try this since the last time you posted about it - but the deer always beat me to them.

Hate to burst your bubble, bkay! 😬

Thanks to dcarch, we look forward to hosta season every year and have experimented quite a bit with shoots, scapes, leaves, and flowers. I’ve always enjoyed eating so called wild weeds, though I cultivate sorrel, plantain, purslane, dandelion, and others on purpose, in rows along with the other greens. Learning about hosta has been a real culinary gift!

It is an easy task to collect a few shoots from the ever multiplying hosta plant. Mine need to be divided periodically, anyway. It is no major sacrifice for an individual plant to lose a few shoots, or flower stems, or young leaves occasionally. We like hosta wraps very much, too.

Edited to add that I would consider the addition of the violets to this lovely ”atrocity” not as a garnish, but an ingredient.

Rhizo_1, It is my opinion that darch posts these atrocities of food styling to generate opposition and comments. It would never be published in a food magazine, as it is overly garnished, not edible as presented and a waste of nice hosta (if his greens are actually hosta) pips.

If you will look closely, the heads of the "pips" are closely held, like asparagus spears. Hosta don't sprout like that. They go to leaves soon after breaking ground.

Also, his plate contains 20 "hosta" pips. By killing the new growth, it deprives the plant of the ability to thrive. Eating hosta is a waste of growing space. Many other plants would provide more food per square food than hosta, given you can only eat the pips, and it takes several years for hosta to reach a size that can be harvested.

Again, it is my opinion that his posts deserve no accolades.

bkay (a classically trained chef and hosta aficionado)

Goodness: I haven't been around in quite awhile and feels like I'm on Facebook or NextDoor.

djacob Z5b SE WI, Thanks. All Hostas can be eaten. Obviously you wouldn't want to eat the expensive ones. Montana is the common variety in Japan used for vegetable.

FOAS, thanks. I have been eating forsythia also. Just haven't had time to take pix and post.

LoneJack Zn 6a, KC , thanks. I eat flowers of all colors.

Fun2BHere , thanks. amazing how good cell phone cameras have advanced.

bkay2000 , thanks for pointing that out. I went out and checked and harvested some more.

plllog, thanks. About the filling. I don't think so. Costco does not have that kind of filling. LOL!

lizbeth-gardener , thanks. But you are entitled to your own opinion, because some trained chef thinks I suck. :-)

raee_gw zone 5b-6a Ohio , thanks. Sounds like venison with hostas will be on your menu. LOL!

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7 , thanks. Diversity in food in take is great for good health.

bkay2000 , thanks. Its good to have people like you here to share knowledge. Otherwise no one would know the following is fake news:

"---- hostas are a popular edible perennial in Japan. In that country they're known as urui, which means snow leaf or icicle, and they're cultivated in the same way as white asparagus — with growers mounding soil around the young shoots to produce long, pale green, stalks or growing them in darkened greenhouses ----"

arlinek , There is always free entertainment everywhere.

dcarch

Lovely Dcarch - I was waiting for your annual hosta post. I divided my hostas yesterday and harvested some if my much smaller hosta shoots. Not as decorative as your dish but they were yummy sautee with dandelions last night. My first hosta meal.

agmss15 , thanks. It is so satisfying to have rewards from the garden so early in the season, months before you can pick the others.

BTW, most of my hostas were started by me from seeds. Very easy. I now have several hundred plants, in all my shady spots in the garden, making my garden very productive.

dcarch

I owe you an apology.

I just spent the last hour working on saving a nice hosta that has crown/root rot. I kept thinking about you eating hosta. I realized what you eat is none of my business. I apologize for my remarks. I should not and will not open your future posts. That way, I will never be offended by what you post.

In the very small defense I can muster, I have to ask: Do you have to post to the hosta forum?

Would you post photos of puppy stew to a pet forum?

bkay

Thanks bkay.

Allow me also to apologize my flippant responses to your posts.

I feel it's important to share my activities in a public forum without violating any rules of this forum. Many members here have benefited from my posts over the years.

Likewise, I understand where you are coming from, and you have plenty to contribute in this forum. I encourage you to continue and I have no right to stop you if I have disagreement with you.

I believe that I might even have saved life in this pandemic. My abundant supply of fresh organic hostas have been reducing my need to go shopping, and therefore reduced infection possibilities.

I also think that hostas' supposedly have great medicinal benefits, such as anti-cancer, which might explain why countries where hostas are a common vegetable enjoy longer life expectance.

Looking forward to enjoy hosta scapes in another few weeks.

Have a good day.

dcarch

I can’t find sufficient words to tell you both, bkay and dcarch7, how much I appreciate the way you’ve handled your differences here. Now if we could just get the rest of humanity on board! Thanks again to both of you.

dcarch, I actually think that I like the scapes more than the shoots, though it’s pretty close. It won’t be too long for stuffed daylily flowers, too! I wish that there were more ornamental plants that could contribute legitimally to our dinner table.

Have you ever used young hosta leaves as a wrap?

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7 , "--------- Have you ever used young hosta leaves as a wrap? "

Absolutely! Amazing way to make wraps, but do the following immediately, depends on where you are:

Get black plastic bag and landscape staples, cover the young shoots but leave room for top growth. Basically this will blanch the shoots. The new leaves can grow fibery quickly under sun. but blanching leaves makes them very very tender.

It's raining all day here, I can't take a picture for you.

dcarch