Wild Mustard Vinegar

Check out that bee’s back leg! It looks like its bubble is about to burst. This bee has trapped a fine amount of pollen into what I think is its leg pouch. While they gather nectar from the blossoms, they also get some pollen into their leg pouch to bring back to the hive to feed to the larvae. The pollen that sticks to their leg hairs helps to pollinate other plants. Bees are not the only pollinators on the planet though, click here to read more about the birds, bats, butterflies, moths and others who all play a part in fertilizing 3/4th’s of our food supply. When I found this patch of wild mustard there were well over a hundred bees buzzing around. That buzzing, that buzzing! It felt like their wings were going to buzz me to someplace I’d never been buzzed to before.

These wild mustard flower tops make for a very jazzy herbal vinegar. I picked those flower tops and added about 1/8 cup flower heads per 1 cup apple cidar vinegar. Ha’s Apple Farm makes wonderful unpasteurized, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. They sell their products at various farmer’s markets in the LA area, and also market them on their website. Making herbal vinegars is fun and easy to do, but be sure to put your mixture into a clean jar, with no metal lid (vinegar will react with the metal – or put wax paper between metal lid and jar). Soak plant material for about a month and then strain it out.