Pretty in pink

The Yukon is incredibly colourful this time of year: wildflowers, blue skies, lush green grass, gardens starting to produce vegetables and herbs. Part of my mission is to preserve the flavours of spring, summer, and fall: spruce tips, flowers, berries, aromatics, fungi, etc. so that they are available year round. More and more I've become interested in preserving the colours of the outdoors as well, as plants bloom so quickly and then disappear. Partly in defence against the colourless winter I know is coming, when there will be no bright fresh blossoms to sprinkle on salad greens or to garnish appetizers and partly also just to get to know plants and how they can be translated onto different mediums.

My project this week is fireweed. It's exploding in the Klondike right now and it's just the most delightful shade of pink. I've made attempts in previous years to use fireweed in various mediums with limited success, but the truth is it's just not all that flavourful and try as I might, it doesn't bring much to mustards or preserves. So I decided to look past the flavour and focus on that incredible colour. I love pinks and purples, and although I'm never sure exactly where fireweed falls (I am admittedly mildly colourblind, which is perhaps another factor in this mission) it is probably my favourite colour.

All of my colour-focused salts are made with Maldon flakes, their pure whiteness and large textured flakes make them an excellent vessel for colours. These salts are made in very small batches in order to protect the delicate crystal structure of the salt. Stay tuned for more in this line of coloured garnish salts (haskap flakes are already available on this site) as the season moves on.