Don’t be a shrinking violet. Go ahead and graze from your garden. Edible flowers offer a colorful, delicious way to feed the appetite for beauty.
When my daughter’s teacher asked me to do a gardening project with her second-grade class at Eldorado School for the Gifted in Orange, I asked my daughter, Sabrina, if she thought edible flowers would interest her fellow classmates.
“No,” she said, in the straightforward manner of a 7-year-old. “The boys will think flowers are a girl thing.”
Because her class has more boys than girls, Sabrina’s opinion momentarily dampened my enthusiasm. Having a class full of uncooperative kids didn’t sound like fun. Her teacher remained delighted with the idea, though, so I forged ahead.
As I spoke to the children before we planted edible-flower baskets, I heeded Sabrina’s warning. I stressed that flowers we know as pretty have been considered food by many cultures for hundreds of years. People in other countries routinely consume colorful blossoms, and famous male and female chefs use edible flowers in restaurants throughout the world.
I don’t know if my talk did the trick, but the boys and girls responded with enthusiasm. They had plenty of good questions and planted as many flowers as they could fit into their little pots.
When it came time to sample their plantings, most dug in with gusto. Many loved the tangy zip of nasturtiums; others thought the colorful pansies and the cheery Johnny-jump-ups were best. Dianthus was considered OK, lavender tasty, and rosemary flowers yucky (I have to agree).Growing and eating edible flowers is fun at any age, says Renee Shepherd, owner of Renee’s Garden Seeds in Felton, Calif. Seeds and plants are available at most local nurseries.
“Edible flowers give you the perfect way to combine edible and ornamental gardening. They also make food look pretty and appetizing,” says Shepherd, who uses edible flowers in her own cooking and is the author of two cookbooks that include edible-flower recipes.
While not all flowers can be eaten, a surprising number are tasty and safe to eat. Some may even be growing in your garden right now.
Discovering which edible flowers you like may take experimentation. Some, such as nasturtiums, have a peppery taste; others, such as honeysuckle, taste extremely sweet. Roses are very floral; chive blossoms taste like sweet chives, and Johnny-jump-ups and pansies have a mild, minty flavor.
Lavender is sweet, and dandelion flowers are almost honey-like.
Other edible flowers include alyssum, anise hyssop, tuberous begonia, borage, bougainvillea, camellias, chives, chrysanthemum, clary sage, dianthus, English daisy, fennel blossom, fuchsia, geranium, hibiscus, impatiens, jasmine, marigold, orange blossom, oregano blossom, petunia, pineapple sage, rose, snapdragon, thyme blossom, tulip, violet, zinnia and zucchini blossom.
When using edible flowers, only eat what you can definitely identify as edible. A lot of pretty flowers, such as delphinium, foxglove, azalea and sweet pea, are very poisonous.
Also, only eat flowers that you are sure are pesticide-free. (This usually excludes florist flowers.)
Many edible flowers are easy to grow at home from seed.
Is sampling flowers for everyone? “Not really,” says Zov Karamardian, executive chef and owner of Zov’s Bistro in Tustin; Karamardian uses flowers in some recipes and as edible decorations.
“You must have a passion for edible flowers; they’re really a novelty,” she says. “Gardeners visiting the restaurant often eat the flowers without reservations, but other people get nervous and debate over whether to sample them.”
What to do with edible flowers is limited only by your imagination, but the ideas are more vast than you may realize.
“There is much you can do with edible flowers,” says Stefano Colaiacomo, executive chef of restaurants L’Opera, Alegria and the soon-to-open Madison, all in Long Beach.“Last spring and summer we served a very popular salad of mixed edible flowers, including pansies, marigolds and nasturtiums. I have also made a rose-petal sorbet and a risotto with rose petals,” he says. “Roses are one of my favorites to cook with because they have a wonderful taste and add such beautiful colors to food.”
Colaiacomo uses rose-petal liquid that he squeezes from individual rose petals, as well as julienne rose petals. For a treat, he suggests adding fresh-squeezed rose-petal juice and julienne rose petals to vanilla sorbet.
Other ways to use edible flowers suggested by cookbook-author Shepherd include mixing them with cream cheese or mayonnaise for a sandwich spread. You can also add them to potato salad, macaroni salad, fruit salad or to any egg dish. They look and taste good on fish and open-faced sandwiches. Or use them to flavor salad dressings, vinegars or iced tea; freeze them into ice cubes. Her cookbooks include baked treats such as Anise Hyssop Walnut Cookies and Lavender Shortbread.
Karamardian uses edible flowers in many desserts, including as edible cake decorations and on pastries, tarts and in sorbets. She also uses them to make jams, syrups, butters, spreads, puddings, custards and teas.
Edible flowers can be tossed into stir-fries at the end of cooking, stuffed with cheese for stunning hors d’oeuvres or simply steamed and served as a side dish.
Harvest edible flowers in the morning, if possible, before the heat of the day wilts them. Choose flowers in full bloom, but not past their prime. If you won’t be using them right away, store in water and refrigerate.
Right before serving or cooking, gently wash flowers under a light stream of cold water, then gently shake dry. Remove the stamens and pistils, tearing away all the green parts, as well as the white base of petals, since this often has a strong, bitter taste.
