Emily Is Wondering About Edible Flowers
- Image by ginger jam via Flickr
This is good. I have eaten a few flowers while visiting places but never tried any of my own flowers. Emily emailed and asked a question about edible flowers.
At a local restaurant, they serve some dishes, especially salads, with cut garden flowers. Is this safe or are they merely garnishes?
Many flowers are safe to eat and can be quite special. Choose from the list below, as some flowers can irritate digestion. When harvesting flowers from your garden, do not cut any flowers which have been sprayed with pesticides, even from plants which have been treated with soil systemics. These are not safe as chemicals can reside in the tissues for some time. Organically grown flowers are most safe. Try some of these popular flowers:
- Bachelor Buttons: long-lasting blue, pink or white flowers which can be used whole or broken up for attractive confetti mixes.
- Broccoli flowers: a good way to use broccoli heads which have gone to flower.
- Calendula: use in flower confetti; long-lasting orange, yellow and bicolor petals.
- Hollyhocks: large impressive blooms to accent dishes.
- Marigolds: citrusy, tangy flavor; yellow, rust orange and bicolors. Use whole or broken petals.
- Nasturtiums: peppery flavor; can be used whole as garnish or broken up and added to confetti; can be stuffed with soft cheese and eaten as appetizer.
- Scarlet Runner Beans: good for use in salads; red and bicolor.
- Squash blossoms: can be stuffed and fried or used as a garnish; usually males are used, but females can be served with tiny squash attached. Popular in Latin cuisine.
- Pansies and Johnny-Jump-Ups: particularly good for decorating cakes, sweets and salads; long lasting; wide range of colors.
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Here are over twenty:
Bee Balm (Monarda) : Tastes of sweet mint, can be spicy. Good in small amounts to add a lift to salads or appetizers.
Calendula (Marigolds): This edible flower can be spicy and peppery and can be used as a substitute for saffron.
Carnation: The petals are very sweet, but discard the bitter white base.
Chrysanthemums: Comes in many colors, from yellow to deep magenta. The flowers can be very mild to peppery.
Clover: Sweet, tasting of licorice.
Cornflower (Bachelor’s button): Taste ranges from sweet to spicy. Generally a garnish.
Dandelion: Though we don’t want these in our lawns, they’re very good if you need a sweet flavor (use young flowers for this). The buds are good, too.
Daylily: I’ve included day lilies because you can stuff and fry them just as you can squash blossoms.
Fuchsia: Though tropical and lush-looking, this edible flower actually tastes a little acidic. I think they’re best used as a garnish.
Hibiscus: Citrus-flavored. Use in salads or as garnish.
Hollyhock: Very bland, vegetal flavor. Mostly used for their large showy white, pink, or red blossoms.
Honeysuckle: Sweet honey flavor. Only the flowers are edible. Berries are highly poisonous – Do not eat them!
Hyacinth: Only the wild hyacinth (Brodiaea douglasii) bulbs are edible. You can prepare them as you would a potato. The flavor is fresh and sweet with some nut-like overtones. Do not eat the sorts of hyacinths you plant for spring color or force in the winter–they’re very toxic.
Impatiens: So easy to grow and so pretty as a garnish–one of my favorites.
Johnny-Jump-Ups (Tri-color violas): These are small, delicate, brightly colored (yellow, purple, and white) flowers that taste like wintergreen.
Lilac: Tastes somewhat like lemon and is good in salads.
Lotus or Water Lily: Try floating a beautiful water lily (from your water garden!) or its petals in a chilled soup.
Mallow: A very common flower, it has a subtly sweet flavor.
Nasturtium: Such a versatile edible plant. The leaves are wonderfully peppery as are the flowers. And the flower colors are amazing!
Pansy: Pansies are like Johnny-Jump-Ups, but larger. I like these as garnishes, since they taste sort of like grass which isn’t so appealing to me.
Peony: Each is a very large, very lush edible flower. They have a floral taste.
Roses: The range of flavors is as wide as the range of colors! The more strongly flavored roses are the darker ones. Be sure to discard the bitter white base.
Scented Geraniums: Flavors range from lemony through spicy to flowery—the flavor tends to be associated with the flower type.
Squash Blossoms: These taste very vegetal and are good stuffed and sautéed.
Violets: A very frequently used edible flower. It has a pronounced sweet, floral taste.
Here are a few other edible flowers to try: Allium, clove, gladiola, peach and plum blossoms, primrose, yucca (only the flower petals).
There are also lots of edible herb flowers great for garnish and consuming.
Enjoy,
Virginia