Edible Flowers
August 11, 2009 by Waverly Fitzgerald
Filed under WAVERLY'S BLOG
my first flower salad
When I decided to get to know the flowers in my neighborhood, I assigned myself different tasks for every month and my task for July was to eat flowers. I’m a little behind on this task, but I’m getting started now.
Flowers are most often used in sweet confections like desserts and drinks. In fact I own a great book, Cathy Barash’s book of Edible Flowers, which focuses on those two food groups. But I wanted to start with something simple. Raw flowers.
Remember when every green salad was garnished with flowers? Whatever happened to that trend? (I was happy to see chef Christopher Émé of Ortolan decorating his plates with flowers on a recent episode of Iron Chef.)
My first experiment involved making a salad and decorating it with fresh flowers from my garden: cornflowers, arugula flowers, chive flowers and some violas. Here’s a photograph I took of my first salad. Obviously, I have a lot to learn as a food stylist and food photographer. Still the flowers looked great. Unfortunately they didn’t add much flavor.
The arugula flowers were best. They had a bit of a kick to them, though not as much as arugula leaves. The chive flowers have a faint oniony flavor, which is odd in a flower, but they taste like paper. The same is true for cornflower petals which have absolutely no flavor as far as I can tell (one web site I visited said they tasted spicy, clove-like flavor—I wish! I notice that they’re an ingredient in many flavored teas. I wonder if they actually impart flavor or if they’re just there for the color). The violas supposedly taste like wintergreen but to me they just tasted green.
After wandering around the web, looking for articles on edible flowers, I realize I have many more flowers in my garden I can try. Borage is next. And the clove pinks. And the hollyhock blossoms. I want to snag a few of the last honeysuckle blossoms from my neighbor’s garden and try them in a fruit salad. I could sprinkle in some rose petals as well. And I’m eager to try calendula petals.
And that’s just the start of this edible flower adventure. In future posts, I’m going to make lavender-flavored desserts, candied flowers, rose honey almond brittle, and feature some vegetables that are actually flowers. Let me know what you make with flowers.
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Blessings on your introducing yourself to eating flowers. Try daylilys…cut them in the am place in a container with a tiny bit of water in the frig until you wish to prepare your salad. They are slightly sweet with a nice almost crunchy texture (thus the aforementioned water/frig treatment). Of course, pick only those that are not subjected to car exhaust, etc. They also can be dried and used in stews to thicken. Beebalm blossoms have a spicy
savory taste to them for me…these are marvelous in salad dressings and lovely with their petals sprinkled on top of a salad….and of course honeysuckle blossoms that I eat directly from the plant….provecho!
Thanks for the tips.
I’ll try these and let you know what I think!
Oooo, edible flowers. I would add nasturtium. Try them to decorate a salad. They’re beautiful, and have a slightly peppery flavor. Bonus: they (sort of) keep the rabbits away from the garden, if that’s something you really want to do.
When we planted up the veggie garden this year, I let my 3-year-old daughter put nasturtium anywhere she wanted (the seeds are big!), and now they’re growing amongst just about every kind of veggie.
About the Cornflower petals….. they are an ingredient in Earl Grey “Cream” tea. Which makes me wonder, if they are the ingredient that provides the “cream” flavor…. I can’t think of why else this tea would taste like it has cream added!
Anyway, I stumbled onto your blog while I was googling Cornflower flavor…. like you I am wondering what they truly taste like
Dear Andrea,
Thanks for your comment! I looked up Earl Grey tea on Wikipedia (my first source for everything) and the photo of “Lady Grey” tea has blue petals in it, which must be the cornflower petals. I’m not sure if they are there to add flavor or merely color.