Edible flowers
Not only pretty, but nutritious too.
I have grown a number of different flowers since my grandmother taught me gardening in the late 1960's early 1970's. It was Grandma's contention that the garden was not only the most productive part of the farm but should be the prettiest. So always it was full of annual and perrienial flowers, many of which doubled up as either herbs or slad vegetables or both.
Here is a list of some of the flowers and what you can use them for.
Begonia; The stems can substitute for a late season rhubarb.
Calendula; Also known as pot marigold the pretty yellow flowers add a
golden color to your soups, scrambled eggs and grain dishes
substituting for saffron.
Carnations: Are both edible, although i find them rather bland but add a pretty
garnish to your meals.
Chives; One of my personal favorite, i love their flowers, the bees love
them and i love adding them to my potatoes, soups stews and
salads.
Chrysanthemums; Depending on which plant they can be a bitter or mild salad
herb, to taste the flower before adding it to yoursalads and you
can briefly blanch and add to your stir fries too.
Dandelion; My mom and grandma's favorite flower and herb and tonic and
early spring vegetable. You can use the leaves in the early spring
as a salad or boiled green wwith a touch of vinegar it is delicious,
the flowers are not only pretty but the bees love them and we
fried them and used them as garnish in our salads, and the roots
grandma and mom dug and used for a coffee type drink substitute
after cooking until very brown. The only problem we had is we
could never get enough to satisfy my mother and grandmothers
appetite for dandelions and I would always laugh when people
complained about them in the yard, they didn't know what good
eats they were missing.
Daylily; Eat these beautiful flowers either raw or fried.
Dianthus; You can use these pretty members of the carnatian family as a
addition to your salads or as a colorful addition to herbal butters.
Gardenia; The blossom is a pretty garnish for your salads.
Geranium; The geraniums have very many tastes and scents and can be
used on and in pastries and as a flavor for water based drinks.
Honeysuckle; The nectar in the trumpet shaped flowers is sugary and deliciious.
Lavender; A beautiful herb, medicinly it is used as a herbal expectant and
antispasmodic and the flowers are a favorite for our bees. It
smells good dried as a scent and is quite pretty in our garden
edges.
Nasturtium; One of my favorites, I love the flowers plant it everywhere and I
love the peppery taste of the flowers as well.
Pansy; Can be added to your salads and used as a garnish.
Rose; Not only beautiful, but also the petals can be used to make
scented rose water, the rose hips can be used to make high
vitamin C drink, rose hip jam and jelly and we raise a pale
flowered variety mostly for the hips that can be eaten as a
delicious fresh fruit.
Rosemary; The herb has pretty blue blossoms that have a delicate
fragarence. The bees like most herbs love Rosemary. You can
use the flowers and the leaves in soups, stews, on pizza and as
a sorbert.
Sunflower; You can eat the seeds but also pick the flowers before they open
and steam or boil the buds as you would artichokes and eat with
a vinegar dressing or with butter. The yellow flower petals can
be added to your salads as a slightly bitter garnish as well.
Thyme; Another beautiful and fragerent herb, with different varieties
such as lemon and pinapple thyme, there are over 500 varieties
of thyme. Thyme can be made into potpourri, added to soups
and other recipes.
Tulip; Origenally domesticated in what is now Turkish anatolia for the
edible roots, today they aremostly grown for their flowers. Tulip
flowers are also edible with a sweetish taste and can be added to
minced vegetables or salads.
Violets; These beautiful spring flowers are not only attractive but edible
as well. the blossoms can be added to your spring salad, added
to a syrup for flavor and the flowers can also be candied and
used to decorate cakes and pastries.
These are just a few of the many edible flowers you can grow in your garden for color and flavor.
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