Edible Flowers add beauty and flavor
to your dishes

For many years edible flowers didn’t play much of a role in cooking and presentation. Those days are over!

And the very easiest ones--annual flowers--play a big part in flowers used as ingredients or to garnish beautiful food.

And of course, annual flowers are perfect for a container garden full of blooming garden pots.

Chefs, you beginner gardening folks, and home cooks alike are discovering how easy it is to grow annual flowers (and also some perennial flowers) that are as tasty as they are beautiful.

Edible flowers go very easily from the patio to the plate!

And the good news is, you don't have to get fancy. You can be as formal, or as informal as you like. See how pretty this simple sprig of flowers is as a garnish to fresh blueberries?

I bet you didn’t realize that most of you already consume many edible flowers. Broccoli, cauliflower, and artichokes are all flowers. And that saffron you use in rice dishes is the stamen from the crocus flower. Capers are flower buds.

Of course, there are many more flowers you can also use. You’ll get information in this section on more than forty of them.

But there are a few words of caution. Not all flowers, of course, are edible. Some, in fact, are poisonous, or at the least can provoke significant physical distress.

Don’t eat foxglove, sweet pea, morning glory, oleander, or azalea flowers, for instance. Just because a flower is beautiful, even dainty, doesn’t mean it’s edible. Check a good source before you eat any flower.

Also stay far, far away from flowers grown on the roadside. Pollution and pesticides make them inedible. The same is true for flowers from your florist, garden center, or nursery. These flowers have generally been sprayed with pesticides you wouldn’t want to ingest.

And if you’re prone to hay fever, asthma or allergies, approach edible flowers with caution. Pollen as well as other parts of flowers may not be suitable for you. Flowers such as calendula, chrysanthemum, daisies and marigolds are the biggest offenders—watch out for flowers with pom-pom like blossoms, or flowers labeled “composite.”

Edible Flower Dos

• Do remove the pistils, stamens, and (if there is one) any white base before using (the white base will be bitter).
• Try to pick flowers in the morning, just after the dew lifts for the most flavor.
• Select flowers at the peak of their bloom and avoid those that are starting to fade.
• Always use flowers as soon after you’ve picked them as you can. This is particularly true of small, or delicate flowers like pansies. If you need to store them, wash and put in a plastic bag with a moistened paper towel, then pop in the refrigerator.
• For storing more substantial flowers, or those on stems, cut the bottom at an angle (as you would for a vase flower display) place in a glass of water and store in your refrigerator.
Edible Flower Tip: If you have to store flowers in a bag, put the entire flower in. Remove the individual petals for scattering over a dish just before serving.
• After you wash the flowers, be sure you let them air dry thoroughly and, if you can, out of direct sunlight.
• Try a few edible flowers at first if you don’t know how they’ll affect you. Just as with any other new food, you don’t want to overdo it until you know your system can handle them.

Ok, here are three pretty things you can do with edible flowers:

Edible Flower Idea: Float them frozen in your summer drinks. Here’s how: Boil water (this helps make the ice-cube clear) and let the water cool. You can also used distilled water and not boil for the same effect.

Fill an ice-cube tray half full and float the flower in it. Freeze just until it sets. This is so the flower remains in the center of the cube. If you filled it all the way, then added the flower, it would float to the top.

After the half-filled cubes are set, pour on the rest of the water and freeze hard.

Small flowers such as pansies, violets, violas, Johnny Jump-Ups are good candidates since they’ll fit in a normal ice-cube tray. These are prettiest in light or nearly-clear drinks such as lemonade, clear soda punches, etc.

Edible Flower Idea: Here's a very nice presentation idea for a company appetizer.

Slice a small round of cheese in half. Cover one side with any of the following: chopped herbs, candied walnuts, strawberry or black raspberry jam, small-chopped celery and carrots. Or of course you can use any of your favorite cheese accompaniments.

Place the other cheese half on top. Slip the stems of pretty flowers in around the circumference of the cheese round and place a few on top. (If you use candied walnuts or jam, you can also put some of this on the top of the cheese round and garnish with flowers).

Edible Flower Idea: Candied flowers are much easier than you might think to make! Good choices are violets, pansies, Johnny-jump-ups, rose petals, and scented geraniums.

Here’s all you do: Wash the flowers well and dry them. Beat one egg white until foamy, and in another dish place about three-quarters of a cup of very fine sugar (“superfine” is best).

Next, use a paintbrush to lightly brush the flower with the egg white, then sift the sugar over them to coat. Place on tinfoil, waxed paper, or a wire cookie rack to dry. They must dry completely and this can take a while—up to 24 hours in fact.

(Here’s a hint from my restaurant days—to speed up the drying, you can add a few drops of 151 rum or vodka, or any clear alcohol. It evaporates and aids in drying.)

Be sure to keep the flowers out of direct sunlight so they don’t fade in color. And only use flowers at the peak of their bloom so that you have perfectly formed, pretty flowers to place on top of your cake, sorbet, or custard.

To store (once completely dry), put in airtight containers. You can also keep them in the freezer. They’ll keep for months (I’ve even heard they keep up to a year!).

If you want cooking ideas and some great recipes (like Honey-Lavender ice cream and Nasturtium Pasta), you might enjoy this article.

You can also find out about taste and uses for more than twenty specific edible flowers as well as more than twenty edible herb flowers.