How they can brighten your plate, your diet and your day! Not to mention surprising your summer barbecue guests.
- Pick as near as possible to eating time, and pick when the flower is just out.
- Standing the flowers in a vase in a dark corner will encourage resident insects to move out, towards the light.
- You may need to wash the flowers, for example if they are muddy, or you use manure in the garden, or keep livestock or poultry. Use cold water, and wash just before eating.
- Salty water will help get rid of insects.
- Taste carefully. It’s usally better to remove the green part, where the flower joins the plant. Sometimes you also want to cut off the thick base of the petals. Both these can taste bitter. Small flowers can usually be eaten whole. On large flowers, just pull off the petals (unless you are going to stuff the flower) and compost the rest.
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Flowers to make into tea
Just add boiling water and strain out the aphids….
Basil Chamomile Elderflower
Hibiscus Jasmine
Courgette and squash (remove the stigma, the chunky stick-like bit in the centre).
Day Lily (Hemerocalis)
Nasturtium
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List of Edible Flowers
The easiest way to use them is in salads, or as a garnish. Try a few over a salad or on ice-cream. Common sense will tell you that if cooked, it should only be for a few seconds.
This is not a comprehensive list.
You are responsible for correctly identifying all flowers eaten.
All onion family: onion, garlic, chive, shallot, leek, garlic, wild garlic and its relatives; ornamental onion types such as christophii, nectaroscordum or moly. Taste oniony! Lovely in an omelette. Pull the small flowers out of the head.
All cabbage family: mustard, rocket, broccoli, radish, turnip, swede, mizuna etc. Flowers are tasty and peppery, and the bees love them, so it’s worth letting some go to flower. Shoots and seed pods can be stir-fried while still tender, but soon go tough. Rocket flowers are a miniature work of art, primrose yellow veined with brown, try them to decorate vanilla or chocolate icecream.
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Herb flowers. Especially try borage, basil, thyme, mint, chive, coriander. The green seeds of coriander and fennel are also soft, delicious and different from the dried seeds. Borage flowers look amazing in icecubes or a jelly. Try sprinkling chive flowers over soup or scrambled egg.
Apple, pear, plum, cherry
Carnations, pinks and sweet william, all the same family. A bit spicy. Some were used to flavour wine.
Bean flowers: beany and very pretty.
Chrysanthemums, a bit peppery/spicy. You can also grow annual chrysanthemum as a salad/stir-fry crop,(chrysanthemum coronarium). They are a common crop in Africa and Asia, almost unknown here. Sow after midsummer, interplanting with longer-term crops such as broccoli or leeks. The whole plant is edible and the little multicoloured flowers are a delight.
Begonia, tuberous-rooted. Never tried it.
Bergamot (monarda).
Cornflower.
Courgette and squash: pick just as they are opening. Succulent and tasty. But if you want fruit, don’t pick all the flowers, especially not the female flowers, the ones with the baby fruit just behind the flower!
Daisy, either wild or cultivated Bellis. Make sure no dogs have been around…
Day Lily (Hemerocallis) flower or bud. Try buds in a stir fry. NOT true Lilies (lilium) as these are poisonous.
Gladiolus: bland.
Hibiscus – strong citrussy flavour.
Hollyhock.
Jasmine, try adding it to cooked rice.
Honeysuckle: sweet. Flowers only, never the berries, they are poisonous.
Lettuce, chicory, scorzonera: often very beautiful tall spikes of blue flowers, beloved of insects.
Lilac, quite strong.
Lavender, not everyone’s cup of tea.
Marigolds: true marigold: Calendula. Slightly peppery taste, will also add colour to liquids if cooked.
Marigolds: Tagetes, french or african ‘marigolds’.
Pea flowers but NOT sweet peas, these are poisonous.
Pelargoniums including the scented leaf varieties. But I would rather enjoy the show. NOT Geraniums.
Roses. Can be quite thick and juicy, fruity flavoured. But roses vary a lot, and may look and smell better than they taste! Rosa Rugosa is nice. Try rose petals in the cream or butter-cream filling of a cake.
Snap dragons (antirrhinum) such a range of colours!
Sunflower: buds, petals and seeds.
Viola, violet and pansy, you can eat the whole flower.
Yucca.
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Wild Edible flowers
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Only pick if plentiful; always leave enough to provide seed for the future. Wash well.
Bittercress, a weed in everyone’s garden I think! Peppery as you might expect.
Chickweed, in fact you can eat the whole plant, and it would be ridiculous to try to separate the flowers. They are tiny. It’s quite dull though.
Clover and Bird’s foot Trefoil
Coltsfoot.
Daisy.
Dame’s Violet (Hesperis Matronalis, in the cabbage family)
Dandelion, quite sweet when just opened, remove the bitter green bit. Can be deep fried in batter. You can also eat the leaves but the older leaves are desperately bitter.
Elderflowers. Make delicious ‘lemonade’ and can be dipped in batter and deep fried; also traditionally added to cooking gooseberries if you can get both at the same time.
Gorse – I think it tastes of coconut.
Hawthorn
Jack by the Hedge
Knapweed
Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) flowers and leaves, but NOT Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus, a completely different family)
Mallow – leaves too. A traditional food in Arab lands.
Primrose and cowslip
Scabious
Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) flowers and leaves
Sorrel, lemony. Pick when young.
White dead nettle
Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) another lemony one.
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Some notable poisonous flowers
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This list is not comprehensive. Always be sure of your identification.
Arum
Bluebell
Broom (Cytisus)
Castor Oil Plant, Ricinus
Daphne
Delphinium and larkspur
Euphorbium (spurge)
Foxglove
Hellebore (Christmas Rose)
Hyacinth
Laburnum
Lantana
Lily, even the pollen
Lily of the valley
Lobelia
Nicotiana (tobacco flower)
Sweet Pea
Tulip
Yew
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Some edible but unpleasant flowers and wild plants
Cuckoo flower aka. Ladies Smock (Cardamine pratensis) peppery but not in a nice way.
Salad Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba). Well….you might like it.
Speedwell (Veronica, various)
Wall Pepper (Sedum acre) just too much.
Safety
1. Although many flowers are edible, a few are poisonous or unpleasant. Stick to those you can definitely identify.
2. Avoid any flower which may have been sprayed with any chemical. This would include:
- flowers from a florist
- flowers from any garden where you haven’t checked with the owner
- flowers around farm fields where you haven’t checked with the farmer.
- Flowers on roadsides (may also be at dog level!) or other suspect locations: use your common sense!
3. Avoid plants on watersides especially where livestock have access to the water.
4. The flowers of most vegetables and herbs are safe to eat, but still take care – do not, for example, eat rhubarb flowers. Rhubarb is a plant of which only one part is eaten, the stalks – and then only in spring and early summer.
5. Some people are sensitive to certain plant groups eg. Chrysanthemums.
6. Treat any new food with caution.
Newsletter Summer 2010
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