Edible Flowers

Have you ever picked a honeysuckle flower, bitten the pointed end off and sucked in the sweet aromatic nectar on to your tongue? It is so delicious, offering a little taste of what it might be like to dine like a bee.

My most memorable foray into eating flowers came as a child when my mum would collect the long yellow blooms from the tips of the courgettes in our garden and gently prepare them to become the most delicious of seasonal dishes. She filled them with rice, and either steamed them on the hob together with stuffed vine leaves or dipped them in batter and deep fried them into delectable dumplings. They never lasted long on our plates!

Today, I still enjoy edible flowers infused as nourishing herbal teas, as pops of colour in salads and as tasty garnishes. From seasonal nasturtiums to fragrant roses to hardy lavender, there are lots of choices to grow your own edible flowers very easily in any sized garden. Be sure to ask your garden designer to include them in yours.

Collect flowers only if you are absolutely sure they are safe to eat and not polluted such as blooms that might be growing alongside roads. Organic and home grown are best but some supermarkets do offer them for sale in their fruit and vegetable aisles too. Usually petals are the edible part and need to be removed completely from the rest of the plant. Some petals also need to be trimmed at their bases to remove bitter parts. The buds and whole flowers of some plants are edible, and work beautifully in salads and cold dishes. Ensure all plants have any insect residents carefully shaken out! Wash well to remove any possible pesticide residue and dirt using running water and carefully dab dry with a paper towel to protect the delicate structures.

Fresh Pickings for Drinks

You might already be familiar with favourite edibles like elderflowers used to make cordials and wine. Pick these pretty white sprays on woodland walks in the Spring and find them in the shrubby layer under trees. Add a sprig to your fresh mint leaf tea for some zing.

You can also freeze the whole flower heads of primroses and violets and the petals of scented geraniums into ice cubes to float prettily in your gin and tonic, fruit cordials or sparkling water.

Soothing camomile flowers can be steeped whole in hot water for a calming bedtime or wind down drink at the end of the day.

I have included a stuffed courgette flower recipe very similar to my mum’s in the link under ‘Further Reading’ below for those who prefer not to deep fry their flowers. These are filled with rice and spices and cooked gently on the hob.

Sweet Treats

Many flowers can be candied, honeyed or used to flavour sugar for baking like violets, lavender and rose. Use them also as beautiful edible garnishes together with some dahlias, cornflowers, daisies and dianthus flowers. Add the clean dry flowers to an iced home made cake to create elegant decorations.

This lavender sugar recipe is super easy and will leave your bakes aromatic and scrumptious. Add 2 teaspoon fulls of lavender flowers that you have allowed to dry out and ground in a pestle and mortar or in a coffee/nut grinding machine to 1kg of caster sugar and mix well. Store in an airtight container that is completely dry. Try sprinkling it on to shortbread or any cakes and biscuits or to add a delicious sweet scent to your morning porridge.

I think there are few foods more cheerful than flowers and hope you enjoy discovering their many varieties, aromas and flavours to add to and create your favourite dishes too.

At North Leeds Garden Design we have a passion for roses – but many other plants too! If you’d like us to help you with your own garden, why not complete our short Garden Questionnaire or contact us today 

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