Although adding edible flowers have been enjoyed by people around the world for centuries, it has just been in recent years that Americans and Canadians have discovered their wonderful flavor and aroma. This has encouraged more and more people to grow edible gardens, enjoying flowers for both appearance and in salads and other types of cuisine.
The truth is that there are many edible flowers. For instance, the Chinese have long used dried and steamed daylilies and tiger lilies as a way of adding flavor to foods. Additionally, dating back to Ancient Rome, roses, violets, and even marigolds were often added to various dishes. You too can enjoy many wonderful types of edible flowers but before you simply start pulling flower petals out of the garden, you need to make sure what you are eating is not poisonous. To give you an idea of the flowers you cannot eat, the following is a partial but important list:
- Azalea
- Bleeding Heart
- Buttercups
- Clematis
- Crocus
- Delphinium
- Foxglove
- Iris
- Lily of the Valley
- Lupine
- Monkshood
- Narcissus
- Oleander
- Periwinkle
- Petunia
- Rhododendron
- Sweat Pea
- Wisteria
Another important thing to remember when considering edible foods is that you want to consume only plants that have not been sprayed with any type of synthetic chemical such as herbicide or pesticide. Instead, your best option would be to grow your own or purchase organic plants and flowers.
Finally, you want to prepare the flowers properly. Otherwise, you could use the wrong portion of the plant and end up with a bitter taste in your mouth. Just to give you an example, if you want to use lilies, you will need to remove the anther, pistil, and stamens. In addition to adding flowers to salads, you can also use them to create frozen ice molds for punch, decorations on cakes, soups, mashed potatoes, pasta sauces, and even make flavored vinegar. |