Please Don't Eat the Daisies
—Michael Penziner, FRNC Docent
Photo: edible-flowers.com
...because there are so many other more delicious flowers you can eat. Or you can eat those others even before they bloom, when they are just flower buds. If you've ever eaten broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes or capers, you've eaten the buds of flowers yet to open.
In this country, eating flowers seems to be somewhat strange, but not so in other countries. In Vietnam banana flowers are used in both salads and main dishes. In Mexico, it's pumpkin and squash blossoms, and in Chinese food daylily flowers are put in soups or the buds are steamed or sautéed. Central Americans use the pickled flowers of the yucca as a garnish on tortillas, and in Europe the flowers of sweet violets, pansies and borage are candied and make sweet little treats. The list goes on and on and we find hibiscus, rose and chrysanthemum petals in iced tea or lemonade. Some other familiar flowers used in food are calendula, chive blossoms, mints, nasturtium, sage, and rosemary.
You might want to be adventuresome and buy some seeds for spring planting. We do have a word of warning however. Don't just go out in your garden to pick these flowers. If there is a chance that pesticides might have been used, you certainly don't want to eat them, and if they've been picked along a roadside, that's another very risky plant. But do understand that flowers have been part of the human diet for thousands of years, long before chemistry made its way into farming.
