Edible Flower Garden
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First published in 1999 by Peri plus Editions ( HK) Ltd.,
with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North <;Iarendon, Vermont
05759 USA and and 61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12, Singapore 534167.
Photographs and text copyright CO 1999 Rosalind Creasy,
except p 49 (top); Gudi Riter
Illustrations by Marcie H awthorne
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
utilized in a ny form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, record ing, o r by any information storage and retrieval
system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Creasy, Rosalind.
The edible flower garden I by Rosalind Creasy. -1st ed.
106 p.: ill. (some col.}; 28 em.
lncludes bibliographical references {p. )
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0617-8 (ebook)
I. Flower gardening. 2. Flowers. 3. Plants, Edible. 4. Cookery
(Flowers) I. Title.
SB405.C765 1999
635.9-dc21 98036999
Distributed by: CIP
NORTH AMERICA,
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Tuttle Publishing Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd.
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First edition
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Desig1z by Katltry11 SkJt-Pec.f
Printed in Singapore
contents
Edible Flower Gardens page 1
How To Grow Edible Flowers 10
My Edible Flower Gardens 16
Interview: Alice Waters 26
Encyclopedia of Edible Mowers page 29
From Anise Hyssop to Violets
Favorite Flower Recipes page 67
Flower Butters 70
Sweet Things 71
Candied Flowers 72
Edible Flower Canapes 74
Tulip and Endive Appetizer 75 Appendices page 92
Citrus Dip for Begonia Blossoms 76
Pineapple Sage Salsa 76 Appendix A: Planting and
Ricotta-Stuffed Zuchinni Flowers 77 Maintenance 92
Sage Tempura 77 Appendix B: Pest and Disease
Flower Confetti Salad 78 Control 99
Wild Violet Salad 79 Resources 103
Baby Shower Petal Salad 80 Acknowledgments 106
Mardi Gras Salad with Pecans 81
Poor Man's Pilaf82
Stir-Fried Beef with Anise Hyssop 83
Grilled Swordfish with Rosemary 84
Rose Petal Syrup 86
Rose Petal Sorbet 87
Lavender Ice Cream 87
Tangelo and Kiwi Salad with Orange
Blossoms 88
Scented Geranium, Creme Fraiche, and
Strawberries 89
Tea Cake with Anise Hyssop and Lemon 90
Lavender Shortbreads 90
edible
flower
gardens
I
t's incredible how many flowers or few pansy petals served in a restaurant
parts of flowers I've eaten in the past salad and still wasn't won over. It
few years—lavender petals made wasn't until I tasted lavender ice cream
into ice cream, zucchini blossoms at an herb seminar that I became really
stuffed with ricotta cheese, roses used enthusiastic. It was fantastic! I deter-
in butter, to name just a few. And I've mined there and then to learn more
made an effort to share the experience, about edible flowers.
serving unsuspecting guests unadorned Since that time I've probably asked
pineapple guava petals and an Art everyone I know to eat flowers. A few
Deco—style cake with candied pansies. people just plunge right in with de-
Not only do I eat edible flowers, but light, as if I've given them permission
I've become a missionary in promoting to enjoy a new pleasure. But most people
them! are much more hesitant. One friend
I'd love to be able to tell you about would accept my dinner invitation
the first flower I ever ate, but I can't to me, maybe even taboo. I remember only after warning, "But I won't try
remember what it was. It was probably eating rice garnished with calendula any of your darn flowers!" You'd have
a nasturtium, though, eaten nearly petals in Vermont and thinking that thought I was offering her fried cater-
twenty years ago. I'm certain I started they made the dish colorful but didn't pillars. I've tried to get people to ex-
slowly, since to eat flowers seemed odd add much to the flavor. Later I tried a plain their hesitation about eating
flowers, but they seem to have a hard
Edible flowers can be tucked into almost any garden scene. Here {left), pansies, roses, and
time doing so. I certainly have difficulty
chrysanthemums grow in my back garden. A bouquet of edible flowers (above) includes explaining my initial reluctance. Why
calendulas, scarlet runner beans, lavender, nasturtiums, and chive blossoms. The photo spread
do others? Is it because we hesitate to
on pages 2 and 3 shows a sunny border designed for a client. I interspersed the edible roses,
nasturtiums, and marigolds among the nonedible lantanas and plumbagos. I used their blue and try any new food? Somewhat. Is it a
lavender blooms to tone down the fiery reds and oranges. concern about the safety of eating them?
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e d i b l e f l o w e r g a r d e n s
Maybe. But I've just about concluded
that, mainly, people believe that flow-
ers are almost magical, so beautiful
that only the eyes should feast on them.
To those folks, eating flowers seems a
bit greedy.
I've read everything I could find
about edible flowers. I've asked every
chef I've interviewed about his or her
experiences with them. And I've
tasted, tasted, and tasted every edible
flower I could get my hands on, even
stooping on occasion to sneak a bite of
my hostess's centerpiece.
I've found the information available
on edible flowers to be a strange
hodgepodge. Much of our knowledge
about edible flowers comes from old
herbals. But when I turned to the
herbals themselves, my confusion
mounted. Eating flowers was com-
monplace in medieval Europe, when
food often had a medicinal as well as a
nutritional purpose. Sometimes the old
recipes included dangerous flowers.
Thus, a dish might call for two or
three blossoms of foxglove, which is
classified as poisonous today. True, we
use foxglove to make digitalis, a heart
stimulant, but only in carefully mea-
sured doses. I realized, as I read the
old recipes, that the term poisonous is
relative.
Displays of edible flowers {right) at farmer's
market and exhibitions such as this one at the
Tasting of Summer Produce in Oakland,
California, get more sophisticated every year.
On display are fuchsias, Johnny-jump-ups,
tuberous begonias, nasturtiums, and rose
petals. Flower petal confetti {far right) is a
versatile little pleasure. Prior to serving, it can
be sprinkled over an entree plate, a salad, or
pastries.
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e d i b l e f l o w e r g a r d e n s
As if the herbals' folk-medicine And then which of the edible flow-
approach didn't make it difficult ers are palatable? I collected a number
enough to determine which flowers of modern lists of edible flowers and
are safe to eat, our forebears often cautiously began my taste testing.
called flowers by different names. For Some were absolutely horrible! Ob-
instance, what we know as calendula viously, no one had tasted them before
they called marigold; what we call cot- adding them to the lists. For example,
tage pink was gillyflower. So I was some marigolds have a slightly lemony
faced with the challenge of making taste, others are tasteless, but the taste
sure the flowers referred to in the of most falls somewhere between
recipes matched the flowers we grow skunk and quinine. Furthermore, none
today. of these lists gave much guidance on
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e d i b l e f l o w e r g a r d e n s
how to eat the different kinds of flow- nent part of our cuisine. They offer could talk to how they prepared edible
ers. I remember innocently putting an another alternative to salt and sugar as flowers. A n d I arranged for a few
entire mullein petal into my mouth seasonings. N o t only do flowers make edible flower gardens to be grown for
and finding it to be horribly astringent. interesting seasonings, especially for this project: one by Carole Saville, an
I had the same experience with a car- those fruits and vegetables we want to herb specialist in Los Angeles; another
nation petal. Later I learned that you increase in our diets, but their aesthetic by the folks at the Chez Panisse restau-
need to first remove the terrible-tasting value as decoration is obvious. rant in Berkeley, California; not to
white part at the base of the petals. In researching this book, I asked mention my own little edible flower
Flowers should become a perma- every gardener, chef, and food expert I gardens.
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e d i b l e f l o w e r g a r d e n s
This harvest of edible flowers {left) is held by Judy Dornstroek. She and her husband grow edible
flowers in their Pennsylvania greenhouse to sell to restaurants. Included are pink rose-scented
geraniums, borage flowers, and nasturtiums of many colors. A harvest from my garden (below,
top) includes broccoli and mustard blossoms, violas, violets, Johnny-jump-ups, the tiny mache
flowers, calendulas, and nasturtiums. Edible flowers also can be used in bouquets. Here is a
striking orange and blue bouquet from my garden {below, bottom) with lots of nasturtiums and
the nonedible bachelor buttons.
If you're still hesitant about j u m p -
ing in and g r o w i n g an edible flower
garden, I urge you to read along for
inspiration. I bet that by the time you
finish the cooking section, the sheer
anticipation of w o r k i n g with flowers
in your kitchen will have you planning
your edible flower garden.
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e d i b l e f l o w e r g a r d e n s
