Edible flowers

Many people are surprised when I serve up a salad or other cold dish in the summer garnished with nasturtium blooms.  When they are convinced to eat the bloom instead of setting it aside they are delighted by the peppery burst of flavor in their mouth.

I like growing nasturtiums as they come in many shade of colors as well as variegated leaves.  Some of the varieties mound while others climb or cascade.  I can start them a few weeks ahead of plant date indoors (peat pots are the best but they do ok in cell packs).  They can be started directly in the ground but I like to know where my plants are when I start digging around my beds in spring.  The most important thing to do when seeding nasturtiums is to soak the seed for 24 hours before transplanting into your mix.

Besides using the blooms, nasturtiums also form a peppery little seed pod that if harvested when green can be used as a substitute to capers.  There are many recipes on line for pickling them so I will not duplicate their effort.

You can see the seed inside the fading bloom.  Harvest the green seed pods before they yellow and preserve them for use as capers.

Besides nasturtiums there are other uses of flowers that I have tried.  I have picked violets in the spring time and painted them with thin egg whites and tossed them in fine sugar for candied violets to put on cupcakes.  Pansy flowers will work just as well.  Store in the refrigerator if you make them ahead for best quality.

I have also batter-fried day lily blossoms when they were still green and closed.  I thought they tasted very much like okra.  Since I am not an okra fan, I have only done this once and have just enjoyed the blooms on the plants since.

I wished I would have tried the cream cheese filled squash blossoms, which are also dipped and fried had I known that the many blooms I had before our heat wave were just going to fall off with no fruit to claim later.

Flowers can add a bit of novelty to otherwise basic dishes.  I plan on doing a little more research this winter to see what other blooms I can add to the edible menu.  

Just the other day, my sister told me that she picked up flowers for her daughter to give to twin friends for their birthday.  When she got her daughter from home to take to the party she had pick a nasturtium for each girl to give to them also.  When she saw the store bought blooms she asked her mom, "What should I do with these? Eat them?"  Where do kids get those crazy ideas from?