Besides broccoli and cauliflower, most people don’t think about incorporating flowers into their healthy eating lifestyles.
Colorful flowers are full of pigments that have many health promoting factors, but I think it boils down to people’s lack of knowledge as to which flowers are edible and about how to use them in recipes.
The new book, Eat Your Roses, teaches people how to use over 50 kinds of edible flowers as part of a healthy diet.
Eat Your Roses Basics
The first part of the book is devoted to educating readers about the benefits of eating flowers, gathering and preparation tips, as well as some rules for eating flowers including a list of flowers not to eat.
The next section of the book describes each of the 50+ edible flowers, why they are appealing, some possible uses for them, and a photograph.
At the end of the book there are recipes that incorporate the edible flowers into the diet. The recipes are divided into categories such as appetizers, entrees, mains, desserts etc. offering a variety of great looking dishes and even drinks.
Sample Edible Flower Recipe
Rose Petal Jam
This delicately pink colored jam is best made with fragrant red or pink flowers for good color. Perfect to serve with tea crackers or to put on a warm croissant for a winter treat.
- ½ pound dark red, red or dark pink rose petals
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 ½ cups water
- ½ cup lemon juice
Remove the bitter white bases from rose petals, then rinse petals and drain completely. Place in a glass or stainless steel bowl. Lightly sprinkle a small amount of sugar over the petals, covering them thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight.
Place remaining sugar, water, and lemon juice in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Stir in rose petals and let simmer about 20 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a rolling boil. Continue boiling for approximately 5 minutes until mixture thickens and the temperature on a candy thermometer is 220° F. Remove from heat and place in jelly jars and process in a hot water bath.
Conclusions
Eat Your Roses is a great resource for anyone wishing to incorporate flowers into a healthy diet. Adding flowers can add many new flavors, smells, and micro-nutrients to the diet.
I would have liked to have seen more nutritional information supplied in regards to each type of flower and many of the recipes aren’t developed to be low in calories or low in fat. However, the recipes do use natural, whole, and fresh ingredients so they are for the most part healthy.
Eat Your Roses by Denise Schreiber is available on Amazon and at other book retailers.
I just wanted to add a comment here to mention thanks for you very nice ideas. Blogs are troublesome to run and time consuming thus I appreciate when I see well written material. Your time isn’t going to waste with your posts. Thanks so much and stick with it No doubt you will definitely reach your goals! have a great day!
I remember doing something similar with phlox. My great grandmother showed us how to do this. We’d pull off the small flower and then bite and suck the nectar from the end where it had been attached to the plant. Then we’d discard the little flower. She showed us another trick with sedum too, totally unrelated to eating them, but fascinating to my brothers and I when we were little kids (and I dare say it still fascinates me now, lol!). Sedum has very thick, almost meaty, leaves with a strong membrane on the outside. You pick a leaf, and very gently squeeze and mash it up between you fingers taking care not to break the outer membrane. When the insides have all turned to mush and separated from the outer membrane, you then put the leaf to your lips and blow a little air inside, sort of like a tiny balloon. Come to think of it, my brothers and I used make bird salad (for the birds to eat, of course…but they didn’t eat it) by mixing flower petals, leaves, twigs and the like, though we never tried eating it ourselves.
Very cool topic, thanks for the information. I’ve often wondered about it but I’ve been scared to just go eat any old flower in the garden without more knowledge, for fear I’d poison myself. In fact, yesterday I was picking roses in my front yead and noticing how they had a very peppery scent as compared to the usual rose fragrance. I’ve seen some edible flowers at Whole Foods as Denise mentioned. I’ll have to take a closer look at them next time. Now I’m thinking about reading more on the topic. I’ll bet flowers are full of polyhpenols. I’m a Zone girl from way back and I’m already thinking about ways to fit edible flowers into my Zone diet. Salads, sandwiches, desserts, garnishes; the possibilities seem endless. I like to try new things adn edible flowers will be a welcomed addition(if I like the flavors!).
Thanks Denise for taking the time to comment and answer questions, they are very helpful.
Hopefully I can answer some questions posted here. If you have a garden, more than likely you are already growing some edible flowers. Roses, lilacs, squash flowers, dianthus, herb flowers, lavender, pansies, bee balm and more are all edible flowers. There are many flower lists of edible flowers but my list (www.edibleflowers1@aol.com) is based on university websites rather than word of mouth. I’ve included rules for eating edible flowers which should help you clear up most questions. I also make no claim on edible flowers as far as healing remedies. I am a horticulturist, not a pharmacist.
You should never eat flowers from a florist since they have been treated with pesticides/preservatives for longer life. Edible flowers that have been grown in the garden without chemical pesticides are safe to eat. There are organic pesticides that are listed for vegetables that are safe to use on flowers. Always read the label.
Try edible flowers in different dishes and see what you like. Nasturtiums are peppery and wonderful in our roasted red pepper soup with nasturtiums and fresh thyme, Bee balm syrup is wonderful poured into homemade lemonade and lavender just adds a wonderful scent to poultry and baked good.
A hot water bath is a method of preservation based on USDA recommendations for proper storage and cooking times.
Many grocery stores and co-ops sell organically grown flower, usually in the produce section. Some are pre-packaged and other you can choose what you need. If you have a Whole Foods nearby, you can find many organic edible flowers. You can also search online for items. You can actually purchase from some herb shops like The Rosemary House in Mechanicsburg, Pa. or the Village Herb Shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio that sell floral and herbs, many of them dried and packaged.
Probably more beneficial for people who grow their own or have friends that grow roses. A hot water bath is used to make sure all microorganisms are eliminated from the jam so it will have a long shelf life.
I have never seen edible flowers for sale anywhere near me. I would think that you could maybe get them at farmers’ markets. I remember eating lilacs when I was a kid: My grandpa was an entomologist who specialized in bees. He knew which flowers had the most nectar and he showed us how to squeeze it out of the flowers and then lick it off. My sister and I used to suck the nectar out of the lilacs and then eat them–the sweet nectar counteracted the slight bitterness of the flowers.
In the back of the book she also lists some sources for safe edible flowers
I’ve got a couple of recipes that use edible roses, but as a garnish.
I never thought about eating them as food.
I love that idea as these days most people are looking for creative ways to loose weight.-benita wheeler
How much would it cost to get a half pound of rose petals? Sounds very pricey. And what does it mean to process in a hot water bath?
Where would you get edible flowers? I mean the flowers they sell in flower shops are treated with all kinds of chemicals and what not, no? I supposed if you have your own garden and are growing them you could pick and eat them…I don’t know of any stores in my city that sell flowers, although I am sure there probably are.