Eat Your Flowers! - Five edible flowers to try this summer

As I have delved a bit more each year into local edibles, I have discovered an assortment of edible flowers.  Of course, we dry various herbs and flowers for tea, but there are those that are good for eating as well. What is so great about edible flowers?  These can add beauty to your garden while still being practical in that they are a source of food - a win-win for any survival situation. Some of these I have mentioned in previous posts, but for ease of reference, I am listing them again here. Here is a short list of blossoms we have tasted:


Oxeye Daisy - These flowers are fabulous for adapting to the flavor of whatever dish you are preparing. We first tried these battered and fried.  While prepared this way they didn't seem to have a strong flavor
of their own. Nevertheless, we enjoyed eating them both with a savory and with a semi-sweet batter. One of my good friends and favorite foragers, Mary Banducci, has a paleo-friendly daisy fritter recipe on her page. Click here for her recipe.

We next tried the oxeye daisy pickled. Again, they didn't have a strong flavor of their own - they just seemed to take on the flavor of the pickling brine (which is not surprising). Click here for the recipe we tried.

I haven't yet eaten these raw.  If you give it a go, let me know what you think. 


Borage - While the plant is a bit prickly, the blossoms themselves are smooth and taste like cucumbers. These are fabulous for adding both color and flavor to your salad. As a bonus, borage seed oil is high in essential fatty acids and is reportedly good for helping with inflammation (see here). This bonus makes it a good candidate for your survival garden, especially if you have an oil press.

We planted our borage from seed.  Here is a link to the seeds we purchased.


Nasturtium - Nasturtium is a popular flower for garden boxes and garden beds.  While some have likened the taste of the blossom to diesel, I found it to be quite pleasant.  It has a flavor similar to radish or spicy turnip and is a great addition to a summer salad. Both the leaves and blossoms are edible and flavorful.

We planted a jewel mixture seed in the corners of our garden beds this year. We have planted seed in the past without much luck, but this year the plants did well. I will be collecting seeds this year to use in our garden next year.  If we don't end up with enough seeds, we will be seeking out another non-GMO option such as this. 

Tip: I learned that when they grow well, they spread out (I didn't realize they were a vining plant since they had never grown well for me), so next year we will be planting them next to a trellis to allow them to climb and us to get more usage out of our raised bed.  Vertical gardening in small spaces can be such a help! 



Image by 165106 from Pixabay
Daylily - These grow in abundance in our area. We have eaten them raw in our salads.  They have a nice mild flavor. Some say the taste is between asparagus and sweet peas, others say it is more akin to iceberg lettuce.  Personally, I think it is somewhere in between. We have also tried these mixed with oxeye daisies and pickled (see above). One interesting quality to note, is that the Old Farmer's Almanac says that these are used to thicken soups (see here).  For that purpose, we have dried some blossoms to add to our soups this fall and winter.  I will have to report on the effectiveness of the dried blossoms for that purpose in a future post.


Dandelion - We have dried both leaves and blossoms for tea. We especially like roasted dandelion root tea, but since every part of the plant is edible, you can eat the flower, too.  Like the oxeye daisy, there are recipes to batter and fry dandelion flowers. 

You can also add them to breads. Here is one such recipe I found that looks amazing.



Challenge: Find out what blossoms in your area are edible and then try a few varieties.  As always, be sure to properly identify the plant before you pick!

Note: This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an affiliate, I may earn from qualifying purchases.



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