Eat your flowers everyday

Flowers are indeed lovely to look at but one does not often think to eat them. What a pity as some are delicious and add color perking up otherwise dull meals.  For Christine's wedding we grew and decorated her cake with pansies, nasturtiums, lavender flowers using mint leaves and fruit to fill out the ensemble and to give more dimension. So much better than icky icing flowers and her friends got to help out decorating the cakes, which they loved. She made a wonderful Carrot Cake for the main cake so it was a garden theme!

One of my favorite edible flowers are the petals of the Pineapple Gauva (seen here). Feijoa- Pineapple Gauva is a common landscape shrub.  The flower petals are like a soft gummy candy are yummy.  What a great treat for kids!

Other edible flowers are roses, bachelor buttons, marigolds and Bellis perennis(english daisies). The flowers of herbs and some vegetables are edible too i.e. squash blossoms.  Probably the only problem with this idea is that most folks are so hesitant to eat the flowers when they are used as garnish or decoration. Considering the things Americans put into their bodies this is somewaht surprising! Anyway, we reassure folks when serving dishes with edible flowers incorporated and they choose for themselves. Try the them out and see what you think- a fun idea that is healthy too.