Edible Flowers

Image By Yelkrokoyade - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6739869

Want to treat yourself to a beautiful salad or impress your friends with an eye pleasing spread on dinner night? What better way to do that than garnish your dish with an edible arrangement of colorful flowers. There are a plenty edible flowers to choose from but these are my favorite based on color and flavor.

Image By Markcaya - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33552501

First is the Sweet William Flower, I used to grow these with my dad growing up. They are a small relative to the carnation and have a clove like spice flavor. Because of all the colors they come in I like to decorate cakes with them. The image below shows Sweet Williams with Marigolds as a garnish.

Image by Kimberly Vardeman - originally posted to Flickr as Spring Flower Cake, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4899865

Primrose Flowers are another favorite of mine. I initially got them because I needed a plant to grow in the shade and later learned they are edible. Both the leaves and the flowers are edible making them great additions to salads because the flavor is similar to lettuce.

Image By Original uploader was Harp at en.wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3584472 

Pumpkin flowers are also edible. I first heard this from my brother in law who fries them up and puts them in tacos. Since then I have also learned they are good stuffed and fried, and added to salads to bring color. Stuffing them takes some care because they are very delicate and tear easily.

Image byArnaud 25 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40167683 

I always enjoy learning new ways to spice up my presentation. I also have quite a few allergies so I find it important to mention that because flowers are not widely used their allergy information is few and far between. If you have allergies like I do always introduce new foods with caution. Have fun cooking with flowers!

How to Harvest Celosia Seeds

These are one of my favorite flowers and for the longest time harvesting the seeds was a mystery to me. Now that I have figured it out I'm going to share my method with you. First you have to wait until the seeds are fully formed and to do that you need to be able to tell a new flower from a mature flower. Here is what a new flower looks like with out seeds:

When the flowers have seeds they look more fluffy like this:

And if you look closely you can see the outline of a dark seed inside like this:

If you can't tell while the flower is on the plant you can pluck a small portion off and it should look like this:

Pinch the pod gently to push the seed out.

 Being careful not to crush the seed inside.

Then collect in a breathable dry container until you are ready to plant and grow your seeds.

They come in many colors. You can separate them by color if you want, or store them all together if you want to be surprised when you plant them.