Flowers good enough to eat

Sunset, April, 1996 by Jim McCausland

These blooms can wake up a salad or brighten up a plate

What's that flower peeking out from behind the lettuce leaf?" I asked a fellow garden writer last summer.

"The yellow one? Maybe nasturtium, or calendula. Let's ask the cook."

We were about to nibble the flowers in our salad at one of Seattle's best restaurants. Edible blooms are showing up on many plates these days. Some, including calendula, make beautiful garnishes, but others, such as nasturtium, have such intriguing flavors and textures that they can hold their own in a salad.

Which blooms are the tastiest? Last summer, we grew nine edible flowers in Sunset's gardens, then conducted a taste test. The results are described here, along with the tasters' comments.

If you decide to eat flowers, it's safest to use only those you grow yourself. Make sure the seed or plant from which you grow them is tagged with an accurate botanical name (italicized below), so you know exactly what you're growing and eating. And never use pesticides on culinary plants.

If you develop a taste for blossoms, pick up a copy of Edible Flowers, by Cathy Wilkinson Barash (Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, CO, 1995; $22.95), which gives 280 recipes. Barash recommends that flowers not be eaten by those who suffer from hay fever, asthma, or allergies. She also advises removing pistils and stamens from flowers before eating them.

Unless noted, all these plants grow and flower best in full sun.

* BORAGE (Borago officinalis). These small purple-blue flowers are beautiful scattered through a salad, but there isn't much substance to them. Some tasters described the flavor as light and herbal, while others called it grassy. Borage grows best in the summer garden.

* CALENDULA (C. officinalis). Tasters generally liked the look and texture of the yellow or orange flowers, but rated the flavor as bland, slightly bitter, or chrysanthemum-like. When calendula is scattered over other food, however, its flavor recedes into insignificance. Grow this cool-season flower for spring and fall bloom in cold-winter areas, winter bloom in milder climates.

* DAYLILY (Hemerocallis fulva). The tasters gushed over this one: "wonderful," "great," "like sweet, buttery lettuce." Some noted a cucumber flavor, all liked its lettucelike crunch, and two noted its sweet aftertaste, especially when eaten with black pepper. Daylilies flower from late spring through summer. Most come in warm colors (our tasters ate the classic red-orange).

* ENGLISH DAISY (Bellis perennis). These white, yellow-centered daisies are common in Western cool-season lawns (flowers also come in pink and red). They may have pretty faces, but they're blah or grassy in the flavor department.

* NASTURTIUM (Tropaeolum majus). Along with daylily and squash blossom, nasturtium rates among the flower flavor champs, winning high marks for its peppery bite. A few nasturtium flowers go a long way; try them with guacamole.

* PANSY (Viola wittrockiana). Flavor reports ran all over the map, from bland or bitter to sweet and lettucelike. One taster detected slight heat, while another picked up a suggestion of baby chard. Pansies grow best in cool weather.

* ROSE (Rosa hybrids). Flavors varied greatly, as did fragrance. Red and purple flowers got consistently high marks for sweetness, with one taster noting that darker petals carried the most intense flavors (one taster compared the flavor to that of ginger). Some pinks and whites had no taste, or slight bitterness, but not all tasters agreed: some thought they were sweet.

* SQUASH (Cucurbita pepo). Squash blossoms got very high marks for eating fresh (they're also great sauteed). Comments ranged from "moist and very good" to "pass the vinegar and oil!" The flavor of these yellow-orange flowers is something like that of fresh squash, and they have a velvety, slightly crunchy texture.

* SWEET VIOLET (Viola odorata). Hints of lettuce and licorice showed up on some sensitive palates, but most of our tasters thought sweet violet subtle to the point of tastelessness. Larger flowers had the most substance; smaller ones melted away to nothing after a bite or two. Great as a garnish with cream cheese. In the garden, sweet violets do nicely in light to medium shade. Blue and white flowers come in spring.