Edible Flowers

By
admin
– August 25, 2010Posted in: Edible Flowers

edible flowers 200x300 Edible FlowersThere are several flowers that are used not only for making flower arrangements or bouquets to be given as gifts but are also used with foods, sometimes for decoration purposes to just add colors to food and sometimes to eat. Yes, there are real flowers that can be eaten too. For every flower there is a different part that is being eaten. Sometimes there are petals, roots and sometimes leaves of plants. Rose is the flower that is most commonly eaten.

When choosing the edible flowers one needs to be very careful as there may be many flowers that are poisonous and toxic. In fact it can not be just that as you know roses can be eaten so you start eating a rose that you bought from a florist. Flowers found at florists shops are treated with pesticides and are hence not suitable for eating at all. Flowers that are to be used as edible ones are grown separately in organic gardens and only these can be used in foods for whatever the decoration purpose or for adding color and taste.

Salads, soups, deserts, drinks and cakes are very commonly and often decorated with edible flowers as these all look and taste nicer when they are in bright colors creating some special ambiance. As roses are eaten often so the part of roses actually eaten are petals but that after removing the white part of it and the fruit of the plant called hip is being eaten.  Interestingly apple, orange, lemon, peach and plum all are flowers that later transform into the delicious fruits. The fact is not known commonly by people that these are flowers actually converted into fruits.

For other edible flowers we can name chrysanthemums, daisies, geraniums, jasmine, and marigolds too for the common adaption in different foods. Tulips, Lilac and Day lilies are also the flowers that used specially in Chinese cuisine range like in Chinese Hot and Sour soup. The real one, pure recipe from which hot and sour is made in China holds all these flowers as ingredients.

William Cowper once said;
“The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow’r.”

There are a huge number of herbs and plants of which flowers are used instead of herbs themselves in order to keep the flavor less strong and fragrance a little lighter than the herb itself. Few of the herbs out of all these to name are basil, dill, fennel, chives, oregano, lavender, mustard, clover, rosemary, scented geraniums, thyme, sweet woodruff, winter savory and pot marigold; these all are flowers and used very frequently by people of whole world in their foods to bring up special flavor and fragrance to fruit.

The concept of edible flowers had been limited for some people to those handmade flowers used for decorations on fancy cakes. They actually never realized that the concept itself arrived from natural edible flowers that are part of our foods in our daily routine yet they are not aware of it.

Tags: , , , ,

About admin