PLANTS FOR A FUTURE

This site has much more than edible flowers and is worth a look....    www.pfaf.org

 

Below is their Edible Flower intro. Their list of edible flowers that follows the intro on the web is superb.

 

Edible Flowers

Many people find the concept of eating flowers to be a little strange - indeed there are a few who find the very idea to be distasteful. This is rather sad because, as well as providing a nutritious food, there are some amazing taste treats in store for those who are willing to experiment with their foods.

Nutritionally, the flower can be divided into three main elements. Firstly, there is the pollen. Although only present in fairly small quantities, this is a very rich source of protein and so helps to build and maintain the body structure. Its flavour is usually rather bland.

Secondly, we have the nectar. This is usually rather sweet and is the substance that most attracts bees to the flowers to pollinate them. The bees turn the nectar into honey - when we eat the flowers we can use the sugars in the nectar to provide us with a good source of energy. Nectar provides a balanced form of sugars together with a range of minerals and does not have the negative effects of refined sugars such as rotting the teeth.

Finally, we have the petals and other parts of the flower structure. Although not normally as nutritious as leaves, they do have many similarities nutritionally and so can provide us with a good range of vitamins and minerals. Yellow flowers, in particular, are very good sources of vitamin A. The flavour and texture of flowers varies from species to species. Some are very crisp and crunchy, others almost silky soft. A few flowers have a very savoury taste whilst others can be very hot or have a very mild flavour. Depending on the quantities of nectar present, they can also be very sweet. If looking primarily for sweetness, by the way, you will normally be best off picking the flowers in the morning before bees and other insects have depleted the stocks of nectar.

We tend to eat quite a lot of flowers. They usually make a very attractive addition to salads, the only problem we have had with doing this is that the salads can look so attractive that people are reluctant to disturb what they see as a work of art! We also enjoy just snacking on the flowers when in the garden - they usually provide a tasty and thirst-quenching snack. We have not as yet tried cooking with them - they are so delicate that I am sure both their texture and taste would be destroyed.

Unless stated otherwise, all the plants listed below are herbaceous perennials and should be hardy in most parts of the country. They are quite a diverse range of plants, and species suitable for almost any niche in the garden will be found here. It is therefore very difficult to give general notes on their cultivation needs, though a very brief guide will be given..........................

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