EDIBLE FLOWERS:Some blooms are on the menu, but not everything in the garden is rosy
WHEN I GOT married 17 (happy) years ago, the wedding was pretty much a home-made affair. The cake, ordered at the last minute, was a plain-looking, single-storey edifice. So we decorated it with the most cheerful thing at our disposal: bright-orange nasturtium flowers. It looked wonderfully mad and jolly. But some disapproving hand removed the flowers before we cut the cake, in case the guests ate them, I suppose. Yet my reason for putting them on the bland-looking confectionery was not just that they were exuberant: they were edible also.
Seventeen years ago, the idea of eating flowers was fairly outlandish - although, to be sure, artichokes, broccoli and capers are all immature blooms, and we'd been eating those for aeons. Now, we're used to seeing the odd viola in our salads, and deep fried courgette flowers are a familiar delicacy. Yet, many people still think twice before they tuck into a mouthful of petals. And in a way, I don't blame them. Just sticking any old edible flower onto a plate of food can look a bit unpalatable - especially when it gets laden down and glassily slippery with salad dressing.
Flowers should be crunchily fresh (if raw), completely unblemished, and there should be no-one living in them. They should be picked from the garden minutes before they are used, or harvested in the cool of the morning, and kept in a polythene bag in the fridge. I like them best in salads, where their bright colours add a bit of unexpected zing. Torn nasturtium flowers (which have a peppery taste), and orange calendula petals (which don't taste of much at all) are particularly vibrant. Add them at the very end, after the dressing, to avoid the unappetising slimy-petal look. Calendula, by the way, is commonly known as pot marigold, because of its culinary properties: the petals were dried for soups in parts of Europe. And, as with all plants that have been around for a few centuries, calendula was believed to have dozens of medicinal uses. It was a remedy for measles, headaches, jaundice, red eyes, toothache, ague and "hot swellings", according to various herbalists in times past.
Not all garden flowers are edible, in fact some are quite poisonous. Avoid anything from the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) - and that includes clematis, anemone, aconite, monkshood and delphinium. Also liable to give you a tummy ache, or other interesting symptoms, are foxglove, periwinkle, lobelia, iris, hydrangea, morning glory, wisteria, daffodil, autumn crocus (Colchicum) and rhododendron. And just because one part of a plant is edible, it doesn't mean that the flowers are. Potato flowers, for instance, are not good for you, although the tubers certainly are. It is a member of the same family as deadly nightshade - as are tomato, pepper and aubergine, so don't go grazing on their flowers either.
Don't eat the stamens and pistil, in other words, that package of filaments and bobbles in the centre of the flower. The pollen contained on them may cause allergic reactions in some people (or so I have read). But, don't bother trying to remove them from tiny blooms, where this operation is too fiddly (life is too short to de-sex a minuscule flower).
With edible members of the daisy family (which includes marigolds and sunflowers), use only the outer petals and not the central part. Don't eat florists' flowers, which have often been sprayed with a cocktail of fungicides and pesticides, and don't eat your own blooms if you're a sprayer yourself.
My favourite flower for eating is that of chives. The pinky-purple clusters of florets can be broken up and scattered over salads, or over a platter of sliced tomatoes. They impart a slight oniony flavour, and are a pretty additive of a colour that doesn't usually appear on your plate.
Real blue is a rarity also, so borage and chicory petals are especially eye-catching. The former can be frozen in ice cubes, and added to summer drinks. Violas, rosemary and sage flowers, and rose and calendula petals may also be used to embellish ice cubes.
Floral ice cubes are made in two stages, so that the flower is anchored in the middle of the cube. Fill an ice tray half full with water and float a flower or petal (or two or three if they are small) on the surface of the water in each section. When the half-cubes have frozen, top up with more water and freeze again. For clear, bubble-free cubes, boil the water first for a couple of minutes, and let it cool before freezing.
Flowers may also be used to flavour sugar: if you want lavender or rose sugar for desserts, put the flowers into a jar of sugar, and shake every couple of days. In two or three weeks, the scent will have transferred, and you can remove the flowers.
jpowers@irish-times.ie
Use in moderation; remove the stamens and pistil, and the green bits at the base (the receptacle and ovary).
With composite flowers, that is members of the daisy family (Asteraceae), use only the petals, and discard the central boss.
All herb flowers of the mint family (Lamiaceae): mint, thyme, sage, oregano, marjoram, lavender, rosemary.
All flowers of the onion family (break up into individual florets): chives, garlic chives, onions, leeks, society garlic (Tulbaghia).
Most flowers of the brassica group, including salad rocket, cabbage, mustard.
Borage, English or pot marigold (Calendula), chamomile, chicory, cornflower, courgette, daylily, dianthus, fuchsia, hollyhock,phlox, nasturtium, primrose and cowslip (although not wild ones), salad rocket, rose, sunflower, viola.