A few years back, I was a member of a CSA share that regularly included edible flowers in with the lettuces, tomatoes, and zucchini. While I was charmed by the presence of these flowers, I was always flummoxed when it came to actually using them. If only Miche Bacher’s new book, Cooking with Flowers had been around then. I would have done so much more with those tasty blooms.
Organized by variety of flower, each section begins with details about the particular blossom being featured. Then come the recipes, which manage to straddle the line between being appealing new and still familiar enough to get the old salivary glands working (for instances, how about a scoop of Lilac Sorbet).
As a preserver, I’m particularly interested in the ways that flowers can enhance my preserves. I often used dried lavender buds in jams and jellies to add a floral note, but now I’m contemplating the ways that lilac, nasturtium, and rose petals could improve or add interest to my basic sweet spreads. Makes the mind boggle a little, doesn’t it?
This recipe for Dandelion Jam was originally intended to go in the book, but because of space constraints, was cut from the volume. Eric from Quirk knows I happen to have a thing for jams and so asked if I’d like to feature the recipe here. I said yes and here we are.
I’ve not made this jam, but having read the recipe, I do believe it should work. For a preserve like this one, cooking it up to 220 degrees F will improve your chances of getting a good set from it. Also, do note that while it instructs you to put the finished jam in sterilized jars and seal them, it also requires that you store them in the fridge. This is because the jam doesn’t have the proper acidity for boiling water bath canning.
Dandelion Jam
Ingredients
- 8 cups water
- 4 cups dandelion blossoms
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 1 3/4-ounce package powdered fruit pectin
- 5 1/2 cups sugar
Instructions
- Pour the water into a large saucepan and add dandelion blossoms. Bring mixture to a boil and continue boiling for about 5 minutes, or until water turns yellow.
- Pour the resulting tea through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing the flowers to get as much of the color and flavor through the strainer as you can. Discard blossoms.
- Place 3 cups of the tea in a medium saucepan and add lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil. Stir in the sugar and boil for 10 minutes, or until sugar dissolves.
- Pour mixture into sterilized half-pint jars and seal. Store refrigerated for up to 2 months.
I made a tonic once of lavender buds and honey and water. Was lovely to drink, and very soothing!
I made rose petal simple syrup from a recipe I found in a 1970s feminist magazine at a yardsale. I had known roses were edible (as I had seen them on wedding cakes) but had no idea how to eat them. It turned out great. I’d love more recipes to experiment with
Violets while making jelly.
At nature camp, we made fritters out of Queen Anne’s lace and daylily flowers! I still remember the taste of Queen Anne’s lace: a little bit vegetal, a little bit like pollen, and a little bit spicy.
The first time I had flowers was when I came along a recipe for dandelion jelly. My nieces and the neighborhood kids spent the day picking the flowers and pulling out all the yellows … We then set up a canning station outside with a camp stove and made the jelly, the kids all were amazed and insisted on licking out the pot the jelly was in! Sticky happy kids! Could you ask for a better day?
I’ve been drinking a lot of hibiscus tea lately, and have eaten nasturtium blossoms fresh and their leaves in a curry. I’m planning to plant some Corsican violets for syrups and such, but the weather and my schedule have not been cooperating.
I like to bake spring cupcakes with flower petals mixed in the batter.
When I was in 4th and 5th grades, I used to eat honeysuckle in the field just off the playground from my elementary school! (And I’d forgotten all about that until I read this post!)
I know I first ate a flower on a salad, but it was so long ago I can’t recall what it was. Zucchini blossoms are delicious, and I’ve been wondering if cucumber flowers would be tasty on a salad. (One year, I had tons of male cucumber flowers, but few female ones, and so very few cukes!) Do garlic scapes count? I eat plenty every year, and yesterday I even had some garlic scape pesto (made last year and frozen) with pasta. I have lots of dandelions popping up in my yard this year, so I’m tempted to make this jam.
I don’t remember the first time I ate flowers, but I remember the first time I told my 2 young daughters that they could eat the flowers off my pansies and marigolds. They think its the coolest thing in the world that they can eat flowers out of my flower garden. I do love lavender ice cream
I have eaten honey suckle all my life.
I used to eat sour grass stems and flowers constantly as a child until my mother told me that dogs might have peed on them. I stopped.
When I was about 6 or 7. My brother-in-laws mother came with him and my sister to visit with us. She was born and raised in Italy. It was during the Spring when she came and dandelions were in full bloom.
We (the younger of the kids) were sent out in the back yard to pick the leaves of the dandelions. Quite baffled as to why she wanted these things that we mowed over so we didn’t have to see them .
When questioning my mother on this, her response to me was that she wanted them for our salad. It was to go with the homemade lasagna she had made.
To be honest, I was quite shocked and a little embarrassed as the neighbor kids were looking for an explanation as to why were out in our backyard picking dandelion weeds!
Yes, we did have to eat them so not to offend anyone. But all was good! 🙂
I’ve eaten some sugared pansies on top of cakes and also nasturtiums!
I have been sneaking violet flowers this spring. Just pulling the petals off of the stalk and popping them into my mouth for a little taste of spring.
I’ve also eaten onion grass flowers. Meh.
I love to eat nasturitums (and their leaves) on salads. My mom recently learned that society garlic flowers are edible, and taste like garlic. I love the contrast between both of these delicate flowers and their strong, spicy flavors!
Nasturtiums on a salad. Tastes like radishes, but so much more dramatic!
i haven’t eaten a lot of flowers…. but i do enjoy them in my tea!
Apart from artichokes and capers and such, I think the first time I knowingly cooked with flowers was in the late ’70s when World magazine (now National Geographic Kids) published a recipe for violet syrup. Despite Ray Bradbury’s wonderful book, I’ve never tried dandelion wine, but I have had various and sundry blossoms in salads. Due to a medieval recreation group I joined many years ago, I’ve also tried lavender biscuits, and enjoyed roses in lots of different ways that were popular in medieval times, such as Rosee – Minced Chicken in Almond and Rose Petal Sauce Recipe. I’m also particularly fond of rose flavored drink syrups and ice cream, which I can often get from Indian markets. And of course there’s always Turkish delight, although it’s hard to find a brand where the rose flavor is stronger than the sugar.
I had never eaten a flower until this past Tuesday. This was the day I made dandelion jelly, and it is spectacular!
At about 6 or 7, my older cousins generally restricted me in our play time to being the “bad guy” if I was allowed to play at all or played pranks on me, so I was very skeptical when they told me I could eat the violets and nasturtiums in the garden. Once my aunt confirmed this I spent most of the holidays in the garden nibbling away or standing on a stool in the kitchen cooking up dandelions.
Nasturtiums and sugared violets are the only flowers I’ve ever eaten.
I use quite a few of my jams/jellies as a part of a marinade for meats and vegetables..interesting trying to match flavors.
When I discovered nasturtiums as edible flowers, I fell in love. I tasted their peppery flavor first at the Portland Farmer’s Market—during the formative time when I was discovering eating and living locally. No wonder I love them so much. Really wanting to try to make capers from their green seeds! Haven’t been able to grow enough of them in a few years now to try it.
I’m new to eating flowers, but the apple-lavendar jam my mother gave me years ago was so spectacular I began seeking other lavendar-flavored foods and even conned my whole family into eating honey-lavendar ice cream one day. They didn’t like it as much as the strawberry, but I thought it was heavenly.
I think the rose water granita a friend made in Hawaii 1998. I still think of the summer rose melting in my mouth.
I honestly can’t remember a time I ate a flower other than when I was little, there were these purple little flowers that grew like weeds (heck, maybe they WERE weeds), and the stem tasted sweet. I don’t know what flowers those were, and I probably shouldn’t have been eating them, but there you go!
LOVE the idea of eating flowers! I have used nasturtiums in my salads, eaten squash blossoms and drank dandelion wine. 🙂 Copious amounts.
i remember my mother telling me that nasturtium blossoms were good, but i’ve still never tried any. my first real experience with eating flowers was when my third grade teacher had the whole class make violet jelly — she had us all gather violets for a week, and then as a class we made jelly out of it. my mind was a little blown that you could make jelly from flowers. 🙂
My grandma used to make dandelion soup!
Here in Alaska Wild Roses grow like crazy around our house. Flowers in general, like nasturtium do really well in the 24 hours of daylight. Almost every salad we eat in the summer has some sort of flower petals.
I really like the combination of rose petals and spruce tips in the spring and always try and make something new with that combination each year.
I was recently on vacation and saw this book at Anthropologie, now I am lamenting not purchasing it.
Tried to make dandelion jelly last week – but the flowers caused an allergic reaction. Oops.
But, nasturtium blossoms are delish!
Zucchini!
A flower I eat regularly (at least part of the year) is from arugula. First I eat the leaves, of course. Eventually the plants bolt and flower. The bees and I both love ’em. The taste is peppery similar to the leaves. Eventually the plants get seed pods which the birds love. A great cycle of life.
Nasturtiums, several years ago, when I first got into gardening.
I love nasturtiums in my salad mix! And day lilies are very good, too.
I like to add my arugula flowers to my salad…
I actually got to eat tamarind flowers in India a few years ago, very sour but still tasty and crunchy like lettuce 🙂
I haven’t eaten too many flowers, but I do love zucchini blossoms, especially stuffed with goat cheese.
I ate dandilions all the time as a child. My sister and I made “dandilion soup”, with a bucket of water and flowers we picked.
I like to eat squash blossoms. Sauté them and they are amazing!
The first flowers that I ever ate were nasturtiums, several years ago I grew some. They are quite unusual. My favorite flowers to eat are lavender, and the most delicious way that I have had them was in a lavender and early grey iced tea. I just picked some violets, in the hopes of making some violet jelly…but I think that I need more. Back to work!
This is the first year where I actually remembered to try and crystalize my johnny jump ups. They look really cute, and are quite tasty!
I’ve eaten steamed day lily buds, (taste like beans), and have made lavender honey and rose jelly. All of it was yummy!
My first and only time eating flowers was drinking my dads dandelion wine. He wasnt very good at making wine back then.
Someone brought a daylily salad to a pot luck. She had plucked the petals off a pile of daylily flowers and served it with applesauce as the dressing. It had a delicate flavor and an impressive presentation.
A zucchini flower made it’s way into some pasta of mine at my favorite Italian restaurant.
I loved this post! I am so encouraged now to eat more flowers. I have just recently (in the past month) tasted my first nasturtium, having grown a plant myself from heritage seeds obtained from the Kirk Estate in NY. I now catch the children picking and eating them straight out of the garden. Please can you share with me the number of pints the dandelion recipe makes? I will be trying this out. Can I reduce the sugar content (I have a low sugar fruit pectin box waiting to be used).
Caroline, this is not my recipe, so I can’t advise on whether or not you can reduce the sugar (you can certainly give it a try, though). And I was told it makes 2 1/2 pints.
Violets in my salad mix from the farmer’s market. Now I have some growing in my yard to add!
johnny jump ups in my salad everyday this week. I also love borage flowers in my salads and drinks……pretty and delicious! And I love nasturtiums, but it is far too early for those in Montana. Nasturtium seeds make great capers!
The most unusual flower I’ve ever eaten was a Yucca blossom. It had been chilled, so it was refreshingly crunchy with a slight floral flavor.
The first time I remember eating flowers was when I was about 5, I was a flower girl in my Uncle’s wedding. I was nervous so I nibbled on the rose petals in the bouquet.
I love cooking with flowers & have tried many different kinds: fried squash blossoms, violet jam, nasturtiums on salads, lavendar cookies & lots of different ones to garnish cakes. I would love to win the book for more ideas!
Old-fashioned scented geraniums, (Pelargonium.) I use the leaves to scent shortbread, scones, iced teas, lemonade and raspberry jam. Lemon and rose scented are my favorites. If you have never grown them, pot one in your garden. They are amazing. Brush a leaf and smell your hands. You will be captured by the scent.
When I was little my neighbor grew honeysuckle, and we used to sneak over to her yard to eat them.
When I was a teen, my mom used to stuff nasturium flowers with a ricotta mixture–I can’t remember if she then cooked them or if we ate them like that. I add the chive blossoms to salads, have sugared pansies for cakes and I’m willing to try most anything!
My sister candied organic rose petals for cupcakes she recently made. Very elegant and delicious.
I used to eat the tips off of honeysuckle flowers, the part with the nectar 🙂
we have made dandelion pancakes before….this would be perfect to go with it!
I discovered dried hibiscus flowers at Trader Joe’s not long after college. They’re so delicious! Now I look at the lovely hibiscus blooms in my yard and wonder if I could make them delicious too.
I think the first flower that I ate (that I remember) was at a really nice farm to table restaurant that my husband took me to the night he proposed.
Well, I don’t know if eating flowers in things counts, like lavender limeades, margaritas, and jams. I believe I’ve nibbled on an orchid and had a pansy set in some pastry cream, but we used to take the stamen out of Indian Paintbrushes that grew wild on the playground to suck out the sweet nectar. Yum!
My first flower-eating experience was nasturiums on a salad…..and later honeysuckles with my husband while teaching my kids about “nature’s candy…!”
That’s funny – everybody eats them everyday! I remember when my girls were little and I taught them about all the flowers in the yard they could eat. That was a little risky when they thought about branching out!
My favorite is still nasturtium blossoms. They remind me of radishes.
in college i became obsessed with teas and started making my own blends with chamomile and rose hips. I recently had deep fried dandelion heads and those were delicious!
I used to take flowers to my kids nursery school for teaching and tasting. Almost everybody liked the violets and Johnny Jump Ups, but some preferred alyssum and we discovered that different colors of alyssum taste like cabbage or cauliflower etc. I was always careful to bring a pretty arrangement of poisonous flowers like daffodils and lobelia and to remind them not to eat anything that they haven’t been taught is edible. I remember as a child we used to pull petunia ” cups” off and sip to sweetness at the base.
My son was just asking me to make something with edible flours! How awesome is that?! I used to eat the yellow out of dandelion heads as a kid with my younger sister. Those are fond memories!
At my in-laws wedding, they had cake and cupcakes with sugared flowers on top. I remember them being so delicate and delicious!
I’ve always munched on red clover flowers, ever since elementary school! They’re delicious 🙂 I’ve also done cakes with rose petal garnish (it was a wedding – most people just picked them off) and I’ve done candied violets on truffles. Yum.
I’ve grown nasturtiums, but husband thinks it is weird when I put them in salads….
I don’t think I ever have! Isn’t that a shame?
When I was a kid in the 60s, we routinely ate hibiscus flowers… and prickly pear flowers.. and used to suck the honey out of honeysuckle.. Oh.. I used to eat gardenia flowers too.. I’d forgotten that… it was my favorite bush/tree and flower.. Yum! Good enough to eat!
I first ate a flower this past week when I made violet jam. I saw the recipe for it on the http://www.fromscratchclub.com website, and have been thinking about it for the past year. 🙂 I like the violet taste much better than the lavender….I used lavender to scent a wine jelly, and couldn’t help but think it was like I was eating soap. Love the smell, but to me, lavender is really a skin lotion/soapy smell!
I one time made a compound butter with calendula petals. Have always meant to try it with other flowers, this post reminded me of that!
Last summer I decided I only wanted to grow plants that my family could eat. I had resigned myself to not having flowers, but after reading about edible flowers on You Grow Girl, a gardening blog, I decided to plant Nasturtium and Violets. I added both to salads, and I loved them. This year I would like to be more experimental with my use of flowers. The Dandelion Jam looks like a great place to start!
I grow nasturtiums every year to eat on salad.
I’m sure I’ve had nasturtium flowers in a salad; it’s not uncommon. I like breaking up chive flowers and scattering them over a pizza bianca.
I had lavender shortbread for the first time when I was visiting London. It made for a memorable high tea.
Can’t wait to try the dandelion jam (jelly??) recipe with the proliferation of Michigan late spring dandelions all over our yard! Enjoyed honeysuckle blossoms as a child and made lavender jelly two years ago. Thank you for the inspiration!
My CSA regularly puts flowers in the bags of spring lettuce we get. It’s always nice to top off a salad with a pretty flower or three.
Interesting cookbook!
When I was a teenager, drinking hibiscus tea.
I was introduced to the idea of edible flowers at a quaint bed-and-breakfast in Swansea, Wales. The hostess served rose hip preserves with tea and toast. Heavenly!
My sister’s mother-in-law made the most wonderful candied flowers for a wedding reception – they were amazing!
I remember a fellow staffer at the science museum where I worked — he made coffee with dried dandelions (and other wild edibles). such a cool place to work, and this particular guy was super fun.
I’ve had wonderfully tasty stuffed zucchini blossoms before, but I don’t think I’ve had any other edible flowers. I’m totally intrigued by the dandelion jam recipe (though the dandelions in my yard are already done for the year I think) and would like to see what else I could do with flowers!
I’ve just started exploring edible flowers and this book looks amazing! So far I’ve tried dandelions in salad and I’m making violet honey.
I remember the first time I had a nasturtium flower. My family thought I was crazy to eat them. Now, we make violet syrup and regularly garnish with edible flowers we grow in our tiny courtyard.
I’ll never forget my first “fancy” gourmet dinner as an adult. It was at The Ravens in Mendocino, California and each plate with garnished with a different lovely edible flower. These flourishes really enhanced the experience and captured my imagination. Now I make it a point to grow nasturtiums, marigolds and other flowers to add to salads, springs roll and more. I’ve also since had dried hisbiscus and they are incredible!
I used to love eating nasturtiums from the planter on the porch at my summer camp, but my all-time favorite flower eating story is actually about someone else. Way back in middle school, a whole bunch of my classmates and I were invited to a bat mitzvah party where the dinner was served with one of those purple and white orchid-like flowers as a garnish. One of my classmates, after deciding to eat that flower, thought he might try a few more types to see if they were also edible, so he started in on a rose from the floral arrangement on the table! He got about halfway through the petals before he declared it “too dry” and left the remainder on his plate. I’ve always wondered what the waitstaff thought of that when they cleared the dishes.
This is actually a friend’s story: he told me that as a child he would eat different flowers with the belief that he could control the weather. Different flowers could make the weather do different things. I’ve always loved this story!
My back yard is currently a carpet of violets…I’ve been putting them in salads and freezing them in ice cubes for a fun drinks garnish…when I was a kid, I used to put rose petals and rose water in my apple cider…love nasturtiums and chive blossoms for salads and edible garnish…
I love dandelions. I have two batches of wine fermenting and jam in the fridge. The whole plant is delicious and misunderstood. If you do make the jam, remove the green bracts from the base of the flower and only use the petals. The greens impart a bitter flavor to the finished product and muddies the color a bit. The whole process is laborious, but it is a nice treat. The taste is reminiscent of wildflower honey.
The first time that I remember eating flowers if was the honeysuckles in my grandma’s back yard.
Oh my goodness! I actually ate flowers twice in one day last Saturday! First, there was orange flower water in a delicious, bite-sized, Lebanese pistachio pastry and that night at a very schmancy birthday dinner, there were (I think) nasturtiums in my buratta and arugula salad. In the middle of an unusually cool spring while even the first vegetables of the season are a little slow on the uptake, both were a refreshing taste of things to come.
I’m always up for a new cookbook and this one looks very interesting! I enjoy chive flowers on a salad but am always open to more ideas for incorporating flowers into my repertoire.
So glad I finally know what to do with the dandelions that have taken up residence in my garden. Thanks for the recipe!
Basil and rosemary blossoms; snapdragons; nastursium; dandelion; the flowers from my bolting brassicas and lettuces; Chinese edible chrysanthemum, (though those are mostly leaves and the greens)….. Gosh any flower I can try I will 🙂
I’ve been making lavender vinegar. It is just amazing.
I would love to see a recipe for that. Know the basic idea, but wondering proportions and timing. Sounds wonderful.
Oh my gosh! How did I not know about this book! It looks fabulous! I’m a Nurse-Herbalist, so I like to eat flowers as often as I can 🙂 My most recent experience was teaching my kids about the healing properties of apples while we munched on some apple flower petals. Yum!! 🙂
A friend once made violet wine.
One of my earlies memories was one of my great Aunts letting me pick and eat her begonia flowers. These days I use chive blossoms in salads and munch on daylily flowers.