Edible Flowers, a cheery way to start the day

Coral Vine, Citron Melon, Milkweed Vine, Dayflower, Evening Primrose, Kudzu, Stock, Dame’s Rocket, Freesia, Dendrobium phalaenopsis

Coral Vine Blossoms must be cooked

The Coral Vine has dozens of names, not only as a cultivated blossom but an escapee on the most noxious list. Botanically it is Antigonon leptopus. A native of Mexico it has edible roots, leaves and for this series, flowers. To read more about it go here. The vine can climb to some 40 feet and blossoms nearly year round in warm area.  Butterflies and bees like it (you’ve been warned) because over 40% of its blossoms are open at a time. The blossoms, like the leaves and roots, have to be cooked. The roots, while edible, are hard to find and dig up.

Citron Melon

The two plants non-foraging people ask about all the time are Society Garlic (covered elsewhere) and those small watermelon like fruit seen in old citrus groves and abandoned fields. The short answer is they are Citron Melons. They used to be cultivated for to make preserves and I have a separate article about that here. However, their blossoms are edible if they are not bitter. The blossoms should be cooked though usually one never sees the plant until the late fall and winter when one can see the fruit from the seasonal die back. The blossom might be edible raw, I just haven’t tired them.

Milkweed Vine, Morrenia odorata

By looking at the names of this vine and the attitude of the state of Florida one would never suspect most of it is edible including the flowers. It’s called the Milkweed Vine, the Latex Vine, the Strangler Vine, the latter because it tends to climb on trees and cover them. Botanically it is Morrenia odorata. Literally from the ground up this plant is edible and the fruit has more Vitamin C than citrus (an industry that fights to get rid of it.) The flowers are very sweet and floral and can be eaten raw. This vine is only found in warm areas. Don’t try confuse it with the cool climate Honeyvine, Cynanchum laeve, which is not edible. Also Hemp Vine (Mikania Scandens) before it blossom looks vaguely similar as well.

Dayflower, a Commelina

My love affair with Dayflowers is over. They don’t like me anymore. Well, the raw stems don’t. The raw blossom still do. In the Commelina clan there’s quite a few of them and while the blossoms are fine to toss in a salad, candy or use as a garnish — just like their relative the Spiderworts,  I am beginning to think the stems and older leaves are overrated. Raw they irritate my tummy these days.  The blossoms can vary in size depending on which species and can have three blue petals, two blue petals and one small white petal or two large blue petals and one smaller blue petal. Their flavor is an inoffensive green. The Yellow Commelina, Commelina africana, is edible cooked. They both are closely related to the tiny Doveweed.

Evening Primrose, Oenothera biennis

Every climate has its good and bad points and one of the bad points locally is that the tall, northern Evening Primrose does not grow here. I think the the most amazing specimen I ever saw was in Vathia, Greece (Vathis is literally the end of the road on the central peninsula of southern Greece, deep in The Mani.)  The Evening Primerose was at least six feet tall and totally covered with flowers. Here in Florida we have a very scraggly ground hugging one. I have not tired its flowers. On my list of things to do. However, the common Evening Primrose of northern climes does have edible blossoms. They are sweet and can be used in a variety of ways raw or cooked if you prefer, salad to soups to garnish. They can even be pickled.

Kudzu’s blossoms smell like grapes

You never have to go looking for kudzu blossoms. When kudzu is in bloom there is no mistaking its scent. It is smells exactly like the cheap grape bubble gum kids chew. And intense? You can detected it on the wind from 100 yards away, or more. Kudzu is the bane of the Old South. Introduced by the government which paid farmers to use it for land reclamation, it can grow a foot a day and covers some 120,000 new acres every year. Goats love to eat it and all of it is edible except the seeds. The blossoms are quite edible recipes abound in their use, jelly to wine. While the smell like grape they do not taste like grape. They are sweet and have a flavor of their own.

Stock is bred in many colors

Some like it hot, and some do not, and Stock does not. It’s a fragrant, two-foot tall, attractive flower that likes full sun, good, well-drained soil, and temperatures under 75 F°. They can even tolerate a light frost. There are some 140 species of Stock. The one we are interested in is Matthiola incana, common stock as it were though it comes in many colors. It’s native along the Mediterranean from Greece to Spain and was a mainstay of European gardens in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Elizabethans called them “gillyflower” and the Victorian allowed them in their cottage gardens. Even Thomas Jefferson got some for Monticello in 1771 and in fact one can still buy seed from Jefferson’s stock…of Stock. Stock flowers are usually added to salads  raw or a garnish to sweet desserts. They can be candied. Their flavor is perfume-ish. The plant’s pods are edible as well. A common cultivated flower in North American it is naturalized in North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, California and British Columbia usually in a few isolated areas but rather well-distributed in coastal southern California and San Francisco. It is also called Tenweeks Stock.

Dame’s Rocket is a mustard

Dame’s Rocket is a declared invasive species in several places. It’s your civic duty eat the weed. Originally from Eurasia some 400 years ago it’s a mustard that at first glance looks like Phlox. Dame’s Rocket has the typical mustard family four petals, Phlox, five. It’s found essentially everywhere in North America except the Old South. Botanically known as Hesperis matronalis, it is cultivated, escaped and is included in wild bird seed mix. Young leave collected before flowering are eaten like cress. Seed pods can be added stews and soups. Seeds are a source of oil and can be sprouted and eaten. The flowers are used to add spicy flavors to fruit dishes and salads.

Freesia blossoms point the same way

As a forager one of the first things you learn is that there isn’t much to offer in the Iris family, or, if it is an Iris beware. Freesia is an exception.  A native of South Africa and Australia, it’s an Iris to about 18 inches tall and grows from a bulb. The stem branches once giving it a classic Y shape. One odd thing about the Freesia is that they grow in a helicoid, that is the flowers attach to the stem in a spiral fashion but they all point the same way.  Fragrance varies with the variety. And the usual debate is whether it’s a wild plant as it is in its native range or a cultivated plant as most of these readers will find it. I opted for cultivated. So far I have put only one flower in both wild and cultivated and that’s Dame’s Rocket. Freesias colors include white, purple, yellow, orange and red. In the language of flowers they represent “innocence.” The highly scented blossoms are used in salads raw or as a garnish. They are reported to be excellent infused with a sugar syrup, and are used in sorbets for flavoring.

Dendrobium phalaenopsis

If you go to a Thai restaurant often a Dendrobium phalaenopsis is put on your plate. No that not a creature, it’s an orchid unfortunately without a common name in English. Said Den-DROH-be-um fal-en-NOP-siss their flavor is light, if any, but they are pretty with a crisp texture. This also brings up the debate if all orchids are edible. Personally I think that is impossible for one person to say as there are more than 20,000 of them, maybe 26,000, in some 800 genera. Many do have edible roots. Edible flower information is sketchy. One would like to think orchids used as garnishes would be edible just to avoid liability. However garnish writers seem to skip over issues of orchid edibility. Kind of like writing about flying and leaving out the airplane. Dendrobium phalaenopsis comes in a variety of colors and are native to southeast Asia. They are not difficult to grow. Use in salads and as a garnish.

See Edible Flowers: Part Twelve

Tangy mustard and sweet violet flowers

Alliums, Oregano, Pinks, Peas, Okra, Galium, Ginger, Scented Geraniums, Primrose, Mustard/Radish

Onion Blossom

The author of “Florida’s Incredible Wild Edibles” Dick Deuerling, now in his 90s, taught me decades ago: If it looks like a garlic and smells like a garlic it is a garlic and you can eat it. If it looks like an onion and smells like an onion you can eat it. They must have both, however, look and aroma. We have a lily here in Florida, for example, that looks like an onion but no aroma, and raw it can be deadly.  Look and aroma, like horse and carriage and love and marriage. Together. Alliums can also be deceptive. Locally the “wild onions” (read really garlics) grow their cloves on the top of the plant, not underground. And if I remember correctly, an onion always has a singular bulb per plant where as the garlic has sectioned cloves. At any rate there are some 400 species if you include onions, garlic, chives, sallots, and closely related ramps/leeks, the latter having wide leaves. Usually the flowers have a stronger flavor than the leafy parts, and the developing seed head even stronger flavor. Blossoms are usually white but can also be pink. Onion stems are round, as are chives but smaller. Garlic leaves are flat. And since you know what those look like I’ll put up a picture of ramps, unfamiliar to some.

Honey Bee and Oregano Blossom

Where would Greeks be without oregano, or the rest of us? And is it a wild plant or cultivated? In most of the New World it is a cultivated plant. In the land of my ancestors it grows wild, particularly on the lopes of Mt. Taygetos (said tah-EE-gah-tos) south of Sparta in The Mani (and from where we get the word “maniacs” in English because of how the Maniotes fought.) Taygetos means “joy of mountain.”  Oregano is similar. It’s from two Greek words, oros, which means mountain, and ganousthal meaning delight in. “Delight in the mountain is” translates into good eats and where the oregano prefers to grow. There should be some truth to that because oregano also grows in Sanmaria Gorage on mountainous Crete, where I love to hike. We are told Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, created oregano as a symbol of happiness. Ancient Greeks would crown newlyweds with garlands of oregano to bless happiness on their marriage.  Oregano’s blossoms are a milder version of the plant’s leaves Incidentally, marjoram is in the same genus as oregano. Oregano is Origanum vulgare, and marjoram is Origanum majorana. Think of marjoram as oregano lite and used the same way. In many place in the Mediterranean area oregano is called Wild Marjoram.

Pinks

Carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus) were covered earlier in this series but let’s revisit the genus Dianthus’ miniature versions such as Pinks and Sweet William, respectfully Dianthus plumarius and Dianthus barbatus.  Dianthus means God Flower… Hmmm… would diandros be godfather? Anyway… These little carnations don’t like heat or alkaline soil which made them perfect for the cold acidic landscape of Maine’s summer. They don’t even like to be mulched. Curiously the name “Pink” does not refer to the color but a 14th century verb “to pink” meaning to perforate or create a punched patten. Apparently I grew up in the Dark Ages because it was a verb I heard around the home and every seemstress had pinking shears. Why Sweet William is called that is anyone’s guess but the term for the flower first showed up in 1596. (There were no King Williams at the time but William Shakespeare was mid-career… it’s a guess.) To use the blossoms cut away the bitter white base. The petals are sweet with a clove or nutmeg like scent.  Often used in salads, aspic and soups.

Garden Pea Blossom

There is a progression, I think. When  you are a kid you hate to eat your peas. You get past that then run into your first pea pod, usually at a Chinese restaurant. You get past that when you eat your first pea blossom. Note, eating pea blossoms will reduce your production of peas but a pea blossom here or there is pleasant. They are crunchy, slightly sweet, and taste like peas. That does vary some with what variety you have planted. Also the pea shoots and tendrils are edible as well. All usually consumed raw though you could cook them. A word of caution. I am referring to edible peas, the genus Pisum, not ornamental peas. Those can be toxic.

Okra Blossom

While we’re raiding the garden let’s not forget about okra blossoms. Like many edible flowers already mentioned it is in the hibiscus clan. I have grown okra in my garden and there are dozens of  cultivars to choose from that produce some variety of blossom colors.  Like most hibiscus blossoms they are shy on taste but add color and texture to salads as well as an attractive garnish. Of course you could also let them go on to produce okra which is a kitchen vegetable of many uses. In fact, growing okra is for the blossoms is perhaps the quickest and easiest way to get lovely large blossoms to your table quickly. And there are “dwarf” version for patio pot use. One word of warning, some okra plants have spines… big spines.

Sweet Woodruff

Several Galiums grow here in Florida, one of which can be used for dye, Galium tinctorium, and one of which is edible, Galium aparine. It’s easy to sort out the two. If you can find whorls of five leaves or less it is the G. tinctorum. If you can find whorls of seven leaves or more, its the G. aparine, among other characteristic. Their blossoms are really too tiny to attend to but edible. The favored Galium, however, does not grow here but I have run into it elsewhere, Galium odoratum. Imported from Eurasia and now naturalized it grows roughly in the northeast quadrant of North America and is commonly called Sweet Woodruff, or Wild Baby’s Breath. It’s been used a lot in Europe as a flavoring particularly in German May wine. Its flavor is sweet and vanilla-like which brings us to a warning. One of the chemicals that gives it a sweet smell is coumarin. Taken in large quantities it reduces the blood’s ability to clot. Flavoring and a few blossom here or there is not a worry unless you are in frail health and already taking blood thinners.

Ginger Blossoms

Right outside my kitchen window grows ginger, the kind we get ginger root from and use in cooking, Zingiber officinale. I planted it several years ago and when I need ginger for cooking, I did up a piece.  The word ginger comes from French gingembre which was borrowed from Medieval Latin ginginer which was bastardized from the Greek: zingiberis (ζιγγίβερις). Going back further it comes from the Indian subcontinent word inji ver. We just call it good, and a home remedy for motion sickness. Ginger blossoms are gingery and fragrant. They can be eaten raw.

Lemon-scented Geranium

Because of an early botanical screw up — among the first of many — the Geranium group can be confusing. Initially all Geraniums were in one group. But by the late 1700s it was decided they were in two different genus but both were called commonly Geraniums. Got it? Folks have been trying to keep it straight ever since. Generally speaking they fall into two groups, bitter Geraniums usually not consumed, though some can be, and scented geraniums, whose flowers we can use. The latter genus is Pelargonium. The name comes from the Greek word πελαργός, pelargós, which means stork because part of the flower looks like a stork’s beak. Scented geraniums have different scents, among them almond, apple, coconut, lemon, nutmeg, old spice, peppermint, rose, and strawberry. The flowers tend to agree with the plant’s name. They are used in salads, desserts, and drinks.

Primrose

The Primrose suffered the fate of several plants. Petty, edible and showed up very early in the spring after folks had spent a long winter with no fresh food. This wasn’t an issue when there were more primroses than humans. The primrose as been so harvested in the wild that it is illegal in many of its native places in Europe to pick it. However, it is also a common garden flower and a commerial product so getting some primrose legally really isn’t an issue. In the genus Primula the Primula vulgaris blossom reminds me very much of a small magnolia blossom. Several colors are available now. Also know as Cow Slip the blossoms are bland in flavor but sweet. They can be added to salad, the bud pickled, or cooked as a vegetable. They have even been used to make wine.

Radish Blossom

Perhaps I have been remiss in these last 99 blossoms to not mention mustards more. But they are a huge family and have been touched upon, such as with arugula. They all have yellow to white blossoms, sometimes pink, usually a simple cross which is there the family names Cruciferae comes from. They range from the mustard that produces the seed that makes the condiment to the radish in our salad to the plant that produces what eventually is cleaned and deodorized into Canola oil. In northern climates they are a spring and summer plant, here in Florida they are wintertime fare, showing up after Thanksgiving and usually totally gone by St. Patrick’s day. Wild radish and wild mustard look similar but have small differences. One is that mustards grow tall, radishes like to serpentine. Radish blossoms cluster and have noticeable veins, mustard blossoms are singular and the veins are not obvious. The seeds pods are different as well. Mustard’s pod is smooth, the radish jointed and why the mustard is called the charlock and the radish the jointed charlock. Their blossoms are both peppery and mustardy. They work best in cold salads or hot soups, the latter they can be tossed in just before serving. And of course mustard and radish leaves can be cooked up as greens.

See Edible Flowers: Part Eleven

Deep Fried Guinea Pig Dinner

Peruvians eat more than 65 million guinea pigs every year. That should answer any question about edibility.

Sixty-five million guinea pigs (a 2005 figure) is more than two rodents for every every man, woman, and child in that county. Peruvians have been consuming the pseudo-porcines for some four thousands years. The furry piglets… (figlets?) …reportedly provide half of the needed daily protein for Peruvians. Known as Cavy, Cuy and a lot of other native names, they have more protein and less cholesterol than beef, pork, or chicken (21% protein, 8% fat.)  They’re also vegetarians, eat grass and behave much likes cows… except they aren’t milked…  While run-of-the-house Cavy weight one to two pounds specially bred livestock guinea pigs can weight up to seven pounds. And they aren’t pigs, nor are they from Guinea.

Just like Ma used to make

Scientifically they are Cavia porcellus, and are not found in the wild. Cavia (KAY-vee-ah) is Dead Latin for Cabiai which is what the Galibi Indians called them. The Galibi Indans were once native of French Guiana, which is possibly where the Guinea part of the name came from. Porcellus (poor-SELL-us) is Dead Latin for “little pig.” Cavy are somewhat shaped and colored like pigs and have among their various sounds grunts hence porcellus. When all of that is combined and abused into English we get Guinea Pig. They also have a huge number of names mangled in various other languages ranging from Meerschweinchen in German (sea piglet, because they also make grunting noises like a dolphin) Helanzhu (荷蘭豬) in Chinese (which means Holland Pig) to the Spanish conejilo de Indias (little rabbit of the Indies.) Later the ruderal rodents were used for a lot of medical research and lent their common name to anyone who was being used for an experiment.

Guinea pigs on the Barbi

As you may guess I am in contact with a lot survivialists. I have talked with quite a few who have argued earthworms are a good thing to raise for food. I will admit native American ate them, and you can read about that here. And some have argued mushroom raising is the key to survival should society fall apart, or aquaponics. But none have ever mentioned raising guinea pigs yet they are among the most prolific, easiest and least costly of all table meats to raise. They outbreed rabbits and can be raised indoors in suburbia on vegetable table scraps. A concern of 22 breeding guinea pigs (two guys and 20 girls) will meet the protein requirments for a family of four annually producing 160 to 200 guinea pigs a year. That same stock if not eaten immediately can produce 6,000 guinea pigs within two years. Many Peruvians have a home business of raising guinea pigs. However, it must be said they are not neat animals and do require cage policing. One of the odd things about guinea pigs is like humans they cannot make vitamin C and must get enough of it in their diet or get scurvy. Some common plants are toxic to guinea pigs. They include: Parsley, wild mustard, dandelions, blackberries, coriander, and green potato peels. And like humans and monkeys, they can also get poison ivy rashes.

Part of the world views them as pets

Of course the other culinary issue is they are cute, in a Bambi’s-not-for-dinner sort of way, and are pets. Eating or killing them for food in California is illegal because they are a pet animal. While they are edible in New York State the city of New York made them illegal… too salty? No, they were being served at Euadorian festivals in the city and someone frowned upon food that resemble the city’s infamous wharf rats. I can hear the bureaucratic argument now: Without proper inspection you don’t know whether you’re eating a wholesome guinea pig or a disgusting wharf rat thus…

California law “prohibits any person from possessing, importing into the sate [or exporting from the state] selling, buying, giving away, or accepting any carcass or part of any carcass of any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet or companion with the sole intent of using or having another person use any part of the carcass as food.”  The same law also prohibits the killing of pet/companion animals for food. That would cover not only guinea pigs in California but dogs, cats, pot-bellied pigs, horses, pet chickens, iguanas, pigeons and the like…  thought you Californians should know. Oh, and deceased, flash frozen, ready to cook guinea pigs cannot be imported into Canada, as of March 2011. The problem is not the guinea pig per se. Canada does not allow any meat to be imported from Peru as of this writing. You can read about the official Canadian Guinea Pig Swat Team here. On the other hand, raising and dispatching guinea pigs for food for your own personal use is allowed in Australia. Guinea pig meat can also be imported into the United States, where not prohibited.

Guinea pigs are usually served flat with head and feet on.

Two-month old guinea pigs that will be used for food are not fed for at least 15 hours. They are then knocked senseless from behind, their jugular cut then hung upside down to drain. This renders the meat white when cooked. The whole guinea pig is dipped in near boiling water for 20 seconds. This makes the hair easy to remove. The hair is then removed. The animal is slit from anus to neck without cutting visera to avoid cutting the gall bladder. The visera is removed and the cavity rinsed (also the site of where much stuffing is stuffed or to hold  sauce.) Head and feet are removed for aesthetic reasons but there is no consumption reason to remove said. Head, heart, lungs, liver and skin are also edible. In their native countries guinea pigs are usually cooked and served splayed. Different sensibilities determine plating in other areas. Younger guinea pigs are fried or grilled and the like. Older ones are roasted or stewed. Guinea pig is somewhat chewy and is usually served hot because the meat softens on cooling. The morsels are served numerous ways and when folks in Peru wax on about how their mother used to cook the guinea pig is the topic de jour. Down home cooking, Peruvian style.

If you prefer guinea pigs in your lap as pets and find the notion of eating one close to cannibalism there are many non-profit havens for the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of guinea pigs, particularly in California. It is a good cause because we humans have a tacit agreement with the animals we domesticate as pets. They give us companionship and in exchange we don’t eat them. There is probably a guinea pig rescue near you if you want a little pet rather than a little meal. Just search for guinea pig and rescue.

For the more cuisine minded:

Cuy Chaqtado

Fried Guinea Pig (Ayacucho-style)

1 guinea pig, de-haired, gutted, and cleaned

1/2 c. flour

1/4 – 1/2 t. ground cumin

salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 c. oil

Pat dry the skin of the guinea pig and rub in the cumin, salt, and pepper. Preheat oil. Dust the carcass with the flour and place it on its back in the oil, turning to cook both sides. Alternately, the guinea pig can be cut and fried in quarters.

Serve with boiled potato or boiled manioc root, and a salad of cut tomatoes and slivered onions bathed in lime juice and a bit of salt. 

Cuy Picante Huanuqueño Style*

*Ingredients: *

*- **2 large guinea pigs*

*- **1 tablespoon crushed garlic*

*- **1½ teaspoon salt *

*- **1½ pepper*

*- **1½ teaspoon cumin powder*

*- **2 tablespoons aji panca (a Peruvian deep-clay red chile, liquefied in a blender)*

*- **2 tablespoons aji mirasol (a Peruvian dark yellow chile, liquefied in a blender)*

*- ** 1 cup cooking oil or margarine *

*- **10 scallions *

*- **The guinea pigs’ hearts, livers (and in an authentic version, also the intestines, thoroughly cleaned) *

*- **1 tablespoon of crushed peanuts*

*- **8 yellow potatoes boiled and skinned*

*Preparation: *

*Cut and quarter the guinea pigs, salt and pepper, then fry until golden brown. Put aside in a warm dish. In a heavy skillet, lightly greased with a few splashes of oil, combine the garlic, aji panca and aji mirasol over high heat. Mixing and scraping the ingredients from the bottom of the pan to keep it from sticking; continue until the mixture is thoroughly cooked to a golden brown. Chop the scallions, separating the white bulbs from the green stalks. Add the finely chopped scallion bulbs to the pan with the cumin. In a separate pan, combine the hearts, livers and peanuts and cook until thoroughly done, then place in a food processor or blender to liquefy. Add and mix with aji-garlic mixture in heavy skillet. Add guinea pig pieces, cooking for 10 to 15 minutes. Let stand for at least 15 minutes. Serve over sliced boiled potatoes sliced.
Serves four.*

“Picante de cuy” – Guinea Pig with spices

The whole guinea pig is marinated overnight in spices, including cumin, black pepper, paprika and dried red chillies.

Red and yellow peppers are also liquidised and added to the marinade just before cooking.

After marinating, the meat is barbecued and served whole, but split in two like a fillet.

“Cuyes en salsa de mani” – Guinea pigs with peanut sauce

The guinea pig is seasoned whole with salt and pepper and then slowly deep fried in vegetable oil.

It is then served with a creamy peanut sauce and traditionally accompanied by white rice, fried yuccas and boiled sweet potatoes.

A Spray of Edible Flowers Gladen the Day

Mahoe, Moringa, Pineapple Sage, Plum, Hawthorn, Cattail, Papaya, Purslane, Tuberose, Wisteria

One of the more fascinating flowers found in warm climates is that of the Mahoe, or the Sea Hibiscus. In the morning the blossom is yellow but by late afternoon it is red. The working theory is the shrub changes color to appeal to two different groups of pollinators. If one doesn’t get it in the morning, one might in the afternoon. The change in color also increases the amount of antioxidants. It also helps that almost the entire shrub is edible some way. The blossoms, yellow or red, can be eaten raw or cooked. Their flavor is mild. Incidentally, the Portia Tree, aka Seaside Mahoe, can be used the same way, flowerwise. Here’s an article on it.

Moringa Blossoms

I think besides an edible flower nearly everything else is also edible on our next species, the Moringa Tree. It is difficult to overstate the value of the tree. If a panel of experts were to design a nutritional, easy to grow, life-saving species it would be the Moringa. Indeed, it is being planted in many places around the world to not only fight hunger but malnutrition as well, ’cause they ain’t necessarily the same thing. I planted one on my property several years ago and it begate itself. Here in subtropical Florida the tree easily grows 10 feet a year. I coppice it every season, and feel he-man in the process because the tree is extremely brittle and one can break a three-inch branch easily by hand. I should do a video of that some year because it is rather amazing. The flowers are eaten cooked, usually boiled, and taste like mushrooms. To read about the Moringa click here.

Pineapple sage

Our next edible flower comes with a warning. Don’t eat its similar looking relative. How can you tell them apart? The one you want smells of pineapple, which is why it is called the Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans. Sometimes it is also called the Tangerine sage. The point is crush a leaf and you will smell pineapple or tangerine. The one you don’t want is Salvia coccinea, also called the Scarlet Sage, the Texas Sage and the Hummingbird Sage. Crush its leaf and it smells grassy or slightly sage-like.  Flowers of the Pineapple Sage, which taste like a hint of pineapple, are quite edible. However, even a quarter-inch square portion of a Salvia coccinea blossom will give you a big stomach ache and make you more than mildly ill. It’s not go-to-the-emergency-room ill but close to it.  I know this from personal experience because once, for lack of a better word,  I titrated the S. coccinea for potential edible use. It quickly let me know it is definitely is not an edible, raw at least. After my experience I had no interest in seeing if S. coccinea had any uses cooked.

Chickasaw Plum Blossom

Read this next entry as carefully as the last: You can eat some plum or peach blossoms, a few, a half dozen, but not a lot. Why? Because they have a chemical which when it goes through your tummy tum tum produces cyanide. A little cyanide we can tolerated, a lot will make you ill. Too much and you are deceased though admittedly it would take a lot of plum flowers to do that. Plum and peach flowers are a trail side nibble, a sprinkle in salads or on a dessert. Sparingly is the key. They are sweet, taste like nectar. Which ones? As far as I know any plum that produces plums and any peach that produces a peach that is edible. It should hold true for cherry blossoms as well as they are in the genus Prunus as well but I really don’t know. I would avoid the Laurel Cherry as it does not produce edible cherries. To read about Chickasaw Plums click here.

Hawthorn Blossoms

When I was growing up I lived on a dirt road out in the country. Across the road, kitty-corner, where two pastures met, was a Hawthorn tree. It was old and large and had two-inch thorns in grand profusion. It was also ladened every year with several families of birds because few predators would brave the thorns. As to which Hawthorn tree it was is anybody’s guess, even for a Hawthorn expert. It is one of those genus in which there may be a 100 species or a thousand. It is supposedly a professional joke in the botanical world to send a known Hawthorn to some one rather new and ask them to identify it to which the often reply is it must be a new species. Long ago someone discovered that very young Hawthorn leaves and blossoms in the spring could be eaten together right off the tree, thus the “Bread and Cheese tree” was born. Young leaves can be added to salads or nibble on. The blossoms, which have a peculiar taste, can be added to salads, desserts and drinks. Interestingly old leaves and fruit (minus seeds) are a natural beta blocker for high blood pressure. Two teaspoons of either or mixed ground up in a cup of hot water morning and night is the herbalist’s usual prescription. Read about Hawthorns.

Immature Cattail Blossom

You many not think of a cattail as having a blossom but it does and before it matures it is edible. In fact, both the male part of the flower and the female part of the flower are edible. Later when the male part produces pollen that’s edible as well. When the female parts turn brown it’s way past edible. The male part is the spike on top, the female part the wider portion below the spike. When both are green they can be boiled. The rest of the plant has edibles as well and is a well-known staple of the forager. The cattail rhizome is full of starch. In fact, no plants produces more edible starch per acre than the cattail. Read about them.

Papaya Blossom

This won’t make much sense to those who live where there is a winter but the first time I climbed Turtle Mound — not a great feat as it is only 80 feet high — I was surprised to see papaya’s growing on top. Turtle Mound is a midden, an ancient trash heap made mostly of millions of oyster shells dumped there by ancient natives. It’s been more than three decades since my first visit and the papayas are still there, self-seeding as papayas do. A native of Mexico they are naturalized in warm areas of the world. Papaya blossoms, like very young leaves, are edible cooked, which is usually by boiling.  Actually cooking the yellow flowers is a lot easier than pollinating them because there are female blossoms, male blossom, and male/female blossoms, kinda you, me and us. You have to move pollinating material around correctly or you don’t get fruit (also edible.) To read more about papayas click here.

Purslane's Small Blossom

It was something of a debate, to make this entry or not. After all, purslane is one of the most esteemed wild and cultivated edibles in the world (except oddly the United States.) It is used as a salad ingredient, a vegetable, a soup thickener, a flour, and a pickle. And yes, the flowers are edible but they are only open for a day. And when I say purslane I mean Portulaca oleracea, the kind with yellow blossoms only. Yes, I know there are commercial cultivars of multiple colored blossoms and they might look wonderful in a salad. But, I don’t know if they are edible. The Moss Rose/Rose Moss, another wild Purslane, Portulaca pilosa, is in my estimate not edible. So I stick with the original, common purslane with the yellow blossom. They are edible raw and cooked. Incidentally, the tiny pink blossoms of the sea purslane, Sesuvium portulacastrum,  is also edible raw or cooked. Click here to read more.

Tuberose Blossoms Moving Up

Tuberose has been put to a lot of uses. The Hawaiians used it to make leis. In Victorian times it was the funeral flower of choice. Then it spent a long time helping perfumes smell the way they do. Now it can be found as a food in five star hotels, well… at least those in the Orient. Botanically it is Polianthes tuberosa and might be a native of Mexico.The flowers open from the bottom of the flower spike up and can last a couple of weeks if you remove the blossoms and eat them. The Aztec so liked the flower their used its oil to flavor their chocolate. They are eaten cooked and are traditionally added to vegetable soups. They are also used to flavor some soy sauces

Chinese Wisteria

Wisteria is a nibble of spring, here for a few weeks and then gone. The blossoms of various species are edible cooked — some raw — but they are usually blanched in boiling water, strained, and mixed into salads or the deep fried. The rest of the plant is toxic per se. In fact, as little as two raw seeds can kill a child. That is not uncommon for a member of the pea family which ranges from edible to toxic. See my full article on wisteria here. One of the most common of the 8 to 10 species of wisteria is Wisteria sinsensis, or the Chinese Wisteria. It’s a vigorous, fast grower that doesn’t need fertilizer and fixes nitrogen. In fact, abuse improves blossoming as does pruning. It can live at least 115 years (as of April 2011) and is consider an invasive species is some areas.  It has naturalized from  Maine to Florida and as far west as Arkansas. Not bad since its arrival in 1816. Another one commonly eaten wisteria is Wisteria floribunda from Japan, also escaped in the US.

See Edible Flowers: Part Ten