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.