🌱 Intermediate
✍🏼 Prepared by Taylor E, Jill P
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Many of the plants we grow in our own backyards have edible components that we have never considered when harvesting our bounty. Here, you will find a few edible flowers and components from items you may already be growing in your backyard, and some creative uses for those plants!
Please ensure you correctly identify all plants before consuming anything. This guide is not intended to be used for plant identification.
https://www.urbanseedling.com/product/nasturtium-dwarf-jewel/
Both the flower, stems, and leaves of this plant are edible! Heck, you can even use the seeds as a substitute for capers. They have a spicy like taste, similar to a radish. You can do a taste test out in the garden, use the flowers for garnish, include in your salad, or try any of the recipes listed below!
https://www.bootstrapfarmer.com/blogs/growing-flowers/growing-nasturtiums
Pickled Nasturtium Seeds (Nasturtium Capers)
Summer Nasturtium Soup Served Hot Or Chilled - Larder Love
Nasturtium Jelly - Lavender and Lime
Gardeners of all skills levels are typically familiar with lavender, including it’s beautiful light purple colour, and soft, luscious scent. Whether you’re growing lavender for its’ colour, smell, or holistic properties, considering snipping a few sprigs off during its’ bloom time and using it in the kitchen.
https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/gardening/a44727596/english-lavender-plants/
Homemade Lavender Honey Recipe - Food.com
Lavender Cookies
Gardener Jill Pye shared this recipe with Equal Ground during an interview for the The Community Garden Podcast.
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Ingredients
1 cup of granulated sugar 1 tbsp dried food grade lavender ½ cup room temperature butter (if using salted butter skip adding salt) 2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh is better) 1 large egg ½ tsp salt 2 cups all purpose flour
Lemon Glaze:
2 cups of icing sugar 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice Dried food grade Lavender Lemon zest
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 C. Mix sugar, lemon juice and lavender in a bowl. Add butter to bowl and mix with an electric mixer on high for one minute. Add egg, baking soda & salt and beat on low until combined. Add flower and beat on low until combined. Roll small balls about a spoonful and place them gently onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Use palm of hand to gently press the ball to make it slightly flat on the top. 7. Bake in oven for 10 minutes until edges are golden (if they seem under done don’t worry they will harden during cooling). Remove from baking sheet onto a plate and leave to cool for ten minutes. While cookies are cooling, mix icing sugar and lemon juice into a bowl and beat on low until it becomes a nice glaze. Drizzle over top of cooled cookies and sprinkle dried lavender & lemon zest over top of cookies and allow hardening time for 5-10 minutes. Serve with tea or lemonade.
If you’re a food gardener, you likely have a chive plant somewhere in your garden. Chives are an edible perennial in the allium family and are very fruitful. They return year after year, bigger and better than ever. Late spring, chive plants will produce small, light purple blossoms. These blossoms have a very strong onion taste and are great in salads (and salad dressing), soups, or any other application in which you use onion or chive. Check out these creative recipes including chive blossom vinegar!
[https://gardenbetty.com/chive-blossom/](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQGNmt7vSyUjc4rd6OFGKDJTW5OJVpMBovOPQ&s)
https://gardenbetty.com/chive-blossom/
Chive Blossom Butter (Chive Compound Butter)
Radish Toast with Chive Blossom Butter - Glamorosi Cooks
Calendula is a great pollinator and is often found in medicine gardens, used as a holistic solution for many aliments. Medicine garden aside, many gardeners do not know that this gorgeous flower is directly edible. The leaves are a great addition to your salad and can be considered a leafy green. The petals can be a bit bitter but are edible and can also be used as a natural dye.
[https://www.epicgardening.com/growing-calendula/](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQtsyKy13vlhgjOV8nRd7iS617yffCnXi_h4Q&s)
https://www.epicgardening.com/growing-calendula/
Grapefruit and Calendula Tea Hot Mulled Cider Recipe - Ginger with Spice
Calendula Muffins Recipe - Dragons and Fairy Dust
Squash flowers, including zucchini, are often used in Italian cuisine and are stuffed with soft cheese and fried. Squash flowers can also be sautéed or used in other creative ways.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTM8xEs991syKiR57q6osoKvC4PlGR-k9GAQA&s
Cheesy Deep-Fried Squash Blossoms Are the Appetizer You Need in Your Life