Edible Flowers

While vegetable production has slowed to a trickle, flowers continue to produce. Zinnias proudly display their deep gold and bold orange petals, marigolds are enjoying the cool weather, and impatiens, in all their colors, continue to bloom.

But it was the hyacinth bean vine that caught my attention this morning, still spreading it's limbs on the goat wire fence. The blossoms are small, but rich in color, and...they are edible! I tasted one...tender, of course, with a full flavored snap bean taste. They will grace salad at dinner tonight.

An amazing number of flowers exist that enhance a dinner plate. Herbs are an obvious choice...chives, basil, lavender...thyme, dill, and cilantro as well. Less obvious are day lilies, (tasting like sweet lettuce or melon) marigolds, (which vary from tangy to peppery) apple blossoms and squash blossoms. And then there is my hyacinth bean...

I'm not an expert cook, so I offer no advice as to how to use them, other than to match them for sight and taste with dishes which seem appropriate to you.

Something there is about eating flowers...a fuller sense of beauty, perhaps...a satisfaction most complete.