{"id":14800,"date":"2015-07-18T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=14800"},"modified":"2016-09-06T08:50:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T12:50:39","slug":"stop-and-eat-the-roses-cooking-with-edible-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2015\/07\/18\/stop-and-eat-the-roses-cooking-with-edible-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop and eat the roses: Cooking with edible flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0663\"<\/a>Contrary to popular suburban belief, flowers are not just for looking at; they make some good eats, too.<\/p>\n

I’ve been pretty absorbed with picking and writing about summer berries lately (strawberries<\/a>, blueberry cornbread<\/a>), but I got the chance to go a mini wild walk with Canton resident Robb Carr this past week. We explored his garden and the woods for blooming beauties that can also grace the dinner table, and it really got some of my culinary juices flowing.<\/p>\n

Why eat flowers when you can just plop them in a vase and enjoy them for their aesthetic value? There are a couple of great reasons aside from the fact that they’ll add a pop of color to dinner!<\/p>\n

Flowers are high in antioxidants.<\/strong>\u00a0 They also contain Vitamins A, C, and E.\u00a0 Some store beta-carotene, and others even contain Vitamin D, which most Americans are deficient in<\/a>. Others contain beta-carotene.<\/p>\n

They contain pollen.<\/strong> Many flowers contain pollen (surprise, surprise) which can work the way local honey does to help lessen allergies.<\/p>\n

A flower a day keeps the doctor away.\u00a0<\/strong>Well, don’t quote me on that, but flowers have<\/em> been used for thousands of years as medicine. Dandelion is a digestive aid, borage is used to treat inflammation problems, and wild pansy has been used to treat hemorrhoids.<\/p>\n

Everyone else is doing it!\u00a0<\/strong>I’m not usually one for jumping on the bandwagon, but in this case I’m happy to make an exception. Flowers are used in nearly all world cuisines, were beloved by American settlers, and animals happily munch on them, clearly intuitively knowing something we seem to have forgotten.<\/p>\n

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So, how to cook with them? Here are just a few ideas:<\/p>\n