Kids Go Gardening - edible flowers
Some flowers are edible and can be eaten straight out of the garden or used as decorations. They’re easy to grow too!
But before you tuck in to your flowery meal, make sure the flowers you are using are safe to eat. Some are poisonous! Only eat flowers that grew in your own garden and haven’t been sprayed - not the ones that may be on the plants when you buy them as they may have been sprayed with bug killer. Pick these ones off and wait for the new ones to grow before you eat them.
Flowers you can eat
Violas and pansies - pretty on salads or cakes.
Roses - you can eat the petals
Calendula - bright orange petals you can sprinkle over a salad, rice or pasta dish.
Begonias - a nice citrus flavour.
Nasturtiums
Lavender (English)
Vegetable flowers - including courgettes, beans, peas, and radish flowers.
Don’t eat these ones - they’re poisonous!
Daffodils
Foxgloves
Buttercups
Irises
There are other poisonous flowers - make sure you check with an adult before eating anything from the garden!
Flower Power Masterchef!
Transform your food into a Masterchef dish by adding a sprinkling of edible flowers. They’re so pretty! Lucy decorated her cupcakes with edible, sugared begonia petals. This is how she made them:
Clean and dry the flowers (paper towels are good for this)and lie them on a flat surface like a board.
Hint: Leave a little bit of stalk on to make them easy to handle.
Beat an egg white until it’s white and foamy. Brush the egg white all over the flowers using a soft pastry brush.
Sprinkle the flowers all over with caster sugar. You can use a small sieve to help you get it even. Do this immediately as the sugar needs to stick before the egg white dries.
Leave on the board for at least an hour until they’re set.
You can keep them for a couple of months in an airtight container.
Try not to touch the finished flowers with your hands - use toothpicks!
Other ways to use edible flowers you’ve grown:
- Sprinkle over salads
- Use them fresh on cakes and desserts
- Freeze small flowers in water in ice trays for very pretty ice cubes!
15-Mar-2016
Brush whipped egg white over the flowers with a soft brush
Chocolate cake iced and decorated with edible sugared begonia flowers
In the Garden
