Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Springtime is starting to pop around here.  The birds are singing, the sun is shining and the flowers are starting to bloom.  Spring is an abundant, fruitful, hope-giving time, that God has blessed us with! Exciting!!

I get enthusiastic for many reasons, but here are two:

1.  Springtime is a season of new growth.  A season that reminds me that the seeds planted in the darkness of winter, will emerge and bear fruit.  What a great visual reminder, that abiding with God, staying connected to Him, will bear spiritual fruit.  Good Fruit!

  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. – Galatians 5:22-23

2. The majority of blooms in my garden are edible flowers.  Easy to grow, and edible. There are many ways to use these blooms in the kitchen.  That is something to be excited about!   

Below are a few pictures of plants that are starting to bloom in my garden.   Also, I have listed a few ideas for using edible flowers in the kitchen.**  

I am hoping to inspire you to plant and grow your own edible flowers.  These plants are all easy to grow. If you don’t have space, plant a few pots of Nasturtiums, or Borage.  Those two grow like weeds, and will give you confidence, that you can be a gardener!

(Clockwise from top left) Marigolds, African Basil, Violas, Borage, Nasturtiums, Roses

Ideas for using Edible Flowers

Salads

One of the easiest ways to add some color to your cooking is to toss some rose petals, nasturtiums, calendula petals, borage, or violas on your salad.   Use one flower type or several. It’s a feast for the eyes! 

Bonus points if you use the round Nasturtium leaves, with other greens, in your salads.  They have a peppery flavor, and kick that salad up a notch!

Cheese

Cover a round of goat cheese, with tiny blossoms.  Charcuterie boards are all the rage. Decorate with a few Nasturtium blooms amongst the cheeses and meats.  Or scatter petals, and/or tiny blossoms, like violas or borage on the board.

Baking 

Before baking your sugar cookies, or shortbread, press some small flowers, and/or petals into the dough.   Super simple, and a really impressive way to decorate your cookies.

After frosting, a cake, sprinkle it with tiny blue borage blooms.  I find subtly beautiful, and easy.

Drinks

Dress up your drinks by floating a small bloom on top, or try freezing petals/flowers into ice cubes.  

One of my favorite ways to use flowers in water is to float stems of lavender, and sliced lemons, in a large container filled with water and ice.  Lovely and yummy.

Edible Flowers

There’s nothing like pairing food with flowers.  Below is a partial list of edible flowers, to spark your imagination!

**Only use plants and flowers that have been grown organically and have not been sprayed with pesticides.

Jill Fawcett, Salt+Clay Magazine