Floral Feasting!

At every wedding and every funeral I've ever been to I distinctly remember thinking/saying at some point, "Why don't we get together like this more often? Why do we wait until a wedding or a funeral?" And I guess the answer is pretty simple: people have their lives. Work needs going to, study needs to be done, chores need to be completed (or at least procrastinated about), kids need to be nurtured, relationships don't maintain themselves, clubs/sports/hobbies/church fit in any other spare gaps...we just get on with living our lives. Gathering a bunch of family and friends together for no real reason can drop off the end of the priority list.

...Unless you invent a reason, set a date and COMMIT. Stare down the fear of no one turning up. Welcome the opposite anxiety of a multitude of people coming into your house. Bathe in the terrifying potential that, if people do turn up, they may stand awkwardly about and pick their fingernails. Or worse, their noses.

Such were the feelings we embraced in the lead up to our Flower Feast Tea Party to celebrate our Edible Flower Thing. Not everything was going in our favour. The weather was quite cold, the puff pastry had been forgotten, our toddlers were fighting over Every. Single. Toy. In. The. House. But great tea parties don't happen to those who quit, so we battled through, and tossed together a seriously lovely spread of food that showcased our discoveries over the past few weeks.

The menu

Savoury things
Onion flower and parmesan buckwheat crackers with cheese and dried figs
Goats cheese rolled in violas
Caramelised red onion and garlic flower focaccia with nasturtium pesto

Sweet things
Rhubarb and rose petal jam in a sponge with vanilla cream
Lemon and lavender curd tarts
Citrus flower and white chocolate shortbread

To drink
Elderflower cordial with lemon and fancy flower ice cubes

For the little ones (to drip everywhere)
Elderflower cordial icy poles with all the edible flowers from Jess' garden suspended majestically within

We committed to creating things that really made use of what we had available in our gardens. Personally, everything that had been flowering so enthusiastically in my garden a few weeks ago was finished, aside from the garlic and onion flowers. I raided Mum and Dad's rose garden for the jam, bought a couple of punnets of edible garnish from Bendigo Wholefoods (who stock B&B Basil micro herbs and can order in the flowers if you ask them to), and for the curd I appropriated some lavender from a friend who may/may not have 'borrowed' it from a stranger's garden.

Jess has planted out her garden with gorgeous edible flowers though. She didn't have to beg, buy or steal her flowers. So she wins this round. (Jess here: YASSSSSSSS WINNER!!!)

Below is the recipe I created for my onion flower and parmesan crackers. I'm including it here because they were really, really good and I want everyone to eat them as often as possible. This recipe highlights my fairly approximate approach to some of my cooking.

♥♥♥

Onion flower and parmesan crackers

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup (ish) onion flowers - snip the little flowers off the big flower head (a quick google search tells me this is called the 'infloresence')
1 cup finely grated parmesan (but serisouly, we all know that more cheese is rarely a mistake)
Enough milk to form a pliable dough
Olive oil for brushing
Salt for sprinkling

Method
Preheat oven to 160℃ and line two large oven trays with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, parmesan and onion flowers. Gradually add enough milk to form a pliable dough. Avoid over-mixing as the dough will turn elastic and be hard to roll out.

Take about 1/4 of the dough at a time and roll it out on a floured board. You want to roll it as thinly as possible without it tearing for the best wafer-thin results. Transfer to the baking tray. Using a knife or a frilly pasta cutter, cut the dough into desired shapes. 4cmX4cm squares, 3cmX5cm rectangles, long skinny triangles. (I don't recommend using a cookie cutter. Who can be bothered gathering up and re-rolling the leftover bits?)

Brush tops with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake for as long as it takes for the crackers to turn golden brown and to be crisp all the way through (this will vary from oven to oven, and it will depend on how thinly you rolled your dough - it took mine about 30mins).

When cooked, cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for...I don't know...a week? This is not my area of expertise.


                                                                             ♥♥♥

Over the course of this Thing, we have answered many of the questions we posed at the outset, but there are some that remain. We have also made some interesting observations:

• Using the flower of something that will eventually turn into something awesome feels indulgent and wasteful. And a little bit exploitative.
• Garlic and onion flowers are tops - the flavour is mild but distinct, you can use them independently of the garlic and onion themselves and they last quite a while.
• The flowering season of lots of plants is really short. You have to be ready to pounce to make the most of them (think kale, rocket, herb flowers).
• You can't use delicate flowers in situations where the temp gets too hot. They are destroyed.
• Quite hard to find edible flowers in nurseries, not really a section for the home enthusiast.
• Cannot buy in my local supermarket, making it hard to track them down if you don't grow them. 
• A wonderful way to add colour to your garden without feeling like you're wasting it on "just flowers" if you're afflicted with the it's-gotta-be-edible/useful illness.
• An interesting way to extend the use of plants like coriander/kale.
• Control potential abundance like citrus flowers. We will be looking for ways to utilise our plants fully. 
• Potential whole other field to explore in medicinal flowers. But, hey, googled backyard flowery remedies would make for a pretty odd tea party.
• We didn't even touch on foraging for native edibles. Next spring, maybe?

During the conversations over our tea party, we noted that lots of people associate the flavour of flowers (especially rose and lavender) with soap, and they would probably prefer that their food didn't resemble their bathroom. I get it. Luckily the lavender in the curd could be avoided by not chomping down on the little bits of flower, and the rose and rhubarb jam was more rhubarb than rose. And let's be honest, that jam was just an excuse to slap another sponge together. 

Without a doubt, the sheer beauty of the flowers added something to the feel of the gathering that would have otherwise been absent. They gave us many conversation points; their very presence seemed to rule out the possibility of awkward nail-picking silences.

Thanks to our people for their contributions of ideas, expertise, attendance at our tea party and for indulging our head-scratchingly philosophical discussions about edible flowers.

The Central Victorian Edible Flower Superstars : B&B Basil

When we started this Edible Flower Thing a few weeks ago we were all like, "Check out the smorgasbord of edible flowers in our gardens!" Fast forward to now: we have had a handful of hot days, summer has started in ernest and pretty much all the flowers have blossomed, wilted and blown all over the yard after the wind on the weekend. How then are edible flowers something we can enjoy for longer than a couple of weeks a year?

Yep, you guessed it: a controlled hothouse environment. Can't be bothered building your own? No. Me neither.

But...

Did you know that right here in our patch of the world we have a family run business that is supplying THE WORLD with gorgeous edible flowers and micro greens? They are making plates of food super pretty across the globe and they know a thing or two about edible flowers. Susie from B&B Basil  gave us an insight into growing edible flowers on a commercial scale for the Edible Flower Thing.

B&B Basil was started over 16 years ago by father/daughter duo Susie and George and have been going from strength to strength ever since they planted their first micro green. Running a hydroponic system, the farm is a beautifully ordered place with green houses filled with lush greens and gorgeous flowers. On the day I visited it was a bit hot and I welcomed the misty lushness as I strolled around taking pictures of the pretty flowers, their sunny little faces peering at me as I wandered about.




B&B Basil have seven varieties of edible flowers that they grow for the Australian market, and for a chef's perspective check out Edible Journey's blog post: A Trip to BB Basil.

Susie knows what's what; talk to her about the industry, the plants, the restaurants that use her plants and she will astound you with her wealth of knowledge. They use environmentally friendly methods of agriculture, solar power and alternative ways to heat their green houses and are constantly looking for ways to improve their set up. If you love the tech details Susie did a great interview here.  They have a close relationship with many restaurants including Masons who give an insight into their use of flowers and micro greens here.

The trend in Australia has been around for a while and doesn't look like slowing down. In fact it seems you will be seeing more pretty flowers on your plates, and more variety as chefs everywhere enjoy the gorgeous addition to the plates. More flower and pretty plates I say! Now I'm all encouraged to try out as many recipes as I can and to pretty up my salads and deserts with some of my own home grown flowers. The challenge in my opinion is to use our edible flowers for more than just eye-candy.

Thanks Susie and B&B Basil for showing us your business.

Our edible flower inspired tea party will be a Flowery Feast! If you'd like to come along send me an email to jessclairewhite@gmail.com and I'll send you the details.

Inspiration: a few of the backyard favs

So we're planing a tea party inspired by edible flowers and it's time to start getting this Thing done. Here are a few inspirations from my backyard edible flowers. Do you have any recipes you can share with us?

*Elderflower* 

I'm excited that people are turning this into champagne. But for now I'm sticking to the elderflower cordial. It's easy and versatile and I like it with gin, soda water and a slice of lemon. Yum. 

I'm told that fried elderflower made by dipping the flower heads in batter and frying them is delish too! 

*Pansy and Violas*

These are the rock stars of the edible flower world, they are just so. dang. pretty. Like *almost* too pretty to eat. But no, let's eat them on everything. They can be candied, scattered, put in ice blocks or baked onto biccies. Pretty much everything is better with a pansy or viola on it. My advice: rip out your current garden and plant the whole backyard with them pronto.
Leanne's edit: Don't try to coat them in boiling hot toffee though. The toffee is too hot and the flower too delicate. I succeeded only in filling the house with the smell of tiny, burning flowers. Maybe this outcome would have been obvious if I'd though about it, but the image in my mind of pretty little toffee drops with a viola inside overpowered any rational thought. I'm sure you understand.

*Nasturtiums*

These are bright and big and make a great statement in a salad or on a plate. They do have a distinct taste that is a little bitter though and for a garnish can be a bit big. I'm going to try Nasturtium Pesto. They are so sunny and happy but be aware: if you plant them they will take over your garden with their funny shaped leaves and smiley flowers. I recommend planting in pots.

j. 

Our gardens: An inventory

When you take a turn about my garden you certainly wouldn't be speechless from the beauty of the flowers. You might wonder why I don't spend more time ridding it of that terrible sticky weed, or you might be curious about why I ignored all the advice and went ahead and planted mint in the garden, where it's free to plot how it will invade the whole darned property. Overwhelmed by the flowers though? No.

It was pretty surprising to me then to find that I had in excess of 15 varieties of flowers, and when we added what Jess' garden had on offer, we were looking at over 20 flowers that may or may not be edible. The very act of walking about the garden inspecting plants, collecting flowers and enjoying the weather was energising and relaxing.

After doing some (moderately) rigorous research on edible flowers, there were some resounding messages that we would be irresponsible not to mention.

Resounding Message 1: Do not eat any flowers without a positive identification using the plant's full scientific name. Seriously, don't mess around with this. Flowers can be brutal: breathing difficulties, vomiting, diarrhoea, burning mouth and tongue, mental confusion, convulsions, paralysis, death. Enough said. Here is a good resource for poisonous plants.

Resounding Message 2: Keep your flowers clean. No pesticides, no herbicides, no fertilisers. Don't use them if they look bug damaged or ill-formed. Only eat ones you've grown yourself or that are specifically labelled as edible.

Resounding Message 3: Once you've got a positive ID and you are confident the flower is safe to eat, consume only a little bit the first time you try it. Sensitivities and allergies vary from person to person, so even if it's safe to eat it still might not agree with you.

Resounding Message 4: Only eat flowers in small quantities. Just because a little bit of something is good, doesn't necessarily mean more is better.

Resounding Message 5: Practise extreme caution when eating edible flowers with young children around. They see you eat one flower and could well think that it's ok to eat all flowers.

After we collected one of every single flower in our gardens, we went through to check which ones we had a positive ID for. There were a few we had to discard because we weren't sure of what they were, but for the rest, we went ahead and checked our sources for their edibility. Finally, we did a taste-test. See table below for our results.

An inventory of all the flowers in Jess and Leanne’s gardens for which

 positive identifications were achieved

Flower	Edible?	Tasting notes	Other comments
Bottle brush	No
Cape weed	No		Unless you are a grazing animal.
Coriander flower	Yes	Everything you love/hate about coriander itself, but more intense.
Costal Rosemary	No
Dandelion flower	Yes	Leafy, salady.
Elderberry Flower	Yes	A bit floral. Underwhelming.	We were drinking elderberry syrup with sparkling wine while we were doing our taste test. Can highly recommend it for this purpose.
Fuchsia	Yes	Not that tasty, apart from the long dangly things that come out of the middle. They have a little bit of nectar at the end.	I think we call the long dangly things the stamens and the pistil.
Geranium	Yes	Nah, not very nice.
Kale flower	Yes	Yum! Like kale, only sweeter and easier to chew.	No need to worry too much if the kale bolts to flower this summer – it’s all good.
Lavender	Yes	Tastes like soap. Or maybe soap tastes like lavender. Either way…
Lemon/Lime/Orange blossom	Yes	Zesty and succulent.	We imagine it tossed around in a fruit salad with mint leaves.
Nasturtium	Yes	Inoffensive in the same way a salad leaf is. A lot more orange though.	This is the one the toddler tasted, and stated, ‘It tastes like purple.’ It was delivered with such conviction that we could hardly argue.
Onion flowers	Yes	Raw onion. Through and through.
Pansy	Yes	Faint salad leaf flavour.
Pea flower	Yes	Tastes like a sweet delicious pea. Which is what it would turn into if we gave it a chance.
Rose	Yes	There’s a bit of tannin, but the flavour is just a bit…unpleasant…	…Coat it in sugar or chocolate, on the other hand…!
Sage flower	Yes	Like sage. A bit sweeter maybe.	What would happen if you included the flowers in a burnt butter and sage sauce for some pumpkin gnocchi?
Strawberry flower	Yes	I forgot to take notes when I tasted it and I’m completely unwilling to pick another one and deny it the chance to turn into a strawberry.
Sweet pea	No		Don’t call it a pea if you can’t eat it. Seriously.
Viola	Yes	Pleasant. Pretty.

I guess now is a good time to mention the Deep Moral Dilemma that this Thing Worth Doing has raised for. Is it ethical to eat something that, given time, could offer far more as a food source than it does as a flower? Eating flowers that will turn into fruit, vegetables and legumes seems so devastatingly indulgent. When compared with what they offer when they are fully developed, these flowers offer little in terms of sustenance or nutrition. That being said, this peer-reviewed article is pushing for society to give a little more credit to flowers as a source of minerals in our diets.

Edible flowers in general (not just the ones that could go on to be fruits/veggies) might be seen to epitomise everything that's hedonistic and over-entitled about our society. How can we justify the use of agricultural land to grow flowers, instead of, say, actual food. Now, you may love your edible flowers and defend their right to be regarded as food, but you know what I mean. And when you start asking these questions, it naturally follows that you'll question the morality of growing all sorts of crops over others. Good luck with that. If this interests you, you could check out the Philosophy of Food Project by the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Texas. We don't necessarily endorse the views put forward by these folks, but if you've got the time and the inclination you could be knee-deep in the ethics of food before you're half way through your cup of tea.

Alright. Where are we up to? We've checked out our gardens, we've tasted what they had to offer, we've done some reading and we've decided that edible flowers, whilst are pretty and lovely, raise some hefty ethical questions.

Our next stop is to check in with some experts. We will be visiting a commercial grower of edible flowers and a local restaurant that showcases edible flowers in many of their dishes. So much to look forward to!

The Thing: Edible Flowers

Unless you've been living under a rock, and under that rock there happen to be zero cafes, you will have noticed that edible flowers are A Thing. No longer are broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini flowers (if you're fancy) the only legit ones you can eat. No way. These days, if you can call it potted colour, you can also call it brunch.

Here is a brief history of the use of flowers as food, demonstrated with a couple of Venn diagrams.

You will notice in the second one that they have overlapped to the point where the words are, in fact, merged. It's pretty basic mathematics. Perhaps a line graph would help to clarify the relationship between time (independent variable) and number of species of flowers eaten by humans (dependent variable):

If you're anything like us, you'll have some questions surrounding the marriage between food and flora. For example:

1. Do the flowers actually taste any good in their own right? (TASTE TEST! Fist pump.)
2. Is there much else you can do with them, other than scatter them about?
3. Do they have any nutritional value?
4. Does their aesthetic value alone justify their inclusion on our plates?
5. What are the edible flowers that are suitable for our region?
6. How do the experts grow them?
7. How are the experts using them?
8. Can we forage any in our area?
9. Do I have edible flowers in my garden that I'm overlooking as a food source?

It's well and truly spring time, and the weather has finally got on board. What better way to celebrate than to check out all things flowery and tasty? We are going to start this Thing Worth Doing with a literature review and an inventory of the edible flowers in our own gardens. We'll then visit some clever local experts in the field for some advice on how to grow and prepare flowers for eating, and we'll see what we can forage from our own neighbourhoods (note to self: check the difference between 'foraging' and 'sneaking flowers from front yards on an evening walk'). All the while, we'll be taste testing at every conceivable opportunity. And of course, The Thing wouldn't be complete without a culminating performance: Get out your Liberty Print frocks: it's a pre-Christmas floral tea party!