Eating Flowers

Did you know that there are a lot of flowers that are edible?  The easy ones are veggies in your garden that have gone past their supposed usefulness and are headed to seed.  I have been picking turnip, arugula flowers this week for salads and greens.

Other flowers available right now in your yard, garden, tree are redbud blossoms, violets and even the pedals of dandelion.

Paw Paw

I took a walk last night at the Gilcrease Museum and I am glad I did.  I have tried to plant native species of edible plants and trees at my own home and have a couple of paw paw trees.  They do not grow like a weed... they have been in the ground for several years now and have grown very little and have never, to my knowledge, produced a flower. Gilcrease Museum has a wonderful Native American and pioneer garden hidden at the end of a nature trail through the woods and past the ponds.  They have planted and labeled many native species that were used by early settlers and Native Americans.  Anyways I noticed some interesting deep violet/maroon flowers hanging from a tree and took a closer look.  They had a VERY UNUSUAL scent.  Almost like a vegetable smell.  Anyways they were beautiful and were reminiscent of flowers in the night shade family.

Dandelion, Redbud, Mint tea

Easy ... get a handful of dandelion blossoms.  Take the green part off so you only have the yellow part.  a handful of redbud blossoms, some fresh mint and a slice of ginger.  I added one bag of green tea too but you don't have to.  Add boiling water and let it cool for about 5 minutes.  Strain off the blossoms, add ice and a little more water if you want for delicious iced tea.