Discovering Edible Flowers: How I Became a Wee Flower Eater

In 2018 we moved into a super cute garden cottage in Ashland, Oregon and were very excited to grow food and flowers. While I was looking at seed packs at the garden center, I found one called Edible Beauties by Botanical Interests and the picture on the packet was amazing colorful flowers. At this time, I had no idea edible flowers were a thing, so I picked it up and asked Chris about them. Being a chef, he had a lot of experience using edible flowers so he confirmed to me that edible flowers are real and we could grow these in our garden. To say I was excited is an understatement. We bought the seed pack and planted them right away and I spent the next two summers in Ashland garnishing my food and drinks with borage, cornflowers, johnny jump ups, calendulas, nasturtiums and more. I rarely ate without them! I loved entertaining and serving flowery foods and cocktails to our visitors. I started reading more about their health benefits and unique flavor profiles and as a dedicated plant eater, I couldn't get enough of this. I absolutely fell in love with edible flowers and decided I would never be without them again as long as we had a garden to grow them!

I was so proud of my "sonflower" grown from seed.

Our garden cottage was complete with a kitty. The neighbor's cat always made himself at home in our garden. He looks so adorable next to the nasturtiums.

Our garden harvest.

The chef is in! Chris using the Ooni to make wood-fired pizza.

Pizza art! I decorated this one with nasturtium petals, basil leaves and cornflower petals.

Our garden oasis. We had so much fun entertaining here.

A beautiful meal entirely from our garden! The start of my obsession with flower salads.