Cooking with Edible Flowers

My Mom wanted me to mention edible flowers in my blog.  It's a pretty great idea.  These are the flowers that I found in my own backyard.  Nasturtium, mustard green, rose, marigold and zucchini and chive blossoms.  I gave them all a taste test. They would all do well in a savoury salad (the chive in particular).  The nasturtium and mustard green were really peppery.   I actually enjoyed the flavour of the zucchini blossom the most though.   Perhaps, I'll give this Stuffed Squash Blossom Recipe a try.  Perhaps you should too! 

Stuffed Squash

• 2 squash blossoms
• 2 to 4 teaspoons cheese (goat, blue, fontina, cheddar, or cream cheese with a dab of grated parmesan)
• 1 teaspoon butter

To prepare squash blossoms, gently reach into the centre of each, pinch out the stamens or pistil, and discard. Rinse the flower carefully and invert to drain.  You can cook the blossoms with the stems or break the straight stems off first.  

Fill blossoms (1 to 2 tsp each), then loosely twist tips closed.  Cook stuffed flowers in melted butter in a frying pan over medium heat until wilted and tinged with brown.  1 1/2 to 2 minutes. 

For a variation, you can dip the squash blossoms in all-purpose flower, then in beaten egg, and brown them in olive oil with a few cloves of unpeeled garlic. 

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Community Supported Agriculture- Week 3

This is my portion of the harvest box today.  Potatoes, broccoli, swiss chard, bok choy, radishes, green onion, kolrabi and daikon radish.  I made a stir fry with local shrimp that I bought from The Daily Catch on Commercial Drive. I used the asian greens, broccoli and radishes in it.  It was delish.  I sat in the remaining sunbeams of this evening and sipped on the Apricot Wheat Ale from St-Ambroise Brewery from Montreal.  Yep, life is pretty good! 

Community Supported Agriculture- Week 2

This is the harvest box from the CSA for week 2.  This week included 2 types of chives, sage, radish, garlic scapes, kale, asian greens, bok choy, lettuce, cabbage, and  kolrabi.  Tonight, I made a vegetable broth with the remnants from last weeks harvest box (tops and peels) and herbs from my garden at home.

Complete harvest box

Vitamin Booster

Okay, I haven't tried this recipe yet. But, I'd like to.  There are a lot of shrub roses along the bike path down the street from my house.  I gave more information about this book in The Backyard Reader section.  This recipe is from the book Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong.  

Rosehip syrup is an old-fashioned winter remedy for boosting vitamin levels and keeping colds at bay.  Gather the hips in October and November when they're ripe and soft.  Children love this syrup, and it's good poured over pancakes, waffles, ice cream and rice pudding.


Vitamin C- Rich Rosehip Syrup


250 g fresh rosehips
5 cloves (optional)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
2 cups (500 ml) water
about 1/2 cup (125 g) sugar


1. Crush the rosehips slightly, and place in a pan.  Add the cloves and cinnamon stick, if using, then add the water.  Simmer, uncovered, for 20 mins.
2. Strain, then add the same amount of sugar as there is liquid.  Stir until dissolved and bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 mins.  Cool and filter into small sterilized bottles.


Use: For Children, give 2 tsp per day.  To drink as a cordial, dilute 1 part syrup to 5 parts water.  Or use instead of maple syrup for the dishes above.


Storage: Keep for 1 week in the refrigerator once opened.  Unopened, keeps for up to 1 year.