PERMACULTURE: Edible Flowers
- k-england
- Jun 1
- 7 min read
By Mary 'Klibs' Dralle, for Let’s Talk Plants! June 2025.
This article is being written at the start of summer as dictated by the old agrarian plant calendar. They based it on the life cycle of deciduous trees. Trees wake up in spring starting on or about the first of February and are in full bloom by the pinnacle of the season, Vernal Equinox. Come the first of May, or May Day, they have been pollinated and are producing fruit. A great many flowering plants, who require a lot of sunlight to produce the flowers, are ready to be picked as well. For some, they are used to add beauty to homes and offices. For others, they are destined for the kitchen to be used in favorite dishes.
One of my favorite cooking classes to teach is Edible Flowers. While roses are my all-time favorite, with lavender a very close second, there are a great many others to be enjoyed and include anise hyssop, bee balm, borage, calendula, chamomile, chives, chrysanthemum, cornflower, crocus, dandelion, daylily, dill, gladiolus, hibiscus, honeysuckle, marigolds, nasturtiums, pansies, rosemary, and squash blossoms just to name a few. Many of these flowers grow well in a fruit tree guild, as mentioned in previous articles, to help fortify the host tree. This summer, I let the gardens of my clients inspire my palate.
So, let's get cooking . . .
While I was tending to the lemon tree in my brother's yard with compost tea, there were white and purple flowers of the wild radish, Raphanus raphanistrum, everywhere. They come up wild all over San Diego County in the spring. All parts of the plant are edible with most of us preferring the flowers and/or the root. When sourcing your flowers, make sure they are from areas that have NOT been sprayed with herbicides.
The next day, while tending to a client's roses, Society Garlic, Tulbaghia violacea, was in bloom all around her yard. She let me pick the flowers and bring them home for a tasty treat.
Spinach And Cheese Tortellini with Wild Radish and Society Garlic Flowers
Ingredients:
1 - 9 oz. package of Spinach and Cheese Tortellini
2-3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
1/2 cup of “cleaned” Wild Radish Flowers, divided
1/2 cup of “cleaned” Society Garlic Flowers, divided
Shaved Asiago cheese, use a vegetable peeler for those eye appealing thin slices.
Cooking Steps:
1. In a medium pot over high heat, boil the tortellini in water as per directions on the package to al dente.
2. Meanwhile, clean the flowers by removing them from the stem and check for any debris. Lightly rinse with water and spin dry in a salad spinner. Set aside.
3. When the pasta is done, drain.
4. Toss it with olive oil and 1/4 cup of each type of flower.
5. Turn onto a plate.
6. Add shaved cheese and top with remaining flowers.
7. Can be served with a light salad of greens and sliced green tart apple alongside a chilled glass of Chardonnay wine for a lovely light afternoon meal.
Later in the week, I was called over to another client's home because she wanted to give me a Globe Thistle Artichoke, Echinops bannaticus, and asked for advice on some of the other plants in her garden. In addition to artichokes, there were leeks, Allium porrum, with blooms. Two delicious vegetables on one plant. From these wonderful flowers, I was able to make two different dishes. As I left her home, the Sweet Lavender, Lavandula heterophylla, was ready to be harvested as well.
Spanish Rice with Leek Blooms
Ingredients:
2-3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 leek, diced and the leek flowers, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1-1/2 cups of long grain rice
2 tablespoons of Chipotle (less can be used if you are not a pepper belly!)
3 cups of vegetable broth or water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking Steps:
1. In a medium pot over medium high heat, add oil, leeks, flowers, garlic and rice.
2. Sauté until vegetables are translucent and rice has browned a bit.
3. Add Chipotle, vegetable broth and salt.
4. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to a simmer.
5. Cook for 15 minutes or until rice is done, al dente.
This rice was served with Green Chile and Cheese Enchiladas, black beans and an avocado orange salad for a wonderful Cinco De Mayo dinner.
Part of a good May Day feast is a lot of flowers. The artichoke mentioned above was paired with another flower, pickled caper buds, for this savory pizza. Caper bushes thrive in San Diego county and will grow anywhere that lavender grows as neither are picky about the soil conditions. Like lavender, they like it a bit dry. Caper buds are typically harvested from mid-May to mid-August. The buds are picked when they are still tight and unopened. Morning hours are the best time to harvest. Once harvested, they can be pickled as described in the process that follows.
Flower Powered Pizza
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon corn meal and flour, mixed in a small bowl
1 lb of pizza dough
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 leek, diced
1 artichoke, cooked, outer leaves removed, heart diced
2-3 tablespoons drained capers
6-8 pitted olives, finger rolled to break into small rough shaped pieces
1-1/2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese
Cooking Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 450˚ degrees F.
2. On a parchment lined baking sheet, sprinkle the corn meal flour mixture evenly
3. Place dough in the middle and roll it out to the edges4. Drizzle the olive oil over the dough.5. Spread each component from the garlic to the olives out evenly over the dough.
5. Top with cheese and bake for 12-15 minutes until crust is crispy and cheese is bubbly.
6. Remove from oven, slice and serve.
This pungent savory pizza pairs well with an apple orange salad.
Pickled Caper
Ingredients:
For every 3.5 oz of harvested and cleaned caper buds, use
1/2 cup wine (or sherry) vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
Prep Steps:
1. Rinse the capers, and discard any with worm holes. Let the capers soak in water, rinse and replace the water once a day for up to three days. This process will remove the bitter juices making the caper easier on the palette. On the third day, drain the water and proceed to next step.
2. Prepare the brine and add to the capers. Let capers sit for another three days. The capers will be ready to eat at this time. They can be left to sit for a longer period of time so long as they are stored in the refrigerator. Discard after one month.
Side note: Nasturtium buds can be processed the same way. They taste similar to capers and have a bit more of a pepper bite.
The perfect May Day flower dessert would be my award-winning Lavender Lemon White Chocolate Chip Cookies. In 2014, this recipe won at a particular cooking contest. I have made it for many functions and promote it as award winning. Only after folks have tasted them do I tell what is in them. Most are totally shocked to hear lima beans. Others, who know my shenanigans, smile and say, “you got me!” It is refreshing when served with a glass of cold brewed lavender tea.
Lavender Lemon White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, cold
1/2 cup lima bean puree (White beans can be used instead)
1 cup of raw sugar
1 cup of brown sugar, loosely packed
2 eggs
2 cup of white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon of lavender buds
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
Zest of one lemon
2 cups of oatmeal
1-1/2 cups sifted unbleached flour
1/2 cup of lima bean flour (or other bean flour)
1 teaspoon each salt and soda
Cooking Step:
1. In a larger bowl, cream butter, lima bean puree, and sugars.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, and thoroughly incorporated.
3. Blend in white chocolate chips, lavender, vanilla flavoring, lemon extract, lemon zest, and oatmeal.
4. Sift in flour, salt and soda. Mix to thoroughly incorporate.
5. When ready to cook, heat oven to 350˚F.
- For individual cookies, drop a spoonful onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
- For Cookie Bars: Spread in prepared pan. Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until set. Do not over bake. Let fully cool before cutting into squares.
Cold Brew Lavender Tea
Cold brewing has less acid that hot brewing resulting in a smoother, less bitter tea.
Ingredients:
2 heaping teaspoons of lavender buds
2 cups of good clean drinking water
16 oz jar with a good fitting lid
Prep Step:
Combine lavender and water in the jar.
Ensure that the bottle is properly sealed.
Invert the bottle in the refrigerator (this is key as it does a better job of extracting the compounds from the "herb matter").
Brew for at least 12-24 hours.
Strain off lavender buds and enjoy the beverage.Side Note: This method can be done with almost any herbs or coffee.
If you are looking to plant edible flowers for your yard and want a reliable herb grower in San Diego County, may I suggest Pearson's Gardens & Herb Farm located at 1150 Beverly Dr, Vista, CA 92084?
You can plant some of these in your yard and leave them until next year. In most cases, they will die back this season and grow back next year.
I went there to get some herbs and took a couple of photos of their stock on hand for this article. Children love to eat the Johnny Jump-ups and the Nasturtiums. Both can be added to a salad and the Nasturtiums taste wonderful in egg salad. Oh, and they are about the only folks around who grow and sell caper bushes, too!
Until next time, keep those hands soiled.
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