Edible Flower Dangers

Now comes the hard part for me.  I’ve never eaten a flower before and the truth is ~ to me, it feels really weird {and dare I say it, wrong?} to eat a flower!

Then there is the mother part of me that doesn’t want my kids to think that you can eat ALL flowers because some of them are poisonous, like daffodils or clematis {among many others}.  I can just picture it now ~ my little boy being rushed to the hospital because he was eating flowers out of the neighbors yards!  Eeek!

Then there is the issue of spraying/fertilizing with insecticides.  You have to be careful not to eat ones that have been treated.  And I hear that even the insecticides that are ok to use on fruits and vegetables may not be suitable to use on edible flowers because since there has never been any testing on edible flowers, we don’t know for sure whether or not it would be safe to eat.  So basically, if you are going to eat any flowers make sure they are your own flowers.  They are the only ones you will know for sure whether or not they have been treated.

And finally, you want to be careful especially if you have allergies.  I’m not sure it would be wise for me to ingest dandelions when if I just hold one in my hands my eyes get all itchy and swollen.  Yeah, I’m thinking eating one wouldn’t be a very good idea.  Since most people’s allergies are due to pollen sensitivities, if you are prone to allergies, hay fever or asthma you will want to be especially careful.  And irregardless of allergies or not, it is probably best to only introduce flowers one at a time and in small quantities into your diet.

So if you really are interested in learning more about these, I would definitely  check out a few books on edible flowers like, Edible Flowers: From garden to kitchen or Edible Flowers: Desserts & Drinks to learn how to use them.