JOPLIN, Mo. — Roses
are red, violets are blue, flowers aren’t just for
picking anymore, they’re tasty, too.
Once popular for eating, spring blossoms have been mostly
replaced by plant stems, roots, leaves or fruit on the dinner
table. But some plant and food enthusiasts insist edible
flowers are coming back in style and with good reason.
“One of the important reasons to eat flowers is the
amount of absorbable base metals in them,” said Bethany
Kiele, owner of Isadora’s Wonderful Things in Joplin.
“We don’t get nearly enough cleansing foods
and flowers are nature’s way of cleaning us out from
the winter sludge.”
Because of the cleansing nature of flowers, Dorothy Bay,
biology professor at Missouri Southern State University
in Joplin specializing in botany, said people shouldn’t
eat a large amount. But she said adding the right ones to
foods can add vitamins to spring and summer diets, as well
as beauty and delicate flavor.
Bay and Kiele both caution that a good understanding of
edible flowers is crucial because there are many that are
poisonous, and even edible ones can contain harmful pesticides.
“They’re kind of like mushrooms in that the
wrong ones can make you very sick,” Kiele said.
To be safe, Kiele said she doesn’t serve and people
shouldn’t eat flowers grown in nurseries or along
the side of the road, unless they are organically raised,
because they could contain pesticides or other chemicals.
Kiele said people should also avoid eating flowers if they
have severe allergies. She recommends removing the pistils
and stamen from the flowers and eating only the petals of
large flowers.
She said flowers should be introduced into a person’s
diet gradually, one at a time, to check for any adverse
reactions.
Some edible flowers have such delicate flavors they should
be used primarily as garnishes, while others have strong
sweet or spicy elements.
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