Bloomin’ mad... feast or a for the eyes?

As supermarkets stock edible flowers and restaurants insist on scattering them over every dish...

ONE of the banes of modern life is an obsession with food fads. The latest sees supermarkets selling edible flowers to add a splash of colour to salads, or a touch of the exotic to cocktails.

Not surprisingly, this trend has caused a mixture of amusement and alarm.

Some view it as yet another absurd sign that people will pay for anything if it is cleverly marketed – such as the wealthy Chinese who were happy to buy bottles of ‘fresh British air’ sold by a Dorset entrepreneur for £80 (€91) a jar.

Others are concerned that it might lead to a spate of poisonings if people balk at the £3 (€3.42) a punnet charged by supermarkets and pick their own flowers – with potentially lethal consequences.

Indeed, that is a very justified worry because although the flowers in our hedgerows and gardens may look pretty, some can be dangerous if eaten by humans.

The foxglove, for example, contains chemicals that are extremely dangerous if the flowers – or indeed any other part of the plant – are consumed.

Other flowers have always been on the menu. As a child I remember my mother picking gorgeous yellow and orange nasturtiums in our garden to add to salads.

And only last month, my daughter Daisy made jugfuls of elderflower cordial from the frothy, creamy-coloured blossoms she picked in our garden. It was delicious.

Eating flowers – which began in China more than 3,000 years ago – has a long and distinguished pedigree in Britain. Many a Victorian gentleman would woo his lover with a box of crystallised violets, encased in egg white and caster sugar to create a sweet and edible gift.

Much earlier still, medieval herbalists used a wide range of blooms in their medicinal cures. And the Elizabethan John Gerard, who compiled the definitive book on the subject in 1597, wrote: ‘A syrup made of the floures of borage comforteth the heart, purgeth melancholy and quieteth the lunaticke person.’

But you don’t need to be ‘lunatic’ to consume borage; for it is said ‘to make the mind glad’. Its leaves make a tasty tea and the purple, star-shaped flowers look beautiful in a jug of chilled drink.

Jamie Oliver is a huge fan. He recommends the health-giving properties and quotes a woman who freezes the flowers in ice cubes and serves them with Pimm’s.

MODERN scientific research has discovered borage really does have health benefits and confirms our ancestors knew a lot more than we might imagine. A chemical in the flowers stimulates the adrenal glands. This encourages our bodies to produce more adrenaline, which gives us a pick-me-up when we feel tired, and makes us feel less stressed.

No wonder borage was known as the ‘herb of courage’ and given to the soldiers. The Romans mixed it in wine or made a tea before battles. Similarly, men who wanted to marry would sometimes steep borage and drink it to give them the courage to propose.

Other popular edible flowers at UK supermarkets include marigolds, pansies and rose petals.

The UK supermarket Sainsbury’s sells Dianthus, or Pinks, grown in Worcestershire. Its bestseller is a 10g punnet of mixed edible blossoms for £3 (€3.42) in the fresh herbs section – and a mozzarella cheese and flower blossom salad bowl for £2.50 (€2.85).

Waitrose offers prepared salads made with violas and pea-shoots for £1.50 (€1.71). Not to be outdone, Tesco sells a rocket and spinach salad with viola flowers.

Aware of the obsessive way some people put photos of fancy foods on sharing sites such as Instagram, Sainsbury’s buyer Vanessa Rider is sure customers ‘will love the instant summer glamour’ they will add to dishes.

There are also several independent growers across Britain, such as Jan Billington, from Maddocks Farm Organics near Cullompton in East Devon. She’s struggled to cope with the sudden demand – especially after edible flowers featured in the last season of BBC’s The Great British Bake Off.

(Mary Berry’s decorates her simnel cake with crystallised primroses or other edible spring flowers ‘to make it look extra special’, and former series winner Nancy Birtwhistle uses a small paintbrush, egg white and icing sugar to make flowers crisp as well as putting them in quiches and savoury flans.)

Jan Billington’s edible flowers business has had celebrity endorsements from the likes of Anneka Rice, who gushed on her BBC Radio 2 show: ‘They are almost too beautiful to eat!’

Not convinced? Well, even if you don’t fancy petals on your plate, you might be consuming flowers without realising it anyway.

Many of the new boutique-style gins being produced around the UK are based on ‘botanicals’ – extracts from wild plants. One new variety, created by the Bruichladdich whisky distillery on the Hebridean island of Islay, uses 22 local plants, including elder, heather, lady’s bedstraw and tansy, and the traditional juniper.

No wonder it is named The Botanist. It tastes great, too – especially neat, when the flower flavours really come through.

Drinking any plant extract that has been through the distilling process should be pretty safe. But clean-eating food faddists beware: just picking a few pretty flowers and adding them to your salad might prove lethal.

Not so long ago, a two-year-old girl munched on a foxglove, and ended up in intensive care. Fortunately she recovered, as do most people who eat poisonous plants.

Other common garden plants with flowers that can make you very ill include such popular blooms as hydrangea, clematis, azalea and lily-of-the-valley.

So beware this fad – an addition to the trends for rainbow-coloured foods, clean-eating or single-item restaurants, charcoal bread and avocados with everything.

But if you heart is set on eating rose petals, here are some of the prettiest, edible flowers . . .

NASTURTIUM:

Shaped like oldfashioned gramophone horns, with the nectar hidden inside. Suck this sweet liquid out of them, then use the colourful, peppery-flavoured flowers in salads.

ROSE:

Petals are much favoured to decorate cakes, particularly for weddings and Christenings. The perfume can be captured by adding petals to a sugar syrup, boiling, steeping overnight and then draining this flavour-full nectar for use in cake fillings, icecream and toppings.

PANSY:

Their smiley cat-like faces are ideal for edible floral displays. Much loved because they’re available early in the year.

VIOLA:

Easy to grow, these smaller versions of pansies are equally colourful and tasty. And they are ready in autumn and early winter.

PRIMROSE:

Mary Berry crystallises them using this recipe: whisk the white of one egg until frothy and use to brush the flowers before covering them with caster sugar. Leave to dry overnight.

MARIGOLD:

Also known as Calendula, these yellow and orange petals can be slightly bitter, and are often made into teas. They’ve been used herbally for centuries to comfort ‘the heart and the spirits’. Commonly used by homeopaths in tinctures, creams and salves for wounds as the marigold promotes rapid healing and prevents infection.

TULIP:

Large, robust petals can be used as containers to hold sauces, dips and ice cream.

DIANTHUS:

These cottage garden favourites are used as cake decorations and last well in liquid, so add for a splash of colour to a summer cocktail.

CORNFLOWER:

These delicate pale blue wild-flowers are now a rare sight in the countryside, but different coloured cultivated versions look great – even though they are fairly flavourless.

SNAPDRAGON:

Loved by some but hated by others because of their distinctive bitter flavour.