Sunday 6 March 2016

Spring flowers and a blueberry feta salad


Spring is most definitely here (in the UK) now and the garden is really coming into bloom. Among  them is the start of my edible flowers which makes me very happy! So I thought I'd share a few snaps of the flowers I've got so far. 

Firstly primulas: these have just started popping up all over the place, and we have loads in the garden as well as seeing them growing wild when we go on walks. We have mostly yellow ones, though a couple of pink ones as well which are so lovely. 





I don't know what I quite did to these hydrangeas, but they've all basically died now. Someone told me that you have to let them die completely and not touch them to ensure they bloom again the next year, so I'm doing that even though they don't look too good anymore!


These ranunculus are my favourites I think, they cost so much to buy in bouquets and you can hardly find them anywhere, particularly in the budget places I look for my flowers... I have taken to growing lots of flowers as I love having them in the house so it only seems right to grown enough in the garden that I can cut them straight from there and bring them inside. The only problem is, I like the look of them in the garden so much that I'm then loathe to cut them down to bring them in- first world problem I know!


Next violas, these are probably my most reliable edible flower as they seem to flower when pretty much most of the rest won't. I've got lots of these in lots of colours and they're so pretty and easy to grow. They don't have much taste when you use them in food, but they look lovely!


I think I prefer these grape hyacinths to normal hyacinths, they're a smaller and more dainty, so don't really grow large enough for me to pick them and bring inside but they do look lovely. 


Finally, these lovely crocuses. They hardly flower for any time at all but look so lovely when they do. Like the hyacinths and ranunculus these also aren't edible but they're so pretty and really brighten the garden up.





I made this lovely springy looking salad last week, which literally takes two minutes and only a few ingredients so just thought I'd share it with you as it was the first time I'd garnished with edible flowers this year. I have recently started to really love the combination of fruit with feta, and even though fruit is generally pretty high in carbs, blueberries are among the best of the bunch so unless you're really restricting carbs, a side of this shouldn;t hurt too much.

To make it you will need:

  • A handful of blueberries
  • A small handful of mint
  • About 100g of feta
  • A good drizzle of olive oil
  • Half a lemon
  • Some edible flowers to garnish- I used violas and dried rose petals 

Making it is the quickest thing ever, just put all the ingredients on a plate or bowl, then pour over the lemon juice and olive oil and mix well and massage it all together with your fingers, I'll admit that I did this after I took the photos as it doesn't look quite so photogenic once you've done that part!


That's it for now, you'll be seeing a lot more edible flowers around these parts in the next few months as I have lots starting off now so pretty excited to see them! Hope you all had  a lovely Mother's day!
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6 comments

  1. This looks amazing, as does your garden. Can't wait to incorporate some edible flowers in my salads.

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    1. Thanks, you really should- they make everything seem prettier!

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  2. Your garden looks pretty! Can we see some pictures of your whole garden as well as just the flowers? I would love to see it, the flowers look so pretty! I love English country gardens.

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    1. Thanks so much. Hmm not sure on this one, firstly if I was going to photograph it then it would need quite a lot more work! Secondly I've never known whether I was too keen or not on showing all of it just for privacy reasons, though that might be a bit silly. Perhaps I will in the future though!

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  3. I was going to ask that too ^^ would like to to see some proper full pictures of what your garden is like. I like these posts, I have never used edible flowers but want to start! Do any taste nice or do you just use them for decorative purposes?
    Lou x
    Apinchoflou.wordpress.com

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    1. Thanks Lou! I've sort of answered that question in the comment above (about showing the whole garden). Re the taste of the flowers, the ones I've shown here don't really add anything taste wise, but other ones really do. For example nasturtiums have a lovely peppery taste and borage tastes really fresh like cucumber. I'll be sharing lots more over the next few months, so keep reading!

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