Lavender Lemonade & Fresh Edible Flower Ideas

I always try to keep a healthy crop of lavender in the garden along with nasturtiums and other notoriously delicious flowers to add color and surprise to summer food platters.

Having been inspired by one of my favorite gardening books to leaf through on a regular basis, The Curious Gardner’s Alamanac: Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom, by Niall Edworthy, I tried a delightfully delicious lavender lemonade on last year’s July 4th guests and, of course, this was one of the great hits of the party and I did NOT make enough. (Lesson learned. I’ll be making a double recipe this year!)

The recipe Mr. Edworthy offers is a very simple. I put two and two together and realized I had plenty of lavender in the garden just ripe and ready for this sweet, cool, summer drink.

Here’s what I did (pretty much straight from Mr. Edworthy’s book - it worked very well):


Ingredients:

Lavender flowers from about 30 stalks
2 cups sugar
Juice of 4 lemons
Lemon Slices for garnish

Put 6 cups of water in a large pan with the 2 cups of sugar and bring to a boil. Meantime, rinse the lavender and cut off the excess stalks/stems. When the water reaches a boil, turn it off - take it off the heat and add the lavender flowers and let sit and cool to about room temperature. Then add 6 cups cold water and lemon juice and stir thoroughly. Strain out lavender flowers and reserve them for garnish along with the lemon slices. Do not add ice until you serve or you will water it down.

Nasturtiums - Decorative and Yummy in Salad

I plant a healthy amount of nasturtiums every year because I love decorating platters and serving colorful salads in the summer and of course it is fun to watch people’s faces when they ask, “Is this edible?” It has a wonderful peppery flavor and the flowers bloom in a variety of oranges and yellows, which contrast nicely in a green salad or on a cheese or veggie platter.

There is a plethora (love that word) of edible flowers, some that you may have in your garden and didn’t even know you could eat! Here’s a great link to find out what flowers are edible and what flowers aren’t!
Also, Epicurious.com has a mess of great recipes for edible flowers.

So, stop and smell the flowers and take a bite (of the edible ones only, of course!).

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