American colonists made violet vinegar, Oswego tea with bergamot flowers, and mutton broth with marigolds. Odysseus encountered the lotus-eating Sybarites on his way home from Troy. Charlemagne ordered his wine to be flavored with carnations. Chartreuse, a classic green liqueur developed in France in the seventeenth century, uses carnation petals as one of its secret ingredients. Dandelions and numerous other flowers were referred to in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Edible flowers make food for any occasion special.
They add a magical touch, distinctive color and taste to salads, cakes and pastries, and elegance to beverages when floating in a punch bowl or frozen in ice cubes. Favorite uses include using them fresh in salads, soups, many entrees, and desserts, as garnish dishes, adding color and taste to salad vinaigrettes, making festive ice rings, and as candied flowers. There are so many varieties and colors of flowers that you can choose any, to fit in with your decor for special occasions. Before experimenting with the pretty flowers, you must know which flowers are safe and unsafe for eating. Flowers of all culinary herbs are safe to use.