[net.cooks] eating flowers

carson@homxa.UUCP (P.CARSTENSEN) (08/02/85)

You can also fry elderberry blossoms (dip in batter, deep fat fry,
dust with powdered sugar)...You can make wine out of dandelions,
of course, and I think violets...Finally cauliflower is at least
a flower bud...

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
An autocrat's a ruler that does what th' people wants and takes the
blame f'r it. A constitootional ixicutive, Hinnissy, is a ruler that
does as he dam pleases an' blames th' people.
                         Finley Peter Dunne (aka Mr. Dooley)

thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas) (08/02/85)

I find that nasturtium flowers add both a color and flavor accent to
salads.  (The leaves add a flavor accent, but are green, so unless you
make your salad with yellow lettuce, they won't add a color accent.)
You can also use the buds (and/or seeds?) to make mock capers (the
flavor is remarkably similar.  As an added bonus, they are supposed to
repel certain pests (but don't seem to work on snails and slugs (oh
well...)).

Wilted lily flowers are used in Chinese cooking ("golden needles"),
usually in soups.

-- 
=Spencer   ({ihnp4,decvax}!utah-cs!thomas, thomas@utah-cs.ARPA)
	"You don't get to choose how you're going to die.  Or when.
	 You can only decide how you're going to live." Joan Baez

evans@mhuxt.UUCP (crandall) (08/09/85)

  Not going out and picking one's own saffron is excellant advice.  May I
suggest the book, Poisonous Plants of the United States by W. C. Muenscher,
Macmillan Publishing?  You'll be interested to find that certain delicacies
have inedible parts or seasons.  Also, that beet and turnip greens store
toxic levels of potassium nitrate if grown in soils too rich in it.  Warning:
the book's main subject is livestock rather than primate poisoning.

                                       Sukie Crandall

lj@ewj01.UUCP (Leonard Jacobs) (08/14/85)

> 
>   Not going out and picking one's own saffron is excellant advice.  May I
> suggest the book, Poisonous Plants of the United States by W. C. Muenscher,
> Macmillan Publishing?  You'll be interested to find that certain delicacies
> have inedible parts or seasons.  Also, that beet and turnip greens store
> toxic levels of potassium nitrate if grown in soils too rich in it.  Warning:
> the book's main subject is livestock rather than primate poisoning.
> 
>                                        Sukie Crandall

The question re potassium nitrate is an interesting one.  Does anyone have
any factual information on permissible levels of nitrates in foods?  I
understand that there are Federal guidelines for permisible levels of nitrates
in drinking water--something like 40 ppm--but that similar levels do not
necessarily apply to foods.  According to some farmers/gardeners, nitrate
levels in green vegetables exceed 40 ppm in many vegetables,
organic and not, due to the immaturity of the plants when picked.  Is there
a possible danger in consuming high levels of nitrates, and what are 
permissible levels in our foods?

If anyone has any information on this I would like to know.  Will also
post to net.med. 
-- 

	Len Jacobs
	East West Journal
	harvard!bbnccv!ewj01!lj