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The weather has been glorious, everything is blooming and all I want to do is go on magical little strolls and fill baskets with gobs of fragrant blooms like the protagonist of a Victorian romance novel. That’s why this week, instead of a recipe, I’m waxing enthusiastic about things you can do with edible springtime flowers.
You can learn a lot of things from the flowers — especially how to eat, drink, and live (super)abundantly
Heather Arndt Anderson / OPB
Flower cordials (flordials?) and syrups are the easiest and most versatile ways to preserve flowers — you’re basically just making very sweet and/or boozy tea, which you can then add to lemonade, sparkling wine, cocktails, seltzer, or even drizzle on pancakes. Flower jellies, too, are an unexpected treat for toasted English muffins or scones.
You could also ferment them into kvass or kombucha America’s first bottled kombucha brand, Portland-based Oocha Brew, had a fragrant rose kombucha that I especially liked (the company shuttered in the 1990s because they couldn’t keep the ‘booch from becoming boozy as it continued fermenting in grocery store refrigerator cases).
Violets are one of my garden’s weeds, and even though I have lots of the plants, the flowers are very fiddly to pick (and harvesting those shorties is not great on the knees). I recommend enlisting child labor for this task. Victorians were mad about violets, not just because they’re a symbol of faithfulness and modesty, but because they’re great candied or in liqueurs. Store-bought crème de violette doesn’t even come close to capturing the essence of a violet, so if you’re hankering for a Blue Moon cocktail you might try making your own violet liqueur.
Lilacs are another spring bloom that are splendid in syrups and jellies or candied to festoon cakes and cookies. And I know I’ve gushed about cherry blossoms many times, but they really do make a superb sour mix to drink with a sparkling sake or mixed with shochu for a very kawaii chuhai.
In the same vein, last year I learned about pickling magnolias, so I decided to give it a shot this year. I was delighted to discover that they have a delicately floral, slightly gingery/spicy flavor that’s ideally suited to a sweet pickle. I’ve seen some folks use magnolia pickles to make vegan sushi, and I bet they’d be a perfect pairing for salmon sashimi too.
Anyway, here are just a few ideas for enjoying the bounty of spring blooms.
Note: You can also use dried flowers to make syrups — hibiscus makes a lovely sour syrup for aguas frescas and butterfly pea (which is flavorless) is handy for adding a touch of blue to your syrups, but it will turn pink if you add acidity.
Ingredients
Handfuls of edible spring flowers such as cherry blossom, violet, lilac, grape hyacinth, magnolia, and/or calendula
For syrups: Sugar and lemon juice or citric acid
For cordials: Sugar, lemon juice and vodka
For jelly: Sugar, lemon juice and pectin
For vinegars: Vinegar (rice, apple cider or champagne vinegar works well here)
For pickles: White, rice or apple cider vinegar, sugar and salt
Instructions
To make flower syrups, place blossoms in a pot and add enough water to cover the flowers. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat, and allow the flowers to steep for 10-15 minutes, then strain, add an equal volume of sugar (e.g., if you have 1 cup of liquid, add 1 cup of sugar) and stir to dissolve. Stir in lemon juice or citric acid to your preference — the flavor and color brightens up a lot with acidity, but I also like to add a little extra citric acid to turn syrup into a sour mix. Bottle and refrigerate once cooled.
To make flower cordials, make the syrup above and then add an equal amount of vodka. This is shelf-stable but may lose color over time.
To make flower jelly, make the syrup above and then add pectin (to make about a pint of jelly, I stirred about ¼ cup of pectin into 12 ounces of hot syrup). Boil for a minute, then pour the hot jelly into clean jars. You can either process the jelly for long term storage using a boiling water bath, or you can let it cool and then stash it in the fridge.
To make flower vinegars, stuff blossoms into a jar or bottle and cover with vinegar. You can use a combination of flowers or keep it single note (sprigs of flowering herbs are nice here too — my rosemary has begun blooming and I added some to the calendula vinegar).
To make pickles (in this case, magnolia buds and petals), layer the flowers in a jar. For every cup of vinegar, add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of salt, stirring until dissolved (warming the vinegar speeds this up). I added a little slice of ginger and a sakura bud to make it prettier.
