A Rose Gets in a Jam

Remember our discussion about edible flowers? In the post "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," Jeanne told you which flowers are safe to use in foods. If you raise your roses organically, without synthetic fertilizers or herbicides, why not play with them? I said I would ask a certain woman I was interviewing as to whether she ate the flowers from her garden.

To my delight, Nell Newman gave me a wonderful tip.

"I do refrigerator jam, where you make a sugar syrup. I cut up strawberries, I put them in a pan, I put some sugar in, I put a little bit of water and maybe a little tiny bit of lemon juice in, and I just simmer it, I don’t jell it, and I turn it off. If I’ve got a good rose, I’ll take one rose bud and pull the petals off and just chiffonade them into the warm jam and push it under and mix it up. It makes the color even more red with the essence of rose, and it’s so delightful. It's lovely."

She makes it sound so beautiful, like life in an English tearoom, somehow. Nell is the president and co-founder of Newman's Own Organics, and she's chief taste tester for the more than 150 products her company makes, all with certified organic ingredients. She spends a lot of time visiting farmers markets and talking with growers; she's passionate about the natural world and living a "slow food" lifestyle, taking the time to sit down with the family and have a nice meal - cherishing the food as much as you cherish the people you serve it to. (By the way, you can learn more about "slow food," there's an organization.)

We talked about roses in particular, and she is old school when it comes to a good rose.

"I only plant roses that smell good. I am appalled that the rose industry has bred the scent out of every rose. It’s mind-boggling. They’ve actually finally now bred the scent out of the purple rose. It’s taken them 40 some-odd years."

Bloomin' idiots.


(Photo by John H. Ostdick)

There's a Rose in My Soup

Excellent tip on how to make the rose petals into candied flowers, Jeanne. I had not heard this before, but I have seen rose petals used in a pasta dish. Here in Dallas, we girls have the Neiman Marcus cookbook No Jacket Required in our kitchens. It has a recipe called Rose-Lime Pasta: butter, lime juice, Parmesan cheese and 2 organically grown roses. May I call your attention to the passionate book Like Water for Chocolate, in which the heroine Tita prepares Quail in Rose Petal Sauce (and calls for 12 roses, preferrably red)?

And I quote, "When Pedro tasted his first mouthful, he couldn't help closing his eyes in voluptuous delight and exclaiming: "It is a dish for the gods!"

What a delicious notion, and if we're ever at a culinary impasse, I suggest we cook our way through Laura Esquivel's "novel in monthly installments." It's gorgeously written and would help us spice things up a bit. Cut loose. Shed tears with our onions as well follow her recipes, romances and home remedies.

It's fall in Dallas, so we still have blooming roses, as you see in this shot from my daughter's bedroom window, compete with curvy garden hose. 

This week I'll talk with a woman who's passionate about organic gardening and has turned her metier into an outstanding product line. Let's ask her how her garden grows, and whether she eats the flowers.

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Fall mums and kale both are edible. Daisies aren't.

That said, I would never eat mums or any other flowers from a florist or garden center because of the potential pesticide residue.
But if you grow your own and don't apply any toxic sprays or fertilizers, then munch away. I once used yellow mum petals to create a "sunflower" on top of a chocolate cake. The sunflower's "seeds" were mini chocolate chips surrounded by a circular pattern of mum petals. It was a little painstaking to place each of those petals (use long-handled tweezers which you can find at the hardware store), but the finished cake sure made a sunny statement.

Rose petals plucked from your yard right now are good too (again, as long as they haven't been sprayed). Despite the cold weather in Iowa, my roses are still happily blooming.

For a sparkly effect, you can make crystallized flowers to decorate cupcakes, cookies, or cakes. Brush clean, dry petals of roses or any other edible flower, with an egg wash (made of pasteurized egg whites or meringue powder) and sprinkle with very fine baker's sugar. Let dry. Decorate away.

Seems like spring and summer are the best times for plucking edible flowers (violas, pansies, lavender, nasturtiums, and my favorite: signet marigolds. They're teeny blossoms in vivid reds, oranges, yellows. Who knew marigolds were edible. Taste 'em. You'll be surprised at the different flavors of different flowers. Spicy, peppery, and sweet.

How many more months til spring?