Eat Your Flowers: Serve Up That Wow Factor With Edible Flowers
By the Hensley's team, with thanks to the Slow Flowers Society
Edible flowers have been part of the slow food world for years, but supply of local, organic, tasty and beautiful blooms has lagged behind demand from chefs and food lovers. Edible flowers make food and drinks more appealing to the senses and fit especially well on vegetarian and vegan menus.
The Business Case For Growing Edible Flowers
Growing and selling edible flowers adds a value-added product line for food and flower farms. It lets growers and designers branch into hospitality, events and specialty foods, since chefs, bakers and bartenders want colorful blooms for their recipes and drinks. It's easy to get started with flowers such as borage, nasturtium, geranium, marigold, dianthus, calendula, viola, pansy and other tasty flowers.
At a marigold farm in upstate New York, the grower raises only marigolds, which have long been eaten. She finds they taste a bit like lettuce about to bolt, with a hint of citrus or spice, and their sunny look is hard to resist. She sells them to bakers, chefs and caterers; they match the color of an Aperol spritz, and one local chef uses them in a glaze and as a garnish on a special doughnut.
A recent Slow Flowers member survey found that roughly a third of responding growers include edible flowers in their crop mix. Many flowers are safe to eat, so edible blooms are available from almost any grower, even if they aren't sold that way.
Edible Flowers Are Having a Moment: Increasing Demand For Edible Flowers
A French food blog, Chefclub , named 2022 the year of edible flowers, and interest has kept growing. The blog reported that online searches for "edible flowers" had risen sharply since 2019 and noted that local growers are choosing to grow edible flowers for markets that respect the ecosystem and the seasons.
A market research firm projected growth in the global edible flower market through 2028, driven largely by demand from food startups and restaurants and by growing interest in edible flowers' health benefits.
Reasons cited for rising demand include:
- Demand for photogenic food
- Using flowers such as lavender, hibiscus, dandelionand roses to boost flavor and add fragrance
- Petal garnishes as a decorative trend
- Eye-catching cocktails, lattes, sparkling drinks and teas with edible flowers
Slow Flowers members were also asked where they sell edible flowers. Their answers, roughly from most to least common:
Opening Doors to New Markets
Edible flowers open doors to new markets, and many growers are taking advantage. If you already grow with safe, sustainable practices, flowers you already grow may be marketable as edible flowers, as long as they're safe varieties and haven't been treated with products that aren't labeled for food crops.
Talking with several growers about their edible flower programs showed there are many ways to tap into the category. Here's what they shared:
Dual-Purpose Flowers
Can one variety be sold two ways to get more out of it? Growers often do this with dried flowers, picking varieties that are just as valuable sold fresh or dried for off-season sales. Likewise, when an annual, herb, perennial or other flower can be sold both as a cut flower and as an edible one, there are more ways to earn from the crop.
At a Washington flower farm , the owners look for dual-purpose flowers they call "bilingual," since they like varieties with more than one market.
The farm sells mostly to florists through a Seattle growers' wholesale market. Edible flowers take time, so they prefer to harvest them to fill specific orders.
They sell small packs of tiny flowers such as violas and bachelor's buttons, and larger packs of bigger flowers such as nasturtiums. A restaurant or bar that buys several large clamshells every week makes the extra harvest labor worthwhile.
One challenge is keeping edible flowers on customers' minds. They hope to put a small cooler at the market so the flowers are visible, chilled and fresh, which should help them sell, and they're fun and whimsical too.
Harvesting Edible Flowers
Labor Considerations
Growers say harvesting edible flowers takes time and the flowers need to be close to perfect. At the Washington farm, the owners found tiny insect bites on violas and pansies in their high tunnel, so they moved those crops into big planters on an upstairs balcony, well off the ground.
Most edible flowers grow low, so harvesting means a lot of kneeling and crouching, notes a grower at another Washington flower farm . On the bright side, most are small and prolific, so you can grow a lot in a small space.
Time-Savings Strategies
To save time, harvest straight from the plant into a clamshell. This grower packs edible flowers in food-grade recycled-plastic clamshells from a restaurant supplier. She'd rather avoid plastic, but refrigerated edible flowers need moisture held in, so she adds a slightly damp paper towel to each clamshell. Pricing is by package, with the count varying by flower size; the same clamshell might hold dozens of small violas or a handful of nasturtiums.
She notes that small flaws disappear once petals or flowers are dried. Dried edible flowers or petals, such as calendula and lavender, work well in desserts, baking and cocktail infusions where a whole flower isn't needed.
Sales & Marketing Strategies
Edible Flower Bento Boxes
A grower at a Hawaii flower farm sees edible flowers as a door to new markets. She sells flower bento boxes mixing many edible varieties in a biodegradable container, a hit for birthdays, weddings, baking or dressing up dinner.
A Value-Added Proposition
A grower at a Pennsylvania flower farm supplies two kinds of fresh English lavender to bakeries and coffee shops for special promotions. She also sells pansy, snapdragon, stock, marigold, and several mints (chocolate and apple) to food customers. Edible flower income isn't large, but she sees it as value-added marketing that gets the farm's name out locally.
Edible Bouquets
A grower at a Washington flower farm sells to a charcuterie board business and a chef who caters yoga retreats. Rather than packing flower heads, she often delivers bouquets of edible flowers so the customer can snip blooms as needed and keep them fresh longer, charging the same as a market bouquet.
The Pennsylvania farm does something similar for grocery customers, making all-edible market bouquets of herbs and flowers with a recipe tag attached.
At a Tennessee flower farm , the grower uses a similar approach, which began when local chefs asked for edible flowers. Her interest grew and she slowly added edible varieties; so many flowers are edible. Chefs buy by the bucket or bunch, which keeps flowers fresh if they won't be used right away.
Her edible lineup includes tulsi, calendula, bachelors’ buttons, lavender, snapdragon, dahlia, anise hyssop, mountain mint, butterfly pea, feverfew, stock, zinnia, nigella, cosmos, and hibiscus. Edible flower lollipops and restaurant sales are a small part of farm income, but she sees potential in other uses, such as a future line of floral tea blends.
Collaboration with Agritourism Partners
The Washington charcuterie supplier recently joined a local agritourism group, which has connected her with slow food vendors, farm-to-table venues and possible partners. Much of her effort goes into letting people know she has edible flowers, and she enjoys teaching people what's edible, since she figures at least half of what she grows can be eaten.
Edible Flowers for Events
The Tennessee farm's on-farm events, including tours and classes, do well, and the grower found a fun way to include edible flowers: birthday parties, mostly for young girls, with a farm tour, a small arrangement to make, and cupcakes to decorate with pressed edible flowers she keeps on hand.
Why Grow Edible Flowers?
For one Washington grower, the goal is to reconnect people with nature again and again. Sprinkling flowers into people's lives reminds them of the seasons, and edible flowers bring delight, beauty and subtle flavor.
Learn More
Additional Resources
- Shop all our edible flower varieties…
- Edible flowers guide • (PDF)
- Edible flowers tech sheet • (PDF)
- Top 20 edible flowers chosen by growers
Resources For Cooking With Edible Flowers
For kitchen inspiration, see two recent books:
- "The Edible Flower: A Modern Guide to Growing & Eating the Flowers in Your Garden," by Erin Bunting and Jo Facer (Laurence King Publishing, 2023).
The authors, a chef and an organic gardener, run a farm-to-fork supper club and a cooking and gardening school in Northern Ireland. Their book covers dozens of flowers with original recipes and growing advice, with a sustainable, plant-based focus.
They argue that edible flowers belong in every garden and kitchen: they bring joy, look beautiful in the garden and on the plate, draw pollinators, and while they add few calories, they offer unique flavors and plenty of happiness.
- "Eat Your Flowers," by Loria Stern (Harper Collins, 2023)
The author turns flowers and other botanicals into more than 150 recipes to spark creativity in the kitchen. She is a Los Angeles food creator whose bakery of the same name sells cookies, desserts and chocolates decorated with flowers from her small garden.
