Herbalicious! I Eat Flowers.

So now that gardening season is upon us, let's think about eating some of those delicious flowers that you are thinking about planting. While you are at it, think about using these glorious lovelies on your skin to cleanse, scent, tone and moisturize and in your house to clean and beautify. The beauty of using herbs and edible flowers for these purposes is that you can plant a grand bounty in a front yard, a community garden plot, that secret guerrilla garden spot that you cultivated, on your building's rooftop or just enough in your grandma's garden patch, on your balcony or in a sunny windowsill. Since I've become familiar with permaculture principals (mindful, practical planting), I've become more interested in planting edibles and to my delight, have discovered that some of the beautiful flowers in my perennial garden are actually edible! (Not all flowers are edible, some are poisonous, so do your research) See how God works it out?

Thyme and Savory, below, Lavendar, Chamomile, Oregano, Pansies

 As such, I've been investing in books about edible gardens, crops in pots, edible flower cookbooks and the like. I happened upon the magazine "MaryJanesFarm" last summer and found some nice recipes and picked up a special "Nature Knows Best" issue yesterday. It is filled with ideas and recipes for using flowers, herbs and oils to create medicines, delicious breads and ice cream, soaps, cleaners, dream pillows and good stuff for mama and baby.I think I will even send a copy to my son, who has started a backyard garden with his roommates. I recommend that you make the $5.99 investment and pick up an issue, even if you are an urbanista like me or a manly man. You can pick up your supplies for your edible garden and toxic free personal care and home products from the herb and organic seed section of your garden center/nursery, an organic farm (for edible perennials like roses, daylilies and bee balm) or a wonderful, green, amazing award winning website specializing in bulk materials for your inventory like Mountain Rose Herbs. This year, I'm planting some of the following edible flowers and herbs:

• Lavender (delicious added to tea, cookies and smoothies)
• Chamomile (cancer fighter)
• Savory
• Oregano
• Borage (will complement my Morrocan themed patio)
• Dill
• Fennel (more of it)
• Thyme
• Calendula
• Geranium
• Nasturtium
• Organic Roses

So are you inspired to grow and eat some delicious flowers? Tell me about it!