When you think about eating from the garden, you probably think about fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers.

However, you might not realize how healthy (and tasty!) the flower blossoms can be. But people have been eating flowers for centuries, tracing back to Roman times, and also to the Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures.

But before you start randomly eating flowers from your garden, you’ll need to do a bit of research first. You don’t want to go eating the wrong ones – some are deadly poisonous!

Flowers you grow yourself are probably the best. That way you know the source and can ensure that they don’t contain pesticides.

Some of the best edible flowers include:

Bee balm
Calendula
Daylilies
Hollyhocks
Lavender
Marigolds
Nasturtiums
Pansies
Roses
Scarlet runner bean
Sunflowers
Squash blossoms
Violets

Flowers can be a delicious treat.

But keep in mind that you should introduce flowers into your diet in small quantities, one species at a time. Just like when babies introduce new foods into their diet at a young age, you’ll want to do the same for a new food like edible flowers.

For a list of edible flower recipes, go to:

http://www.sheknows.com/articles/804900.htm
http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blflowerindex.htm
http://homecooking.about.com/od/specificfoo1/a/flowertips.htm
http://oldfashionedliving.com/edibleflowers.html
50 Best Edible Flower Recipes