the edible possibilities of conventional garden plants..

I was thinking before about the edible possibilities of the normal garden plants with regards to fruit.

There are a few plants for example such as Fuchsia, Mahonia, Berberis and Arbutus where you can eat the berries. Does anyone know if anymore garden plants which are not thought of as edible, but are in fact edible, in terms of fruit or even leaves/flowers?

 

Hawthorn & Lime Tree leaves, Mallow leaves make a glutenous soup & the seeds are edible, in fact Marshmallows were originally made from the Marshmallow Plant roots, but are now made of dead Pigs & sugar.

Passion Flower fruits, Quinces make a tart jam, Rose Hips for syrup, Chickweed, fried up in butter & (just for Dim) sprinkled with freshly cracked black pepper & sea salt, Daffodil petals, Nasturtium leaves & petals.

 

Hang on, if it's for *dim* shouldn't it be sprinkled with finely shredded heuchera leaves?

 

Bless you

 

How's about Pot Marigold flowers (calendula offinalis I think, not to be confused with french marigolds, which I think is tagetes or something).

I once read that hosta leaves are edible too, but have so far only read that from a handful of sources.

And we can't have a common garden edible plant thread without mentioning the dandelion, all parts of which are edible, and not half as horrid as some people claim. The leaves are fine in salad without even blanching them first, just as long as they are not the main bulk of it.

 

Don't even think about the unfortunate side-effect which every 7 year old knows about.

 

Are we talking about the old wet the bed legend?

 

More likely with lager than Dandelions, I drink Dandelion Coffee & don't have a problem with it.

 

I'm sure that there are many plants/weeds that are edible.... boil them with some chopped onions and potato ... drain, mash it, add back to the pot with salt, black pepper and 1/2 pint of cream .... re-heat till most of the cream thickens .... and you could serve that in a restaurant

thats the way I enjoy spinach

 

Nice suggestions, although in many cases i was thinking more along the lines of cultivated garden perennials rather than known edible foods like produce crops.

Basically the really unusual stuff that most people would walk past and not give a second guess that it was edible.

Fuchsia berries for example.. I imagine most people would never dream of eating fuchsia berries.

 

here are some interesting links:

http://www.seresurvivalexpert.co.uk/edible-plants/uk-edible-plants

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/plants-1.php/

 

I have often thought how delicious fuschia berries look but assumed that they must be poisonous, like that American pokeweed thing which also looks delicious.

Has anyone tried making elderflower champagne/cordial out of the pink elderflowers?

Sounds absolutely delicious, I would be quite happy eating that without the spinach! I normally add a little nutmeg to spinach and other green leafy cooked dishes.

 

See you've already listed Oregon-grape (Mahonia aquifolium) berries - I'm actually thinking of plant a bed of those for the fruit.

Honeysuckle flowers (NOT berries! - they're poisonous) for wine and jellies, Daylily flower buds.