To begin, we looked over my list of edible flowers, perused seed catalogs for unusual varieties, and ordered a good selection. Both Andrea and I gathered information from everyone we knew who had grown our selections. Jan Blum, of Seeds Blum, sent us 'Fragrance' dianthus seeds; Renee Shepherd, of Renee's Garden, sent us 'Kablouna' calendula, anise hyssop, and 'Whirlybird' nasturtium seeds; and we both raided our own supplies of seeds and plants. We concentrated mainly on annual flowers because we wanted to evaluate the flowers in the kitchen within a year and because they are easiest for most gardeners to obtain. Andrea had been producing borage, Johnny-jump-ups, lavender, climbing nasturtiums, violas, mustard, radishes, chicory, scented geraniums, and herbs for the restaurant, and she chose varieties from among her favorites. For years I had been growing scarlet runner beans, English daisies, and marigolds, but I had never tasted their flowers and was curious about them, so I chose the most promising varieties. I also selected 'Empress of India' and 'Alaska' nasturtiums, two particular varieties I had never used in the kitchen.
Summertime temperatures in Berkeley are moderated by morning fog, and few days exceed 90°F. The winters are mild, with temperatures seldom dropping below freezing. Though you might be hesitant at first about trying to duplicate much of this garden if you live in a northern region, almost all the flowers can actually be grown equally well anywhere in the country. The soil in the Berkeley garden was clay with a tremendous amount of organic matter added. The beds were in wonderful shape after years of loving care. Andrea, like most good gardeners, is passionate about soil preparation, and her years of effort showed. Her garden received no rain from May through September, and summer watering was a constant necessity.
Andrea Crawford (left) and Alice Waters compare notes on the edible flowers growing in the Chez Panisse garden. A harvest of edible flowers (right) from the Chez Panisse garden includes hollyhocks, squash blossom, nasturtiums, 'Lemon Gem' marigolds, calendulas, runner beans, and gladiolas.
Nasturtiums and daylilies frame a garden bench.
Andrea and I sat down to discuss both her experiences in the garden and the chefs' experiences in the kitchen. She was eager to sum it all up. She reminded me that she and Alice had been planning a pansy garden for the restaurant and had already planted flats. It had seemed natural to add hollyhocks, scarlet runner beans, anise hyssop, 'Austrian Copper' roses, 'Adnami' chrysanthemums, Alpine strawberries, and 'Lemon Gem' marigolds and to make the new, expanded garden both an ornamental border and a productive garden. We agreed to try to grow the approximate amounts a home gardener would use. "Well," said Andrea, "we planted far more than a person could ever use at home. In fact, that narrow strip, which is thirty feet by two and a half feet, produced more than the restaurant could use; but we viewed the beds as an ornamental garden that a person could also eat out of, and that was really very nice."
Andrea reported that Stokes Seeds had the best selection and that she could get just about all the varieties she needed from them. Thompson & Morgan, on the other hand, turned out to be really frustrating. They offered a large number of varieties, but Andrea found that they often seemed to be out of what she wanted and sent back credit slips instead of seeds.
In the end, the most successful and versatile edible flowers were the species Andrea had always grown for the restaurant—the nasturtiums, borage, and calendulas. Of the new flowers planted, the pansies—all varieties—were probably the most useful and were a lot of fun as well. The chefs used them as garnishes and chopped them into butters. The anise hyssop was very flavorful. The runner blossoms were tasty too—the chefs mixed them with other flowers and put them in salads. "Of the nasturtiums," Andrea told me, "we liked 'Alaska' and 'Empress of India.' The flowers of these varieties are similar to those of most other varieties, but the leaves are beautiful, and when they are small they are quite delicious. We hadn't used those before. With nasturtiums, taste is the most important factor, and that's affected by how you grow them. If you start them without much water, they're quite hot to the taste. They grow best in really lush conditions, and then they're much milder."
On the other hand, the hollyhocks were a complete failure—they didn't have much flavor and had a slippery quality like that of okra. Still, Andrea thought they might be good dipped in batter and fried tempura-style. She went on to say, "Most of the calendulas we tried didn't impress me as much as our simple pot marigolds, which self-seed right here in the garden. They have large flowers and nothing seems to affect them. I don't like 'Kablouna,' because you can't get the petals off the tight head easily. And I found Stokes's claims about their calendulas—all these so-called scarlet, gold, and apricot tones—to be an overstatement. The differences among them are very subtle."
Andrea told me they did a lot of experimenting with the flowers in the kitchen. For example, she picked two deep tubs—that's probably about ten gallons—of nasturtium flowers. She then asked the chefs to get creative with them, and they made a soup with potatoes and the nasturtiums. According to Andrea, it was a total flop. "It was really awful," she said. "It had kind of a slimy texture. So we found out that you can't use nasturtiums in great quantities; they have to be used quite sparingly." Their most successful way of using nasturtiums was to chop them and mash the bits into butter. The butter then looks like it has been laced with confetti, especially when borage and pansies are chopped up along with the nasturtiums, to get blue and purple. "It's very pretty," said Andrea, "and you can put it on pasta, steak, or toast. Alice [Waters] also found this to be a good way to use flowers that have started to wilt. Squash blossoms, too, are wonderful. The chefs stuff them with cheese, or chop and fry them and serve them over pasta. They also saute them with vegetables. Squash blossoms are very versatile and have a pleasant, delicate flavor."
Chez Panisse chefs use flowers not only in salads and butter but in many of their famous desserts. They put fresh flowers on cakes and souffles or candy them and use them whole or chopped. The sugar makes the flowers sparkle. "Very pretty on a chocolate cake," Andrea said. "The chefs sprinkle it on the sides and then, using a small doily as a stencil over the top, make a little design all the way around of sparkling, multicolored glitter. This glitter idea came from using the delicate candied flowers. It turned out to be a great way to use the broken ones."
The chefs love to use the flowers as flavorings in ice cream. Before making the basic custard mix, they steep the petals in milk for as long as it takes to flavor it—anywhere from a few hours to a day, depending on the intensity they want. Then they strain out the flowers. They aim to flavor the custard slightly stronger than they want the end result, because some of the flavor gets lost during freezing. The most successful flower ice cream, and Andrea's personal favorite, is anise hyssop, but the chefs have made ice cream with everything from rose petals, lavender, and almond blossoms to many of the scented geraniums.
"Over the years," Andrea concluded, "we've found that you really have to think about how you use flowers. They should enhance the meal, not just be thrown randomly onto the plate or into the salad. The flower garnishes, for instance, need to have some relation to the food. So thyme flowers in a savory soup or chive blossoms in a salad instead of onion would be great, but just floating pansies by themselves on a soup doesn't make any sense.
"I would definitely grow all the edible flowers again, even the hollyhocks. They're so beautiful, and it's fun to share them with your friends. And there may be ways to use them that I just haven't discovered. I think having a flower border that's entirely edible is a good enough reason in itself to plant it. People who visit the restaurant are delighted with the edible flowers. All in all, it seems a great way to combine the beautiful flowers in the garden with what you enjoy on your table."
interview
Alice Waters
Alice Waters is the proprietor and inspiration behind one of this country's most famous and revolutionary restaurants, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. Although I had worked