Edible Flower Garden (Edible Garden Series) (ISBN 9625932933)

Amazon.com Review:
Author Rosalind Creasy has written extensively on edible gardens: The Edible Herb Garden and The Edible French Garden are some of her past titles. The Edible Flower Garden focuses on plants that not only enhance recipes, but also turn the plate into a painting--a visual as well as gastronomic enterprise. For the reader who thinks such things are only for true gourmets or Metropolitan Home magazine aesthetes, one look at the photographs in this book will seduce you. The images are so beautiful and unusual as to be hypnotic: rose petals served as a bowl of ice cream (Rose Petal Sorbet); salads that look like wildflower meadows. Creasy interviews Alice Waters of Chez Panisse about her use of flowers in meals at her famous Berkeley restaurant; Waters recounts the curious effect cooking with flowers has on diners. "The flowers are a fascination. People really focus on them and are curious." This curiosity stems from a cluster of superstitions: that all flowers are somehow poisonous, that beautiful things should not be touched or consumed, that vegetables are the sturdy, useful plants while flowers are "for show." Reading The Edible Flower Garden, I remembered the summer I forgot to pick my artichokes, and they basked in the sun long after they were ripe. One day I looked out and it was as if a spell had been cast: the ugly green artichoke scales were gone, transformed into blinding purple flowers. Color is always hiding somewhere, and it is wonderful to allow it to flourish, like Creasy does, in places where it is not expected. --Emily White

The Edible Flower Garden:
I never thought I would crave flowers, but this book has made me turn a new leaf! Another great inspiration from the Edible Garden Series. This is a valuable reference book as it provides the essentials to a successful garden in a format that is consistent and easy to read. It includes a complete encyclopedia of edible flowers with beautifully detailed photos that are good enough to eat! The photos make it easy for the beginner to learn the names of edible flowers and to easily identify all varieties. The author takes great care in listing any poisonious varieties that might be mistaken as edible. This book also contains sections on Planting and Maintenance, and Pest and Disease Control. It's an all-in-one tool. I plan to order the entire Edible Garden series. As soon as I finish one book, I'm hungry for the next!

Create a Garden full of Edible Flowers:
Use what is fresh. In this case, that means the flowers too! In The Edible Flower Garden, Rosalind Creasy shares and explains the beautiful world of cooking with colorful and tasty flowers. Emphasis is given to creating gardens that will supply those flowers. It takes a lot of flowers for most recipes, so it is good to know how many of each to plant and when to harvest. While traditional herbal flowers like lavender and borage are included, there are also selections on vegetable flowers, as well as, some more unusual flowers like lilacs, apple blossoms and begonias. I particularly enjoyed Ms. Creasy's experiences with Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and the edible flower gardens they create to supply fresh flowers for their world renowned restaurant. Of course, the beautiful photos of the Edible Flower Canapes, the Pineapple Sage Salsa and the Rose Petal Sorbet weren't bad either.

Stunning book:
The photography in this book is stunning. The information in the book is extremely well done. I love the way the book is set up. The recipes come last and make you want all of the flowers necessary to make them. I make organic rose petal jelly, so I am always on the look out for rose recipes, the rose petal sorbet is great. It can be made as a sorbet or as an ice cream with a bit of tweaking. I have enjoyed chive flower butter, but the first batch I made was a tad potent. The chive flower imparts a much stronger taste in much less volume. The photos are full of great ideas to decorate with the flowers. I often put flowers in pasta and salad, but had certianly never thought of serving my rose butter in roses! Great book all the way around.

Edible Flower Garden by Rosalind Cresy:
I found the book beautifully illustrated and for the most part interesting and informative. I also found the book a bit vague and by no means comprehensive. I am a chef trying to acquire a colorful palate for my presentation but I did not find enough variety. I wondered why at least a list of more flowers wasn't included somewhere. Overall a very enjoyable book, especially the recepies...

Edible Flower Garden by Rosalind Cresy:
I found the book beautifully illustrated and for the most part interesting and informative. I also found the book a bit vague and by no means comprehensive. I am a chef trying to acquire a colorful palate for my presentation but I did not find enough variety. I wondered why at least a list of more flowers wasn't included somewhere. Overall a very enjoyable book, especially the recepies.