Flowering Fun

As we enter the middle of the season, the first round of fresh Spring growth is dwindling, and the Garden and fields are budding with the start of the next round of plants. You can still spot some morel mushrooms while foraging. And it’s a great time to pick sassafras leaves – the little ones are great in a salad, and the big ones taste like lemon!

But our favorite forage for late April and early May is flowers! It’s a particularly nice time for roses and honeysuckle. Not only are these flowers beautiful and fragrant, they can be used in creative ways in the kitchen to preserve some Spring flavor and brighten your dishes or cocktails.

At The Barn, we love utilizing roses, and we use the flowers in a lot of different ways to harness the flavor and color.

• Dehydrate. Dehydrating rose petals will preserve them, allowing you to use them at a later time. While the color won’t be as vibrant as the live plant, dehydrated petals will still retain some color, making them a beautiful garnish on food or even used in tea. You can use a dehydrater, dry them in the oven on low heat (about 180 degrees F), or even air dry (note, this will take a while, and you’ll need to find a dry room that won’t have too much moisture in the air). With any process you choose, be sure the petals are laid out in a single layer, not overlapping, so they won’t stick together.
• Pickle. Pickling is probably our favorite preservation method at the Farm! Use a standard pickling mixture of equal parts water, vinegar and sugar. Rose pickling liquid is great for cocktails, sorbets or drizzled over salads.
• Syrup. Like any syrup, you’ll want to heat the rose petals with sugar, stirring constantly. Rose syrup is nice to soak cakes with. A simple syrup on a cake can bring back moisture to the cake after it’s rested, and the rose will add an element of beautiful flavor.

The color of the rose does not affect the taste. But, if you’re working with pink roses and want a stronger pink color, we have a tip! Drop a slice of beet into your syrup or pickling mixture to enhance the color.

Honeysuckle is a bit more fragile of a flower than a rose, so don’t dehydrate these. Our favorite way to use honeysuckle flavor it to make a simple syrup with it and use it in cocktails. It takes a lot of the flowers to get the flavor, but it’s delicious and a beautiful taste of the Spring season!

Cassidee Dabey, Executive Chef of The Barn at Blackberry Farm®