Roses are red, violets are blue, flowers aren’t just for picking anymore, they’re tasty too.

Once popular for eating, spring blossoms have been mostly replaced by plant stems, roots, leaves or fruit on the dinner table. But some local plant and food enthusiasts insist edible flowers are coming back in style and with good reason.

“One of the important reasons to eat flowers is the amount of absorbable base metals in them,” said Bethany Kiele, owner of Isadora’s Wonderful Things in Joplin. “We don’t get nearly enough cleansing foods and flowers are nature’s way of cleaning us out from the winter sludge.”

Because of the cleansing nature of flowers, Dorothy Bay, biology professor at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin specializing in botany, said people shouldn’t eat a large amount of them. But she said adding the right ones to foods can add vitamins to spring and summer diets, as well as beauty and delicate flavor.

Bay and Kiele both caution that a good understanding of edible flowers is crucial because there are many that are poisonous, and even edible ones can contain harmful pesticides.

“They’re kind of like mushrooms in that the wrong ones can make you very sick,” Kiele said.

To be safe, Kiele said she doesn’t serve and people shouldn’t eat flowers grown in nurseries or along the side of the road, unless they are organically raised, because they could contain pesticides or other chemicals. Kiele said people should also avoid eating flowers if they have severe allergies. She recommends removing the pistils and stamen from the flowers and eating only the petals of large flowers.

She said flowers should be introduced into a person’s diet gradually, one at a time, to check for any adverse reactions.

Some edible flowers have such delicate flavors they should be used primarily as garnishes, while others have strong sweet or spicy elements.

Violets

The flowers can be eaten raw, put in salads, or candied and used in desserts. Kiele uses violets in her restaurant’s house salad and on some desserts. She said per serving, the flowers have more Vitamin C than any other food.

Shepherds Purse

Bay said the plant is a common weed found all over southwest Missouri. It’s in the mustard family and has a similar flavor and is crisp like water cress. It’s good in salads and on sandwiches.