POSTED BY CALEB – Aren’t these calendula lovely? They look good enough to eat. And are.
People are always surprised when I tell them that these flowers are edible, so when I decided to start posting profiles of some of the wonderful and unusual edibles we’re growing at Sugar Creek, it didn’t take me long to select calendula as one of my first picks. You really can pull the petals off the flowers – the rest of the plant can be eaten, but it’s tough and rather nasty in texture – and strew them over salads, fold them into cake batters for extra color, or dip the flowers in a sugar syrup to candy them.
I asked my group of tester friends from Organic Gardening magazine what they do with calendula. Bill Nunes, who grows veg for a CSA in the San Joaquin valley of central California said, “I’ve only used them in salads. They do have some flavor, but mostly they’re pretty in a salad.” Barbara Jane Miller, who gardens along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado: “[Calendula] can be used as a yellow dye for yarn and is food safe if you want to tint icing, etc. by throwing the petals in the blender with some butter or liquid before adding to the rest of the ingredients. I have a friend who uses the petals in soapmaking, for a yellow color.” And Debbie Leung of Olympia, Washington, where summer as we know it doesn’t exist, says “The petals are beautiful sprinkled on salads and I think they have a bit of flavor — I tell people they’re pumpkiny. Is that just because they look like they’d taste pumpkiny?”
Debbie also included this useful bit of information, “Another use for the petals is as a gentle bruise juice (healing the bruise, that is). Make a strong tea from them, let it cool to a comfortable temperature, then soak a rag in it and put it where it hurts. I used to practice the rough-and-tumble kind of martial arts and we’d use it on owies on the face. It was even gentle enough for eyes.” Sounds like calendula could come in handy after election of officers at the local garden club.
Calendula is a cool-season annual, so needs to be planted soon in the St. Louis area. We have some lovely plants (in 6-packs) of the compact cultivar “Bon-Bon” which has fluffy double flowers in all shades of yellow and orange. They’ll put on a great show for the next two months, probably won’t do as much through the summer, but should revive again when cool weather returns in September. These plants should grow 9-12 inches high and wide and need at least six hours of sun to flower well. Plant, harvest, and enjoy – that’s all there is to it.
Interesting, I was just wondering what part of the calendula you could eat, now I know. How delightful to add a few flower petals to my next salad.
Hi, Thought I’d let you know that calendulas thrive in my garden on Tomales Bay in western California, where they reseed generously everywhere, whether in shade, part-shade or full sun. I was happy to learn on your website that ALL parts of calendula are edible. Since they are volunteering in the spinach, I’ll be cutting the young greens to include in salads along with the petals of mature flowers. Thanks!
I’m currently researching every edible and medicinal plant I can find. I grew marigolds in my garden particularly because the pulp of the petals or leaves can help with infection–but now I know they serve another purpose, too!
I was just wondering: can you just pluck off a petal and eat it? (It just sounds way too easy. All the stuff about medicinal herbs curing things sometimes faster than medication intrigues me.)
This is really Caleb’s forte, but I’ll jump in. Yes, it’s as easy as eating the petals — the only concern is if you are not growing your own plants from seed — instead, buying them from a nursery or garden center — then there’s no telling what fertilizer or growth regulator may be on the plant, unless it’s labeled “organic.” So to be safe, I would try to grow my own if I were going to eat it! Kim