All posts by Jordan Charbonneau

Edible Flowers: 13 Favorites for Baked Goods & Beyond

November 18, 2025 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Flowers light up the garden, but they can also brighten your plate! There are many easy to grow, edible flowers that are perfect for adding to your favorite dishes, from cocktails and cupcakes to grilled fish and summer rolls. Here are 13 of our favorite edible flowers, their flavors, and how to enjoy them.

How to Use Edible Flowers

There are many ways to add edible flowers to your culinary creations. Here are a few of our favorites:

Freeze flowers in ice cubes to add a pop of color to water and other beverages.
Decorate cakes, cupcakes, cookies, ice cream and other sweets.
Bake them into focaccia for a stunning snack.
Muddle them in cocktails for a burst of flavor and color.
Dry them for herbal tea blends.
Garnish salads, fish, meat, and other savory dishes for unique flavor and beauty.
Add them to candy or lollipops.
Wrap them with veggies in summer rolls for a rainbow appetizer.
Press them into butter or soft cheeses.
Infuse your local honey with them for sweetening teas and cocktails.
Cook them with one part water and one part sugar before straining for a floral simple syrup.
Bachelor’s Buttons on strawberry ice cream by Marek Slusarczyk, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Our Top 13 Edible Flowers

There are many edible flowers, but these are a few of our favorites, their flavor, and what we often use them for. Feel free to experiment!

Bachelor’s Buttons

Mild, sweet flavor with a hint of spice or notes of cucumber and cloves ideal for topping ice cream, cakes, cocktails, and salads.

Bachelor’s buttons are easy to grow and hold their color well even when dried. You can find blue, deep maroon, pink, or purple bachelor’s buttons. Their mild flavor and fine petals make them ideal for various culinary applications.

Calendula

Tangy, slightly bitter flavor, but the petals work well in small amounts to brighten up cookies, salads, soufflés, and focaccia.

Sometimes called pot marigold, calendula is a favorite flower among herbalists for its skin-soothing properties, but it’s also edible. The petals are the best part; the base of the flower can be very bitter. Use the petals fresh or dried.

Marigolds

Citrusy, peppery, or minty flavor depending on the cultivar, makes them ideal for garnishing grilled meats and salads, muddling in vinaigrettes, or candying to add to desserts.

Not all marigolds are edible, so make sure you select an edible variety. French marigolds (Tagetes patula), African marigolds (Tagetes erecta), Mexican mint marigolds (Tagetes lucida), and lemon marigolds (Tagetes tenuifolia) are all edible and offer different flavors and colors.

Brown cake on stand decorated with marigolds (edible flowers) — Marigolds on a cake by Kimberly Vardeman, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Chamomile

Mild, sweet, honey-like flavor with hints of apple perfect for soothing teas, flavoring cakes, shortbreads, and cupcakes or decorating sweets.

Chamomile is an annual that you should start indoors when working with seed. It needs light to germinate, but it’s fairly easy to grow once it gets going. Harvesting often encourages more blooms.

Violas

Mild, sweet flavor with hints of mint, vanilla, wintergreen or earthy tones perfect for pressing flat on cookies, sugaring, ice cubes, summer rolls, and candies.

Cool-weather violas are usually one of our earliest flowers of the season. You can find perennial and annual viola varieties in various colors. We carry one old-fashioned viola variety, Johnny Jump-Ups, with tricolor blooms of purple, blue, and yellow.

Lavender

Strong floral flavor that’s the classic choice for afternoon tea in cakes, shortbreads, herbal tea blends, or pressed into cheese or butter.

You can start lavender from seed, but it germinates slowly, so be sure to give it plenty of time. The variety we carry, English Munstead, is perennial in zones 5 through 10. Lavender can be tricky to grow. It needs well-drained soil, full sun, and protection from the wind to thrive.

Nasturtiums

Mild, peppery or watercress-like flavor ideal for butters, cheeses, salads, and summer rolls.

Nasturtiums are easy to grow, trailing annuals that add tons of interest to the garden. The flowers are usually shades of orange, yellow, or red. Like the blooms, the leaves are edible and have a more pronounced pepper flavor. Some cooks also like to pickle immature nasturtium seed heads as a caper substitute.

Nasturtiums (edible flowers) on a salad — Nasturtium salad by Klaus D. Peter, Wiehl, Germany, CC BY 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

Roses

Sweet, floral flavor excellent for herbal teas, simple syrups, ice cream, baked goods, cocktails, and ice cubes.

Roses are perennial shrubs that with various growing habits. You can find shrub roses, climbing roses, rambling roses, and even dwarf roses that will grow well in a large container.

Borage

Mild cucumber flavor perfect for muddling in cocktails, garnishing desserts, adding color to salads, and freezing in ice cubes.

Borage is an easy-to-grow annual herb, well-known for its bright blue, star-shaped flowers. The flowers are tasty and a great way to attract bumblebees. The leaves are also edible and have a distinct cucumber-like flavor.

Anise-Hyssop

Sweet, minty, black licorice-like flavor ideal for baked goods, cocktails, teas, and salads.

This lovely herb is a member of the mint family native to the north-central United States. Anise-Hyssop is an easy to grow, short-lived perennial that’s great for attracting pollinators. Both the leaves and flowers are edible and may have medicinal properties.

Rosselle

Tart cranberry-like flavor perfect for teas, jam, sauce, syrup, and ice cream.

Historically known as “Florida cranberry” in the 1890s, roselle is a member of the hibiscus family that produces bright red calyxes with incredible flavor. The flowers and leaves are also edible and share the cranberry-like flavor of the calyces. The calyces are an important ingredient in zinger tea.

Bergamot

A blend of mint and oregano with some citrus notes perfect for salads, teas, dressings, and seasoning fish and meat dishes.

Bergamot also called monarda or bee balm, is a beautiful perennial that flourishes in zones 4 through 9. It’s great for attracting hummingbirds and may have medicinal properties. Our Lemon Bergamot is a variety native to the Appalachians.

Zinnias

A somewhat bitter flavor with notes of arugula, peas, or anise that works well as a colorful garnish for drinks, salads, and baked goods.

Zinnias are among the easiest and most colorful flowers you can grow. They’re annuals that bloom all summer long. Harvesting encourages branching and more blooms. Using the petals instead of the whole flower can eliminate some of the bitterness.

Garden Advice

Vegetable Storage: Best Practices

November 13, 2025 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

There’s nothing like enjoying vegetables straight from the garden. However, we often have more vegetables that we can use at once. To keep our garden produce fresh for as long as possible, it’s essential to store it properly. Here are the best ways to store your fresh vegetables for longevity and a few ways you can preserve them.

Room Temperature

While most vegetables store best in cool or cold conditions, fresh herbs often keep best at room temperature.

Basil

Basil keeps its best flavor and appearance at room temperature. Trim the ends and place them in a jar with a couple of inches of clean water like a bouquet. Basil will last about 5 days.

Cool and Dry (50-60°F and 60% relative humidity) Storage

For most folks, the best option for cool, dry storage will be a basement or semi-heated garage. Each person’s home is different, so monitor the humidity and temperature in your space to ensure it stays in this range. It’s also important to remember to protect your produce from rodents and to provide ventilation. Poor ventilation won’t let your vegetables breathe and can reduce shelf-life.

Pumpkins & Winter Squash

Harvest pumpkins and winter squash before frost. Cure for 7-10 days before storage. Keep them somewhere the temperature stays above 45°F for long-term storage. Depending on the variety, they may keep for up to 12 months.

Cold and Dry (32-40°F and 65% relative humidity) Storage

Your refrigerator probably falls within this range. Ensure your refrigerator isn’t dipping below freezing in any spots before using it for long-term storage.

Onions & Garlic

Cure at room temperature for two to four weeks before storage. Don’t store onions and garlic with potatoes or other vegetables that release moisture. Onions and garlic will store for up to 8 months depending on the variety.

Jeffery Martin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cool and Moist Conditions

Unless you’re a grower with a dedicated walk-in refrigerator for cool, moist storage, these conditions will be hard to achieve. At home, we do the best we can and enjoy or preserve these vegetables quickly after harvest.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers keep for about a week in cool, moist conditions. Don’t store them next to apples or tomatoes. Perforated bags in a cool spot in the kitchen or refrigerator can help extend their shelf life, but they typically only keep for about 1 week.

Eggplants

Store in perforated bags in a cool spot in the kitchen or refrigerator, if necessary. They do best at around 55°F. At temperatures lower than 50°F, they can brown and get pulpy. Use eggplants within about 1 week.

Peppers

Store peppers in cool, moist conditions. Perforated bags in a cool spot in the kitchen or refrigerator can help extend their shelf life, but they typically only keep for about 2 weeks. Avoid storing peppers below 45°F; they will develop pitting.

Summer Squash & Zucchini

Harvest when the fruits are 6 inches long or less. They do best at around 55°F. Store in a cool spot or in the refrigerator in perforated plastic bags. They will keep for about 1 week.

Tomatoes

Store in a cool spot in the kitchen. They do best around 55°F. Do not refrigerate tomatoes; it affects their flavor, texture, and color. Tomatoes are best when you use or preserve them within about 5 days.

Watermelon

Watermelon does best when you store it somewhere cool and moist, around 55°F. It keeps for about 2 weeks. Many people store watermelon in the refrigerator, but watermelon will degrade if stored below 50°F for more than a few days.

Wolfmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Cold and Moist (32-40°F and 95% relative humidity) Storage

For the home gardener, root cellars are usually the best option for this type of storage. Just like with basements and garages, your exact situation may vary, so it’s worth checking on the temperature and moisture levels in your storage. You should also watch for any rodent activity.

Perforated plastic bags in the refrigerator can also increase the humidity to mimic these conditions. This method works well for vegetables you use quickly, like asparagus, sweet corn, and lettuce, but it doesn’t work for long-term storage vegetables like turnips and beets. Solid plastic bags hold in too much moisture and don’t allow ventilation.

Asparagus

Store asparagus upright. It will keep for up to two weeks.

Snap Beans

Fresh snap beans will store for about one week. They do well in cold, moist conditions with temperatures at about keep at 40°F or above. Beans stored below 40°F will develop pitting.

Beets

Beets are an excellent storage crop. Harvest beets when they’re between 1.5 and 3 inches in diameter. Trim the tops and store them in cold and moist conditions, and they’ll keep up to 5 months.

Broccoli

Broccoli stores for up to 2 weeks in cold, moist conditions.

Brussels Sprouts

Store in cold, moist conditions for up to 1 month.

Cabbage

Store in cold, moist conditions for up to 5 months.

Carrots

After harvest, trim carrot tops and store them in cold, moist conditions. They will keep for up to 8 months.

Cauliflower

Store in cold, moist conditions for up to 3 weeks.

Sweet Corn

Store in cold, moist conditions for up to 5 days.

Kohlrabi

Store in cold, moist conditions for up to 2 months.

Lettuce

If you harvest lettuce on warm days, chill it in ice water immediately. Store in cold, moist conditions for about 1 week.

Muskmelon

Store in cold and moist conditions. Keep above freezing. They typically keep for about 1 week.

Parsnips

Parsnips are best when you harvest them after a light frost. Keep them in cold, moist conditions for up to 4 months, ensuring they have good ventilation. Parsnips sweeten after two weeks of storage at 32°F.

Peas

Store in cold and moist conditions for up to 1 week.

Potatoes

Harvest your potatoes after the vines have died back. Then cure them at 50-60°F for 14 days before storage. Generally, potatoes store best in dark, cold, moist conditions (32-40°F and 95% relative humidity). Potatoes may keep for up to 6 months depending on the variety.

Radishes

After harvest, trim the radish tops and store them in cold, moist conditions. They will keep for up to 1 month.

Rutabagas

After harvest, trim the tops and store them in cold, moist conditions. They will keep for up to 4 months.

Spinach

On warm days, dunk spinach in ice water immediately after harvest. Store in cold, moist conditions for up to 10 days.

Turnips

After harvest, trim the tops and store them in cold, moist conditions. They will keep for up to 4 months.

Preserving Fresh Produce

To make the most of extra fresh produce, preserve any surplus as quickly as possible. You can use freezing, canning, and drying to preserve your harvest for winter.

Freezing

Many vegetables freeze well, but most must be blanched before freezing. You’ll need to blanch vegetables like collards, green beans, carrots, peas, and broccoli so that they keep their color and texture in the freezer. You can also freeze cooked vegetables like tomatoes, pumpkin puree, and winter squash. Some gardeners also freeze fresh herbs like basil in an ice cube tray of olive oil for winter cooking.

To learn more about freezing vegetables, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation section on freezing vegetables.

Canning

Canning is a great way to preserve vegetables because you don’t need a lot of freezer space and they’ll be safe if the power goes out. However, most vegetables aren’t acidic enough to be canned in a boiling water bath canner. This means you’ll need a pressure canner that reaches higher temperatures to preserve vegetables like green beans, sweet corn, and carrots. Some vegetables, like zucchini, are only safe to can in certain ways, because their texture can affect the process.

To learn more about safely canning vegetables, visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation canning section or the Ball Mason Jars Canning and Preserving Guides.

Dehydrating or Drying

Dehydrating vegetables is often overlooked, but it’s an easy way to put up a surplus. You can dry most vegetables in a simple home dehydrator, and most dehydrators have settings for specific vegetables. However, many vegetables must be blanched first for best results. To learn more about dehydrating vegetables, visit the Penn State Extension Let’s Preserve: Drying Fruits and Vegetables (Dehydration) resource.

You can also hang most herbs like basil and mint to dry in bundles at room temperature. Placing an upside-down paper bag over each herb bundle will keep any dust off.

Garden Advice

10 Tips to Prepare the Garden for Winter

November 4, 2025 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

The summer garden season is coming to a close. While we’re still working on certain projects like sowing bulb onions in cold frames and tending high tunnels of salad greens, we’re also resetting the garden for next spring. Even if you live in a warm, southern climate, there are still a few ways you can prepare your garden for winter. Here are ten tips to prepare your garden for winter and a great season next year.

1. Harvest or prepare to harvest warm-season crops before frost.

If you still have eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, or squash in your garden, watch the weather carefully. If a light frost is in the forecast, cover them with old sheets of row cover. When a hard frost is in the forecast, it’s time to pull in the harvest.

Our peppers are still thriving in the fall. We typically get an extra 1 to 2 weeks by covering them at night. Before the first killing frost, we uproot plants and place the roots in a bucket of water, storing them in a cool location, which can extend the harvest by 1 month.

Some tomatoes will ripen off the vine, and there are also many ways to use green tomatoes. Enjoy your eggplant and summer squash, or blanch and freeze them. Don’t forget to cure winter squash and pumpkins before putting them in storage.

Minnie Mizelle Collards in a greenhouse — Minnie Mizelle Collards

2. Prepare biennials for winter to save seed next season.

Biennial plants don’t produce seeds until their second year. If you want to save seed from your favorite biennial crops like cabbages, collards, beets, carrots, and hollyhocks, you’ll need to overwinter them.

Many biennial crops can survive temperatures into the 20°Fs. If you live in a mild climate, you may be able to overwinter them right in the field or in a tunnel. They benefit from some cover, even just frost cloth and low tunnels. Place a thick layer of mulch over their roots.

In colder climates, you’ll have to store the crops indoors in damp peat moss or similar material over the winter before transplanting them out in spring.

Learn more about saving seed from biennial crops.

3. Put away garden supplies.

All of your garden gear will last longer if you keep it out of the winter weather. Do a garden tidy day and take down any trellises, move tools under cover, and put away irrigation tape, hoses, and landscape fabric.

Victoria Rhubarb Plants in a bed — Victoria Rhubarb

4. Mark perennials.

It’s easy to forget where you planted perennials. Go around your garden and place stakes to mark perennials like echinacea, asparagus, and rhubarb so you don’t accidentally disturb them next spring.

5. Cover any bare soil.

Ground cover helps protect soil and beneficial microbes from erosion and freeze thaw cycles. It can also reduce weed pressure in early spring. Depending on your climate, you may be able to sow a winter cover crop. You can also mulch your soil with straw, leaf litter, grass clippings, brother natural materials.

6. Leave standing flowers for pollinators and birds.

Many pollinators and beneficial insects overwinter in dead plant material. Songbirds will also gather seeds from dead flower heads during the winter. Leaving the flower stalks of plants like rudbeckia, dara, echinacea, and sunflowers standing in the garden can help provide a home for insects like solitary bees and food for birds like chickadees.

7. Remove and burn or dispose of diseased or pest-ridden plant material.

While we love leaving some patches of dead flowers standing, you should always remove any plants that had issues with pests or diseases. This applies to crops that are disease-prone in your area, even if they were fine this season. Common examples include tomatoes with late blight, asparagus stalks with asparagus beetles, cucumbers with downy mildew, or hollyhock stalks with rust.

8. Build up your compost pile.

Compost piles can keep working through the winter even in surprisingly cold climates. The key to making compost in winter is having a large enough pile to generate and retain heat. Build up your compost pile this fall and early winter by sourcing various brown or carbon-rich and green or nitrogen-rich material. Great examples include grass clippings, fallen leaves, plain brown cardboard, coffee grounds, jack-o’-lanterns, sawdust, seaweed, and wood chips.

9. Get a soil test.

A soil test will pinpoint exactly what nutrients your garden needs. Many people opt for a soil test in the spring, but it’s fine to collect soil samples in the fall. It also means you’ll get your results back much quicker. Laboratories often take weeks to process samples in the spring when they’re overrun with orders. A fall soil sample will get you quick results so you can start building healthy soil during the winter and early spring, depending on your climate.

10. Create a garden map.

While you’re enjoying the fall weather, take a walk through your garden and sketch out this season’s layout. Keeping a record of what you planted where this season and some quick notes about how each crop performed can help you plan your layout for next season.

Gardening slows down in the fall, but it never comes to a complete halt. Preparing your garden for winter with these ten tips can help you get great production next season.