Edible Flowers Permaculture

Flowers play an important role in an edible landscape and in any food producing permaculture.

The benefits of integrating flowering plants into a vegetable garden are numerous: they attract bees and other insects to pollinate and predate on common pests, fragrant flowers and flowering herbs help confuse and repel some harmful insect pests, and an exceptionally diverse range of flowers that can be harvested for pot-pourri, herb teas, aromatherapy, cut flowers and also for food.

Many fruit trees and vegetables have beautiful flowers with aesthetic value as well as other uses. Some of my favorite flowering fruits include pomegranate, quince, and all the stone fruits, and there's nothing more delightful than the fragrance of a citrus tree in flower. Salsify, chicory, globe artichoke and Jerusalem artichoke rank amongst some of the most attractive flowering vegetables.

Many the plants commonly grown in gardens solely for their flowers are medicinal and culinary herbs and some also produce edible fruit - like fuchsia which produces an edible berry. Roses have always been a great favorite in ornamental landscapes. The old traditional varieties are the best for harvesting the hips (fruit) for herb tea and jellies, but any fragrant rose can be harvested for pot pourri and if you want a real treat, try making some rose petal jam.

The elderberry bush has been used for centuries as a multi purpose plant in Europe - it's medicinal qualities are listed in most herb books, the fruit used for preserves and elder berry wine and the flowers are prized for pot pourri, wine making and most of all for making elder flower fritters (Note: recommend growing the true deciduous European Elder Sambucus nigra, not the invasive evergreen variety, Sambucus Canadensis). The flowers of pumpkin and squash are a delicacy in many cultures - you can eat the male flowers and leave the females to produce fruit.

There are a surprising number of regular ornamental flowers that can add colour and zest as a garnish for salads or sweet dishes: violets, pansies, petunia, carnations, calendula and gladiolus just to name a few. I love to garnish a mulberry pie with borage flowers, spice a baked custard with ginger flowers, toss nasturtium and calendula petals in a fresh garden salad, or top off a parfait with a couple of violets or heartsease.

There is a resurgence of interest in edible flowers which is rapidly becoming good business for back yard production and small scale horticulture supplying produce to local restaurants and food markets. An edible flower producer in southern California has tapped into a national market, with a US$1 million harvest from just 30 acres. Flowers for food must be free of pesticides so this is one new primary industry using only biological control. Harvest, storage, packing, transport and handling all require special care.

Care should be taken with eating flowers and it is important to remember that not all flowers are safe to eat. Never try eating the flowers of poisonous plants. If you suffer from hayfever, you're advised to give flowers a miss or try with caution as you could have an allergic reaction to the pollen. There have been cases of toxic reaction to some flowers listed as edible, possibly because local sub-species have developed a toxic compound due to different soil or climatic conditions. So be cautious, only try a small amount, one or two petals first time round. Avoid flowers that taste too bitter or caustic. Also remember that most edible flowers are primarily used as a garnish - don't go making an entire salad from your flower garden. In moderation, flowers can be used not only to brighten up the garden, but to add an exciting touch to many a dish on the table.

© Robyn Francis

References:

* The Avant Gardener Vol.23, No.9.,

* Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally - Robert Kourik

Resources (Avant Gardener):

* "Specialty Flowers" Fact Sheet available free from USDA Office for Small-Scale Agriculture, Aerospace Building, Suite 342, Washington, DC 20250, USA

* "Guide to Cooking with Edible Flowers" - Jay & Pamela North, Paradise

Farms, Box 436, Summerland, CA 93067, USA (US$6.95)

Source: http://permaculture.com.au

Government tyranny: Illinois Department of Agriculture secretly destroys beekeeper's bees and 15 years of research proving Monsanto's Roundup kills bees

An Illinois beekeeper with more than a decade's worth of expertise about how to successfully raise organic, chemical-free bees is the latest victim of flagrant government tyranny. According to the Prairie Advocate, Terrence "Terry" Ingram of Apple River, Ill., owner of Apple Creek Apiaries, recently had his bees and beehives stolen from him by the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDofA), as well as more than 15 years' worth of research proving Monsanto's Roundup to be the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) destroyed.

It began last summer when Ingram, who teaches children about natural beekeeping, gave a sample of his honeycomb to IDofA inspector Susan Kivikko (http://www.agr.state.il.us/programs/bees/inspectors.html) at a beekeeper's picnic. Ingram explained that his bees would not touch the comb, and asked Kivikko if it could be tested for chemical contamination.

Kivikko told him that IDofA does not test for chemicals, presumably because its policy is to actively promote them, and instead took the comb and had it tested for "foulbrood," a disease that Ingram says is greatly overblown. When the test allegedly came back positive, Kivikko proceeded to get the ball rolling on a witch hunt that would eventually lead to the illegal seizure and destruction of Ingram's personal property.

Not only did Kivikko, as well as her colleague Eleanor Balson and superior Steven D. Chard, break the law by trespassing Ingram's property on numerous occasions without a warrant, but they also committed numerous crimes by stealing his hives and equipment and destroying pertinent evidence before a hearing, which Ingram believes may have ultimately been rooted in a deliberate conspiracy by the state to hide the truth about Roundup, and subsequently steal his most vibrant bees.

IDofA appears to have targeted Ingram for his research linking Roundup to CCD

Of particular interest was Ingram's extensive research on Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which began several years ago when hundreds of Ingram's hives had died. He later determined that Roundup sprayings near his property were to blame, which prompted him to actively research the subject and closely monitor his hives in conjunction with this research from that point onward.

What he gathered, and subsequently taught to others, was concrete evidence that Roundup kills bees. He also used this information and his many years of experience to develop and refine ways of growing strong, chemical-free bees in spite of Roundup sprayings, a move that apparently upset IDofA, which operates primarily to serve the interests of chemical companies rather than the interests of the people.

"Is Illinois becoming a police state, where citizens do not have rights?" asked Ingram, who has been deliberately denied his rights, to the Prairie Advocate. "Knowing that Monsanto and the Department of Agriculture are in bed together, one has to wonder if Monsanto was behind the theft to ruin my research that may prove Roundup was, and is, killing honeybees."

Be sure to read the full Prairie Advocate story about Terry Ingram, which includes a video interview, here:
http://www.pacc-news.com/5-2-12/heart_ingram5_2_12.html

Sources for this article include:

http://www.pacc-news.com/5-2-12/heart_ingram5_2_12.html

http://www.agr.state.il.us/programs/bees/inspectors.html

Source:  http://www.naturalnews.com/035920_beekeeper_Illinois_raid.html#ixzz1vQygHL3E

Study: EPA-approved GMO insecticide responsible for killing off bees, contaminating entire food chain

Early last year, leaked documents obtained by a Colorado beekeeper exposed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) illegitimate approval of clothianidin, a highly-toxic pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience that the regulatory agency knew was capable of killing off bees (http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_EPA_pesticides.html). Now, a new study out of Purdue University in Indiana has not only confirmed, once again, that clothianidin is killing off bees, but also that clothianidin's toxicity is systemic throughout the entire food chain, which could one day lead to the catastrophic destruction of the food supply.

The study, which was published in the online journal PLoS ONE, investigated the various methods and routes by which a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which includes clothianidin, are harming honey bees. They discovered that both clothianidin and thiamethoxam, another component of neonicotinoid insecticides, persist in "extremely high levels" in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of crops treated with these insecticides, which runs contrary to industry claims that the chemicals biodegrade and are not a threat.

The research team also found neonicotinoid compounds in soil, including in fields where the chemicals were not even sprayed, as well as on various plants and flowers visited by bees. Based on their analysis, the researchers involved with the study determined that bees actively transfer contaminated pollen from primarily neonicotinoid-treated corn crops, and bring it back to their hives. The bees also transfer neonicotinoid compounds to other plants and crops not treated with the chemicals, which shows just how persistent these chemicals truly are in the environment.

You can read the entire report for yourself at the following link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250423/?tool=pubmed

"This research should nail the coffin lid shut on clothianidin," said Laurel Hopwood, chairwoman of the Sierra Club's Genetic Engineering Action Team, who is petitioning the EPA to finally ban these chemicals after years of needless delay. "Despite numerous attempts by the beekeeping industry and conservation organizations to persuade the EPA to ban clothianidin, the EPA has failed to protect the food supply for the American people."

Without bees, which are now dying off at an alarming rate due to exposure to clothianidin and various other insecticides and fungicides, one third or more of the food supply will be destroyed, including at least 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables that rely on bees for pollination. This is why Dr. Neil Carman, Ph.D., scientific advisor to Sierra Club, has put out a call for the EPA to immediately ban the use of clothianidin and the other neonicotinoid insecticides for the sake of protecting the food supply from irreversible destruction.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250423/?tool=pubmed

http://iowa.sierraclub.org/Agriculture/agriculture.htm

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=6919

http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_EPA_pesticides.html

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035511_insecticide_bees_collapse.html#ixzz1rhKjmkOE