If you have been following the prices of edible flowers in your local supermarket this past winter, youll be pleasantly surprised to discover that growing your own is very simple and much less expensive. There are several varieties that should be in every adventurous cooks garden:

The nasturtium is the flower youll most often see in restaurants or fancy-food refrigerators. Easily grown, this orange, yellow, or scarlet bloom brightens up a green salad, both with its colour and tangy taste. Nasturtium are slightly fragrant with a sweet fragrance and indeed the initial taste is one of sweetness as the nectar touches your tongue. Immediately after this, there is a peppery taste that will wake your taste buds. Im told you can make an excellent vinegar by adding flowers to a good white vinegar. Let it sit in the dark for several weeks (light will fade the colour) and then strain the flowers and pour the vinegar into a clean glass bottle. Use this easily-made vinegar to make salad dressings. Do the same thing with vodka and Im told its peppery taste makes an excellent martini.

Pansies are another common edible flower. The entire flower, including the sepals (the little bud part behind the flower) is edible. Fragrance in pansies is elusive with the blues and yellows having the most chance of having a recognizable scent. It is a mild fragrance and adds to the mild wintergreen flavour of the blossom. A simple recipe that even I have used is to spread cream cheese on a cracker and put a whole pansy blossom on top of the cheese. If you have a special event coming up, a party or wedding celebration, you can even grow pansies in the appropriate colours to complement the party colouring.