10 herbal plants and their uses

10 herbal plants and their uses

alright! this is john kohler with growingyourgreens.com.today we have another exciting episode for you coming at you from my beautiful backyardgarden on a beautiful spring day. summer's almost here, hopefully you guys got your gardensplanned out yet. my garden's been plan out for a little bit, but i've still got someareas to plant out in my garden. but today i want to make a video for you guyson a subject that's actually not often talked about enough in my opinion in gardening iseating your flowers. yes eating, not just like standard edible flowers like i got overthere, i got some marigold and i got some pansy and some nasturtium, but eating theflowers of the fruits and vegetables and even herbs you guys are growing. so what i thoughti'd do in this episode is actually go around

my yard and share with you guys some of theflowers that i like to eat in my garden at this time of year.now, i do want to let you guys know that i want to encourage you guys to, besides justeating the fruits and the vegetables and eating the herbs, enjoying the herbs that you guysare growing to also eat their flowers. the flowers are more nutritious than the vegetablein many cases, the flowers may contain vitamins like vitamin a, c and e, also things likebeta carotene, anthocyanins, they also have special plant phytonutrients that may notbe in the vegetables such as the special pigments or the colors in the flowers.in addition many flowers also come with pollen when you eat them. this is what the bees wouldcollect, so we would eat bee pollen, it's

not really bee pollen, bee collected the pollen,but it's really plant pollen. we can get this own pollen if we harvest the flowers ourselves.for this reason i'm making this video so you guys can know which ones you guys could eatand which one you guys should eat and hopefully more of the world start eating some of theedible flowers. now that being said, if just stop at shop,if you shop at the store, the farmers market, or the grocery store, health food store you'llprobably never find these flowers, it's only for those of you guys that are growing foodyou will have these flowers and sometimes even curse oh man the plant with flower, itdon't got the stuff anymore. well guess what, now you got the flowers, enjoy it and afteryou have the flowers for a little bit guess

what, the plant's going to make seeds so collectand save your seeds like before the birds get them so you can plant and regrow themfor the following year. in any case, let's go ahead and go aroundmy garden and i'm going to share with you guys and eat some of the edible flowers thistime of year. so the first edible flower i'd like share with you guys is actually righthere. this is planted amongst my peppers, but in between the peppers i planted radishes,some of them have actually have gone to flower since i've been traveling and not being ableto keep up with all the radishes that have been harvested. be sure to check my past episodes,i have a video on how i preserve my radishes and i make a lactic acid, fermented acid,pickled radishes. i had some today, they are

delicious.anyways, when your radish gets more mature and old this could happen very fast within45 days, maybe 60 days. they make these little beautiful flowers so these, the flowers onmost of them are white, these ones are actually like, if you look at that like a yellow-purple.i don't know if you guys can see that in the camera, it's like, i'm sorry white and purple.but the petals are edible as is the center, the little yellow part, and that's where thepollen is, you just eat the whole thing. now, the funny thing is the flowers in mostcases taste like the food crop that you're growing, but a lot more mellow and sometimessweet and sometimes more fragrant and aromatic or spicy. so you never know what you're goingto get, so i really enjoy picking my flowers

and eating them, but more importantly goingaround and like harvesting a bunch of flowers just to add to the top of my salads, to notonly make them look prettier but also make them more nutritious. anyways, next let'sgo into the back of my garden and show you guys a fruit flower that i'm eating next.so next i want to share with you guys another flower that you guys may be growing if youguys have citrus trees. these are my kumquat trees right here, you guys could see if youlook close that i got kumquats on them. they're starting to ripen up, but the plant is alsogoing through it's bud and flower stage again. i really love these guys, they're really productive.anyways, here is a little, oops i'm losing the leaves, all the petals are falling off.this was a kumquat flower, oh my god that's

insane. let's see if i can find another one,like the petals dropped off before i could eat them. i think that was like the only onethat was open. anyways you can eat the petals and the middle and everything, i just gotthe middle because the petals dropped off before i got it in my mouth, they're quitefragile. but man that actually tasted like a kumquat.so yes, citrus flowers also edible. if you did have apple trees the flowers on the applesas well as things like the pears, they're also edible too. that being said, for everyflower you pluck on one of these guys you may be giving up a fruit, but in the caseof me where i have so many flowers it's probably going to be alright just picking a few flowersbecause i'm sure i'll have really good fruits

there anyways. oh, one of my favorite of flowersof fruits to eat are the pineapple guavas, so i just don't pick the whole flower, i justpick the petals, they are quite delicious. so the next edible flower you guys could eatis actually right here, it's these little yellow flowers right here and these yellowflowers are actually from my collard greens and we'll eat that. i mean, to me they tastelike collard greens but way more mild. so this is especially important to get your kidsto eat the flowers of the greens you want them to eat because it gives them a littlesampling, a little trial of what it's going to taste like at full strength.of course kids, they're going to love to eat the flowers. i love the flowers so much! normallyas gardeners you want to clip this off so

it tries to make more leaves and maybe i'lldo that tomorrow. but yeah, the flowers of anything like collard greens, kale, broccoli,cabbage, all the cruciferous family plants they're all edible, so enjoy.so the next edible flower i'm going to share with you guys today is right here, it's alittle dandelion that just sprouted on it's own right here and this is not quite a fulldandelion flower that's opened up yet, but the dandelion even though it is a weed, butyou don't smoke this weed, you eat it! you could eat the root, you could eat the leaves,you could eat the stems, and of course you could eat the flowers whether they're openor not. i personally just like to just pull out the nice little petals in here and they'renice and orange, i mean yellow, and eat them.

now dandelion flowers they're not necessarilythe best flowers to eat, i suppose they kind of taste like the dandelions which actuallypost people don't like so much. but dandelions they are a bitter green, very important foryou guys especially for those of you guys that drink or maybe drink too much soda. theycould do, both those could do numbers on your liver and dandelions can help you detox yourliver. that's definitely a good thing. anyways, let's flip the camera around, show you guysthe next fruit flower you guys could eat. so the next flower you guys could eat is righthere sitting on my trellis, there's one right here and also there's one over here. now,i don't normally do this but i'm doing one for you guys for the video today. these arecucumber flowers and what i'm going to do

is i'm going to go ahead and pluck this cucumberflower off and check it out, this is a nice huge cucumber flower. let's see if it'll evenfit right behind my ear, i don't know is it in there? hi this is john kohler with growingyour greens, oh wait, alright getting distracted. alright, so anyways a cucumber flower totallyedible, totally delicious, it's rare that i eat them, but bottoms up! that's quite delicious,kind of reminds you of eating borage leaves or borage flowers. tastes mildly like a cucumber,not quite as watery as a cucumber but good nonetheless. but yes, yet another flower youguys could eat. i want you guys to have fun and play in the garden and especially playwith the flowers. that's alright for you guys too.here's more of an uncommon flower that i have

been eating for a while now. i don't eat thesein any quantity but just one here and there. i really like this flower for it's reallydark, rich pigments, right. this flower is actually off my canna edulis, or achira whichmakes an edible tuberous root you guys could eat either raw or cooked. let's see here we'regoing to try and pick off a nice flower right here. oop, i'm seeing a lot of bugs on myflowers here so we're going to have to blow them off, i don't want to eat no bugs.alright, there's one nice flower off my edible canna. oop! i blew the flower away! alright,now that i've blown it all off, we're going to go ahead and eat. this flower's kind offibrous, not like a super good flavor, probably tastes like the tuber down and just kind oflike neutral but pretty fibrous, it's a flower

you could eat. i probably wouldn't eat a tonof them, but they're edible nonetheless. it'd probably be good to add a few to a salad amongstall the other flowers you guys are harvesting for your salads now that you know which onesyou can eat. so the next flower is a flower i know youguys could eat. it's right here, basically this is my purple broccoli that i grew. itactually made the broccoli flower which was unopened then you buy it and you eat it, that'swhat broccoli is. i also encourage you guys to eat your broccoli leaves. but then afterit makes the broccoli head that we're all used to and know and love, the little headwill actually open up wide and it'll start to make these little flowers here. so let'ssee if i can find one that's in halfway decent

shape. here's one of the broccoli flowers,just a little wee delicate yellow white thing. down the hatch. this one tastes like broccolibelieve it or not. not a lot of food, but cool nonetheless. once again all the cruciferousfamily vegetables you could eat their flowers. so the next flower you guys could eat is atwo-for. i grew like three different varieties of arugula in this bed next door here andwe got a wild arugula, well like over here, then over inside we actually had some standardarugula and then over here we actually were growing the wasabi arugula that actually ilet to go to a flower and set seed, so i got all the seed sacks or the seed packs or whateveri got to collect the seeds from, they're actually quite small.but we got the flowers of the arugula, they're

some of my favorite flowers of the whole brassicafamily of plants. here's one right here. this is your standard arugula flower, see how thatlooks, like it's white and it has like these little veins. then let's see here, they'renot quite open but here's one of a more wild arugula. it's like small and yellow, so seethe difference? we're going to go ahead and eat the whiteflower. i love the white arugula flowers, it reminds me of like a barbecue or like asmoke type flavor. now for the smaller, yellow wild arugula. that has a little bit of faintsweetness to it. so it's a big contrast to the standard arugula white flowers. they'reboth delicious nonetheless. so the next flower that i'm going to be eatingis right over here. this guy basically makes

like, one plant makes like a ton of littleflowers so what i like to do is harvest the whole top here and i'll pull up all littleflowers and basically just chop them up and put them into my super salads. these guysare actually onion flowers from a standard onion bulb. whether it's coming from an onionbulb, a leek, scallions or even the garlic, all the allium family of flowers includingsociety garlic, which they're actually they're really cool, used as an ornamental purpleflowers are all edible. i really like the flowers, the onion flowers.you could eat them, they have like a faint sweetness but also that onion or garlic punch.if you guys are a chef you guys should totally be using the bolting flowers in your creationsto wow the people that are eating your food.

they're amazing, they add for such a smallthing they add really a nice punch of flavor in your mouth.so the next flower you guys could eat is right here next to me. you guys could eat the basilflowers. yes, even if your basil's going to flower you could pinch these guys off andeat them. now these guys are just like the buds are not quite open in flowers, so i'mkind of cheating a little bit, but pretend these are flowers, you could totally eat themand you could totally eat the buds. they kind of taste like basil, they're a lotstronger so if you're using this in recipes like don't use as much because you'll be overpoweredwith the flower. what i like to do, i just like to come and basically top off my plantswhen i'm preparing food and use all the tops

and let the plant make more leaves, so thiswill keep my basil productive for longer instead of going and setting flowers sooner. yeahi would use this in a recipe, but today we're just going to mouth it. i love basil, i thinki'll have some pesto for dinner. so the next edible flowers you guys couldeat are from herbs. or in this case an herb. these are cilantro flowers so they smell reallydelicious and they look really cool. they remind me of baby's breath, so you're puttinglike a floral bouquet, making an edible floral bouquet for your sweetie, hey use some cilantroflowers, looks like baby's breath, they look really cool and they're just like white littlebunches of flowers and we just eat the whole thing.you get a little bit of pollen, you get a

little bit of cilantro flavor, it's reallygood. i think one of the things i'm going to try to do is make a cilantro flower guacamole,so instead of using cilantro because it's all pretty much bolted and i have these smallleaves i'm just going to use a bunch of flowers. i think it might work but i don't think iwant to use too many because once again these ones a bit mild but has a little bit differenttexture, a little bit grainy texture actually. anyways, let's go ahead and move to the nextflower you guys can also eat and it may surprise you.so the next flower you guys could eat are sunflowers. yes, if you go around the edgesyou could just pick off these little petals on it and it won't affect the seed productionand that's why i'm growing these sunflowers,

not only for the beauty for the seeds, butalso for the petals nice and richly pigmented and after we blow off the bugs, i'm goingto eat. once again like the achira flowers it's pretty fibrous but nonetheless they gotsome good color to them. that's why i'm eating them, for the nutrition baby.so the next edible flowers are probably one of my favorites in the whole garden, it'sactually right here because look at it, if you guys could see that too good. but thisis actually the bronze fennel. you could eat the little flower buds, look like this. actuallyon frou-frou restaurants and chefs they'll take actually fennel pollen, you can buy fennelpollen. why not eat the flowers to get the pollen and all that other deliciousness ofthe flower. just eat that off.

upon initial chew you get a release of thatlicorice flavor. i used to love the black licorice when i was a kid. i won't eat thatstuff anymore because it's full of like all kind of chemicals and artificial sugars andwhatnot. but this stuff is sweet, tastes like licorice and is super delicious. it's greatto add to salads, eat fresh to freshen your breath to freshen your breath before a hotdate or night out with your girlfriend or husband or wife or boyfriend. yeah, superdelicious. next edible flower i'm going to share withyou guys is right here. as you guys can see i got massive amounts of flowers right here.this is my flat leaf parsley that went to flower. i think this was like one plant. myplants are quite happy here and they make

lots of flowers. let's see here, we're goingto go ahead and pick this guy. here's what it looks right here and we're just going togo ahead and eat it. right when you set it in your mouth you cantaste the pollen, it has a sweet flavor and then you got like that strong parsley flavorand it's especially strong if you're not used to eating the parsley, like normally wheni'd eat parsley as a garnish like on my plate when i go out to dinner, it kind of tasteslike that but like maybe four times more stronger. nowadays i'll just actually add parsley tomy salads and i love it. but nonetheless this is still a bit stronger. next let's go aheadto another parsley relative that has a much more mild flavor.so the parsley relative with the more mild

flavor is right here. it's celery! hey, celerydoes that rhyme with parsley? not quite. but anyways, the celery flower's right here, onceagain these flowers are also edible. they're like small and dainty. these ones i like alittle bit more, nonetheless they have like a grainy texture to them. they're much moremilder than the parsley but you can still taste the parsley overtones. these are notnecessarily, the parsley and celery are not necessarily my first choice to add to salads,they're not quite as cool as the brassica, but nonetheless they're edible and i encourageyou guys to take advantage of them when they're flowering in your garden.so the next edible flower that you guys could eat only comes around one time a year, it'sin the spring time and it's right here for

me anyways. this is the sage flowers. thehummingbirds like this, the hummingbird's moths like this, and john kohler likes thisas well. so we're just going to go here and pluck a flower out and that's what they looklike right there. other sages are also edible, i like the pineapple sage.what i like to do is go down to the right end tip and just pinch off and suck. if you'relucky you're going to get a little bit of that nectar that the hummingbirds go for.it's actually quite sweet and actually quite delicious. then after you're done with thenectar you've got the little purple flower that you could eat. has a nice, mild sageflavor, it's quite delicious too and this one i definitely like more than the parsleyand the celery.

so the next flower you guys could eat is righthere, this is known as the bee balm flower, i posted a picture of this recently on myinstagram. we'll go ahead and pick a small one. now this is what they look right there,super beautiful, nice purple flowers. we're just going to go ahead and pluck the wholebunch. these are nice and delicate. then they go in the mouth.you got a little bit of that sweetness, much like the sage on the tips and they are quitedelicious. they taste kind of like oregano-y for lack of a better word, they really tastelike the bee balm but for most people that never tasted bee balm they taste kind of oregano-y.now the bee balm leaves you could use them, just like you would mint, normally it's usedfor tea or spicing up different soups and

salads and what not. don't use too many, itcan quite strong. next i want to share with you guys the last edible flower that i havein my garden and you actually might be surprised. so the last edible flower i want to sharewith you guys today is right here, you guys probably never seen this edible flower before,this is only maybe the third time i have. what this is, this is actually the floweroff my gynura procumbens, also known as longevity spinach. oops. this is what it looks like,it's just like a little orange puffy flower. this is also edible, we're just going to goahead and pull the flower buds out. look it has like the little hair things so that itcan like blow in the wind. you can eat it. it's quite delicate and sweet, oh watch this.those are like the little blowy things on

the dandelion.but yeah, gynura procumben flowers, also very fun. now, these only flower after like thefull year, so i think they're like a biannual, it's like rare i ever seen flower, normallythey're propogated by cuttings. it's starting to flower, go to seed, i'm going to go aheadand try to plant the seeds, see if they'll set and take, or see if they're sterile, idon't exactly know. but it'll be fun to learn. yeah, gynura procumben flowers.other ones that i didn't mention that i wasn't able to, i saw earlier today but maybe they'renot in bloom at this time of day which is later in the day, it's always best to harvestyour flowers early in the day before the full sun, right when they open up and then tryto use them as soon as possible because they

don't like to like hang out too long, theyexpire really fast. but yeah, oh i was going to do the purslane flowers, they're reallycool. but i hunted around and didn't really seen any. but that's pretty much it.a lot of vegetables flowers are edible. don't eat any flower unless you know it's 100% edible,do some online searches first. if i didn't include it in this video definitely checkit before you eat anything from your garden. there are certain varieties of certain plantsthat actually the flowers are quite poisonous, so steer clear of those and just eat the onesthat i shared with you guys today and of course do your own research and look up more. i mean,i love the world of plants, i love the world of edible fruits, vegetables and herbs, andyes i even am a flower muncher.

if you guys like this video hey please giveme a thumbs up to let me know, also be sure to click that subscribe button right downbelow to be notified of my new and upcoming episodes i have coming out every three tofour days, you never know where i'll be showing up or what you'll be learning on my youtubechannel. be sure to share this video with others, youcan think it can help so that they can start being a flower muncher too and flower munchersunite! maybe i'll have my next t-shirt "flower munchers unite!" be sure to check my pastepisodes, i have over 1100 episodes now, i share with you guys all aspects so that youguys can grow your own fruits, vegetables, herbs and even the flowers at home and enjoythem so that you and your family could be

healthier because of it.so once again my name is john kohler with growingyourgreens.com. we'll see you nexttime and until then remember keep on growing! latest episode on growing your greens:john: alright! this is john kohler with growingyourgreens.com. today we have another exciting episode foryou and this episode we got a very special guest. benji...benji: hi! john: ...from benjiman tv, he's a chef andfood lover!