Flower stem sweet and sour stir-fry

Last night, 8th June, I made a stir-fry for dinner using only the flower stems of plants. Strongly flowered plants often become much milder when they are about to flower. The flower stems are also often  crispy at this stage and not very fibrous, although some of them need peeling. Some such as Scorzonera spp., Tragopogon spp.  (goatsbeards), Myrrhis (sweet cicely) and Arctium spp. (burdocks) are even, surprisingly, sweet! Due to the record cold weather (now the coldest spring/early summer since the 1920s –  there was even frost over large parts of  Western Norway last night! – many plants have stopped growth just before flowering.  Here they are (I could also have included Myrrhis (sweet cicely) and Crambe maritima (sea kale) if we hadn’t eaten most at the weekend!

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Roughly L to R: Allium victorialis, Angelica atropurpurea, Rumex patientia, Perennial kale from Helgoland, Heracleum maximum, Good King Henry, Bunias orientalis, Polygonum alpinum, Tragopogon (goatsbeard), Cirsium erisithales (yellow melancholy thistle) (at top right) and Cirsium eriophorum (wooly thistle) (bottom)
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Heracleum maximum peeled flower shoots and flower broccolis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Angelica atropurpurea peeled flower stalk (bottom)
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Cirsium erisithales / yellow melancholy thistle peeled flower shoot

 

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Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden