Edible Blue Flowers: Borage for Beauty and Flavor

Cool Blue Blooms with a Cucumber Taste

One of our favorite summer blues is borage, whose sky-colored, star-shaped blooms don't just look cool—they also taste cool, with a flavor similar to cucumbers.

Culinary Uses

Drop the edible flowers in iced drinks, green salads, and fruit compotes, or sprinkle them over sliced cucumbers.

Growing Borage

Sow seeds ½-inch deep in an area with loose soil and at least a half-day's sun. Keep soil moist until seeds germinate, then thin seedlings so remaining plants have 2 feet of space each. Borage blooms generously and produces lots of seeds; sow it once and volunteers will supply all future crops.

Sources

• Order borage seeds from the Natural Gardening Company (707/766-9303).
• Buy from Bay Flora, a Berkeley-based online nursery; at least 10 percent of all orders go to an organization of your choice. Look for unusual edible plants as well as botanical-inspired housewares.