David Sasuga grows about 60 varieties of edible flowers at his San Diego County farm. He describes the flavors present in some common garden flowers: Flowers wit h flavor
microgreens and edible f lowers. To grow his business, Sasuga traveled widely, meeting chefs and distributors and going to trade shows. He brought samples of the f lowers with him for chefs to experiment with. “The more I offered, the more excited my customers were. The chefs were doing amazing things with my product,” he said. “This led me to start growing as many edible f lowers as I could find, in order to have the best selection possible.” Business is blooming The f lowers at Fresh Origins grow in pots both outdoors and inside the greenhouses and are watered through drip irrigation. They are picked by hand six days a week, packed in insulated boxes with cold packs and shipped immediately, usually arriving at their destination the next morning. Sasuga said he believes the warm, sunnyMediterranean climate of the SanDiego regionmakes a big difference in the taste and appeal of his products. “The day length, intensity of the sunlight, outside temperature and outside humidity all play a major role in how plants grow inside the greenhouse,” he said. Because of the climate, Sasuga said the edible f lowers have a concentrated range of color and f lavor. Fresh Or igins ha s developed a new of fer ing:
Marigold Nasturtium Slightly bitter and citrusy Peppery and sweet
Orchid
Hints of cucumber and melon
Lavender
Concentrated floral taste
Begonia
Tart
Unami Japanese restaurant presents spicy tuna canapes accented with microgreens, yellow violas and a sprig of bright-red FireStix.
flowers of some herbs have more intense flavor than their leaves:
basil
mint
chive
rosemary
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September/October 2021
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