Hungry for TULIPS anyone?

TULIPS...Commestible?
Is this possible or even palatable?

Would you consider this beautiful...

array of TULIPS on your plate?

Were you aware that comestible flowers have been incorporated in many
traditional meals by several different cultures as far back as 140 B.C.?
Up to this day...I had no idea either!

Here are some nicely presented Tulip embellished salads created by:
 Anne at Edible Eden

Last spring we had gone to our

Canadian Capital of Ottawa

to explore and witness the

splendour of the Spring tulips.

Since then, I had transferred my captured pictures
onto my photo viewer frame which I have
pleasantly smiling at me in my office space
where a colourful picker upper is always welcomed.

One day as I was writing one of my food posts ...

I got to thinking of comestible flowers.

I personally never ate one, not even the ‘capucines’

that I used to abundantly grow in my garden.

For those who don’t know me well,

I have a tendency to be more conservative than

courageously adventurous with my palette.

So, why was I even wondering if TULIPS were comestible?

At that point...I veered back my attention to the recipe I was putting

together and had not given the beautiful tulips another thought.

Well, for that day at least.
The next two days...I kept having tulips on the brain.
I do love Tulips...but come on...not to that extent!
So...I figured, I already do so much research...what's one more going to harm.
Off I went on the hunt for yet another question that begged to be answered.
I was actually surprised and intrigued by what I found.

It turns out...that...
I’m not the only one that has had the same curiosity.

After much mucking about to get the proper answer...

I found that it was best explained by this gardener from Albany, New York:

    

It would appear that it's most accurate to say that parts of tulips are edible.  And people do eat them. There are recipes, even.

     There seems to be pretty wide consensus that the petals of tulips are OK to eat.  They reportedly range in taste from "a mild bean-like taste, to a lettuce-like taste, to no taste at all."  Apparently some people are allergic to them, so keep that in mind And you should never eat flowers that have been treated with fungicide or pesticides.

     There are conflicting reports about the bulbs.
Some say no, they're poisonous.  Others say yes, if you know what you're doing.  It seems that people have eaten tulip bulbs, but they don't taste very good.
---Ref.: alloveralbany.com

During World War II, people in Holland were forced to eat tulips and it doesn't sound like they were good eats. Here's how one Dutch person described it:
     "Even though much of Western Europe had been liberated from Nazis control, Holland remained under their firm grip.  I remember the hunger.  We were forced to eat tulip bulbs and sugar beets because there was no other food," Father Leo Zonneveld told Pat Gravely in an account of life during the Second World War that appears online, which was written for the Veterans History Project.

"Bread made from tulips is not very good; I can tell you that!  The skin of the bulb is removed, pretty much like an onion, and so is the centre, because that is poisonous. Then it is dried and baked in the oven. My mother or older sisters would grind the bulbs to a meal-like consistency.

"Then they would mix the meal with water and salt, shape it like a meatloaf, and bake it. I can still remember the taste of it: like wet sawdust."

     Um, no thanks. More contemporary reports indicate tulip bulbs haven't gotten any better tasting.

There are a bunch of recipes that use tulip petals: as cups for mousse, accents for tuna, for salad dressing, and little dishes for appetizers.  We even turned up a recipe for tulip wine, which is apparently "a lovely white".
     So, there's more than you probably ever wanted to know about eating tulips.
As with anything like this that doesn't come from the supermarket, it's probably smart to err very much on the side of caution.  ---Ref.: alloveralbany.com

Therefore, to satisfy my curiosity and maybe yours...this is how I resumed it:

TULIP PETALS, if not pre-treated with chemicals or pesticides CAN BE EDIBLE.

The BULBS, if carefully manipulated...can also be edible...

however, I personally don't think I'll be baking bulbs any time soon.

How about what you're willing to try?

What are your thoughts on eating...
TULIPS or any other comestible flowers?

Thank you for tagging along and flavourful wishes, 

Foodessa

Comments or suggestions ... write me :o)

Claudia at: foodessa [at] gmail [dot] com