Touch Grass, Eat Flowers
Are you hungry? This will not satiate your stomach.
Ambling past the suburban garden, I am content, my eyes feast on the green hedges and the glow of tall-reaching grass in the sun. Amongst the manicured grass and ornamental species, a more practical beauty emerges, one you can consume.
Tropaeolum majus
Nasturtiums taste like a gentler version of the paper that I would eat in order to befriend a girl who loved to eat paper in year two. She taught me to rip the corner off a worksheet and wait for it to soften on your tongue, absorbing your saliva until it resembled the pulp it came from. We may have liked to eat paper but we were careful not to get paper cuts in our mouths. Nasturtium's washi-thin petals tear off their peppery receptacle, a flyer pull-tab that slips past your throat like you’ve swallowed your own spit.
Taraxacum officinale
Every part of the dandelion is edible, the green leaves taste like a better rocket, better because it's always free, and the root is wonderful for tea. If you place it in your mouth you’ll first feel the hundreds of ray florets, the dandelions’ thick strands of blonde hair, wilt on your tongue. The bract guards this pillowy flower head, and will feel like the rough parts of a broccoli stem that tends to be thrown away. For dandelion honey, you will have to discard this green sentry and steep the petals overnight in boiled water. Use the resulting tea and slowly add a 2:1 ratio of sugar over low heat. Bottle your spring syrup for later seasons.
Magnolia soulangeana
Magnolia trees can grow so tall and twisted that you can never hope to pluck the petals off, only to collect the many that fall to the ground as a sheet of purple detritus. Luckily for our prying hands, it’s rare to find a tree that has had time and space to become woody and wide in the city. The flower petals have a light airiness and a floral gingery kick. One petal will satiate your Kuchisabishii. Try one at your next sighting of a blooming tree, and try the next tree you see too. Flavour varies.
Commelina cyanea
Scurvy weed grows curvy in the shade, its bright blooms blink open for a few hours a day but hide in the rain and dark. With its iris-shaped buds closed, the plant is inconspicuous and difficult to tell apart from other creeping weed counterparts, ones that are not delicious. I have tried to propagate Commelina cyanea in my garden, rather unfortunately alongside its lookalike, wandering trad. I peel away the competing vines, they have shallow roots where I've been fighting them. The winking blue buds do not grow in my garden, all the plant’s energy has been spent on laying down roots to stay alive. Add the flowers as a colourful garnish to the homemade pesto you can make from its leaves. I would if I had any.
Viola hederacea
Native violets creep under tall foliage and short trees, perennial buds presenting amongst mulch and soil, or competing with grass. The plant’s dense cover can be found in the gardens of bike-loving mothers with a native-flora conscientious garden, growing around a desire path, crawling forwards, then backwards, where foot traffic stamps it away. Kidney-shaped leaves can be added to a salad, the mild bud tastes like the memory of their delicate beauty.
Tagetes patula
Marigold’s petals pack densely like the tapered beaks of flamingos all reaching into the same trough of hairy worm stamens. Marigolds have long been a burst of identifiable beauty among the suburban, and now a snack too. I eat these petals one at a time, participating in the plucking ritual I would perform as a bored child walking home: love me, love me not, eat me, eat me not, eat me.