Pretty, and pink, and edible

The air is so warm and sweet, winter must be gone for good. Not just this year, but forever.

The birds are singing their little bird hearts out, and the redbuds are bursting with blossoms. Those delicate pink flowers started to show all around Atlanta last week, already.

They’re not out yet in North Georgia, but I plan to cook with some redbud blossoms this year.

Yes, redbud flowers are edible, and also high in antioxidants and flavonoids, which have medicinal properties such as fighting cancer and preventing heart disease. Like drinking red wine, without the alcohol.

Eaten fresh off the tree, redbuds have a slight tang, like lemon, a nice flourish. So there are plenty of options for using them in a meal.

The trouble is deciding how best to eat these pretty pink flowers. Should I pickle them? Put them in salad? Fry them? Make pancakes with them? Stir them into my yogurt?

Or just wait until they turn into seedpods… and put them into my stirfry, like snowpeas?

I think I might try the redbud muffins, only with gluten-free flour. (From one of my favorite food blogs, “Eat the Weeds.”

Oh no, wait, here’s the best find: a recipe for redbud and wisteria spring rolls. Art posing as food.

Wildedible.com

Here’s a how-to guide for identifying and foraging redbuds.

Today’s penny is a 2012, the year of aforesaid guide on redbuds.