How to Dehydrate Flowers

Evan SwopeAll Recipes, Culinary Tips & Techniques, Edible Flower Recipes

How to Dehydrate Flowers

People often ask us if there’s some way to save leftover edible flowers. Unfortunately, most varieties don’t freeze well. However, we’ve discovered that many larger flowers can be dehydrated while maintaining a certain amount of their visual charm. (See Uses for Dehydrated Edible Flowers)

We sell many types of edible flowers so we tested a few to see how they hold up when dehydrated. Below is the method we used and the results for the specific varieties we’ve tested. It’s important to note that dried flowers are quite fragile – so be gentle with them.

DIRECTIONS

1

Set your dehydrator to 120 degrees (or if it won’t go that low, as low as possible).

2

Lay the flowers out on the trays in single layers.

3

Dehydrate for several hours, checking them occasionally and removing any blossoms that are completely dry. Check more often as they get close to finishing.
4

Store dehydrated flowers in an air-tight container in a cool, dark, dry place.

In our experience thinner flowers take 4-8 hours to dry while thicker varieties (rose buds, etc) can take 1-2 days.

We recommend dehydrating these varieties:

1

Calendula – Citrusy, grassy flavor. They're rather leathery whole… we recommend grinding or non-culinary decorative use.

2

Marigolds – Citrusy, grassy with a bitter finish. Their texture is unpleasant when eaten whole – so we recommend grinding or non-culinary decorative use.

3

Karma Orchids – Petals crisp up like potato chips…they’re actually pretty nice, but something in the base of the flower gets extremely crunchy (almost unpleasantly so).

4

Pansies – Could be eaten whole, but the blossoms have a leathery yet brittle texture that makes them a tad chewy. Slightly grassy & minty. Try grinding them for use in butter, rimming cocktail glasses, etc.

5

Roses & Rose Petals – Stiff & tough with a soapy flavor. They could be used decoratively, but we do not recommend serving them to be eaten. Dehydrated crimson roses make a beautiful colored sugar, but its flavor can be soapy.

We do not recommend dehydrating these varieties:


Arugula Blossoms
Chive Blossoms
Borage Blossoms
Micro Marigolds, or other micro flowers, as they are too delicate