Cooking with Daylily Buds

Tonight I made a recipe that I found on Pinterest for Honey Garlic Pork Chops that Yena and Zoe both like. I will not share the recipe on here since it is not mine, but it makes some of the juiciest pork chops that I've ever had! The honey and apple cider vinegar sauce is amazing!

However, the main thing that I want to talk about is cooking with daylily buds like you can see on the plate with some chopped garlic scapes that pair nicely with the pork chops.

So, this is one of the many daylily plants that is growing on the south side of my house along with a few others tucked in at various places around my home. This is where I try to find the biggest buds, right before they start to bloom, to cut off to use. You can eat the flowers too or use them as garnish for salads and other dishes, but I like the buds. We also have another type of daylily that has humongous buds probably around late June/July that are delicious too.

A lot of people say that daylily buds taste like a cross between peas/green beans and asparagus. I think that is pretty accurate and if you like those two vegetables you will enjoy daylily buds! Just make sure you pick them from plants that have not been sprayed with any type of insecticide or something like that. Also, it is important to note that tiger lilies and Easter lilies are a different species and are often toxic and poisonous for animals and people. Preferably you will pick your daylily buds from your own yard or the yard of someone you know. You will still want to wash them after picking them. You can eat them raw too, but I find them to be better cooked.

This next picture is what the daylily blooms look like. Ideally, it would be nice to have some bigger ones, but it is still early iln the season and it has been very dry.

Finally, this last picture is the daylily buds and chopped up garlic scapes after cooking for a few minutes in some butter and oil. The cooking really intensifies the green color in them! I just cook them for a few minutes until they are hot and start to crackle just a bit.

I have found that since knowing that daylilies can be used in the kitchen, it is just another thing that can bring something unique and delicious to the table and impress people with.

Another plant/flower from my yard that I learned can be used in the kitchen as well is lilac flowers. Our lilac bush flowered last month in May like they do and the flowers are already gone, but I like to pick a bunch of flowers. I wash them, dry them, and remove each individual flower and then put them in a jar with white sugar. I leave it in there for a week or two, shaking it every so often so the sugar doesn't clump up from the moisture released by the flowers. Then put it in all in a pan with water, boil it, and it makes lilac syrup! I find that the smell and flavor of lilac is subtle, but it still there and it is nice. In fact, lilac syrup, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and vodka make a wonderful lilac martini! I just had one this last weekend.

Other than that, my tomato plants are doing wonderful! I already have some cherry tomatoes starting to form and come out, which is exciting! I have to water them every few days or so because it has been so dry. The wildfirese from Canada have made the air smoky and just awful at times though it seems. Tonight we even had a little rain shower come through and normally when it rains, it smells refreshing or pleasant as in petrichor (which is the name of the smell of rain), but not tonight. It smelled almost a little like how the air smells after a fire has been put out like a campfire or bonfire full of ash and soot, so not exactly pure and clean. They say that Canada is experience such early and huge wildfires this year because of climate change and that places like Michigan and the eastern US might be at a threat from wildfires as well. I feel like and don't understand how people can see the smoky skies, breath in the nasty air, have particiles in your eyes and throat thath cause irritation and still think climate change and global warming are not a problem. Don't we all want to breath clean air?! Okay, rant over.

Thank you for reading yet another post and feel free to comment on what are some unique plants that you eat and cook with that come from your yard or you forage for. I look forward to hearing about them!