TUCK IN TO FLOWERS

One of the incredible edibles in Matthew Biggs’ new book Incredible Edibles is the daylily, a popular summer garden flower that you may not have considered eating. Daylilies are grown for their abundance of yellow, orange or brown-toned flowers. Each flower lasts for just a day (hence daylily).

Get added value by turning the blooms into a snack. Yes, daylily flowers are edible but better known in Chinese or Japanese cuisine than in Australian. Buds as well as open and also wilted flowers are eaten, used as a garnish, torn and added to a salad, steamed or even battered and fried. The buds can be pickled while the flowers can also be dried and added to a clear soup such as miso. The flowers are mostly eaten for their colour but are also rich in vitamin A. Matthew Biggs says the open flowers are the most nutritious.

Actually, there’s more than edible flowers when it comes to the clever daylily. Its young rhizomes and new shoots are also edible. Cook the rhizomes to eat like a boiled potato or add new shoots to a stir-fry. Harvest rhizomes in spring when plump and full of starch if you are willing to sacrifice a plant and a summer of flowers.

Quiz answers: 1. Friends 2. Heptathlon 3. Poland 4. Melbourne 5. Archie 6. North Melbourne 7. Northern Hemisphere 8. Italy 9. False 10. Chess 11. Gabon 12. Yann Martel

13. Madrid 14. Freedom 15. United States 16. First 17. Great Britain, Ireland 18. France 19. Angelina Jolie 20. False 21. Julie Andrews 22. Rhea 23. Norway 24. Iota 25. Parsley

26. Khartoum 27. John Howard 28. Irving Berlin 29. False 30. Knockouts

Target Word answers: done, dong, down, drone, drown, dune, dung, endow, genu, gerund, gone, gown, gowned, ground, grown, guerdon, GUNPOWDER, negro, nerd, node, nude, nudge, open, owned, owner, peon, pond, ponder, pone, pound, pounder, prone, prong, pronged, prune, pruned, rend, repugn, rewound, ronde, round, rune, rung, under, undergo, undo, unpeg, unwed, upend, upon, wend, wonder, worn, wound, wounder, wren, wrong, wronged, wrung.