The Flavor of Flowers

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Sorbets are so simple to make that you can do so while visiting with guests over dinner.

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My interest in flower sorbets came, oddly enough, from a garage sale find. Unwilling to pass up a good garage sale on my way to an herb festival in Iowa, I spotted a Donvier sorbet maker on a table of kitchen items. I was only moderately curious about sorbets, but the gadget, still in its original box, was marked $5. The owner quickly walked over when she saw me examining the appliance and, eager to make a sale, said, “It was a wedding present, and I’ve never used it. If you want it, it’s yours for $3.”

I took it. I knew from reading cooking magazines that a new sorbet maker sold for about $40. Surely I could find a use for it.

I soon learned that sorbets are so simple and easy I could make one while I visited with guests over dinner. The liquid-filled liner of the Donvier stays in my freezer, so when I have guests, all I need is chilled juice, some flowers or herbs, and I can whip up a sorbet while I’m sitting at the table sharing the main course with guests. It only takes about 15 minutes to freeze sorbets using this type of freezer: It’s hand-cranked, and all that’s required is to pour the already-chilled liquid into the freezer container, put on the lid and every two or three minutes, turn the crank one turn.

Cathy Wilkinson Barash, author of Edible Flowers: From Garden to Palate (Fulcrum Press, 1995) taught me about lilac sorbet (click here for recipe). “I know you love the fragrance of lilacs,” she said, “and the flavor is that and more.”

She was right. I’ve always loved lilacs, but never realized they were edible. With her suggestions, I soon was cranking out lilac blossom sorbets to amaze my guests. The heady fragrance and heavenly flavor of lilacs are such tangible elements of springtime that lilac sorbet has become a tradition for me each spring. Once I kept a container of this sorbet for some months, to enjoy the springtime treat later in the season, and the flavor held up extremely well.

That first foray into flower sorbets led me to try wild plum blossom sorbet, followed soon by pansy sorbets and violet, too. And rose! The enchanting flavor of rose sorbet is so provocative you feel as though your senses have found paradise. Your taste buds come alive with the sweet fragrance of the sorbet until you aren’t sure if you’re tasting or inhaling the frozen treat.

I recently visited the Herbfarm Restaurant in Woodinville, Washington. Jerry Traunfeld, chef of The Herbfarm, serves sorbets as palate cleansers between some of the courses (Editor's Note: Traunfeld has since left as chef of The Herbfarm). In The Herbfarm Cookbook (Scribner, 2000), he writes, “Sorbets have a brilliant capacity for capturing the essence of botanical flavors, and their cool, light texture and balance of sweet and tart refreshes like nothing else.”

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