Blooming tasty

Green-fingered Zoe Smith tells Jade Wright about her growing Congleton cottage garden industry

- Jade Wright

Programmes such as The Great British Bake Off and MasterChef have nurtured the popularity of edible flowers. Beautiful blooms are the fashionable garnish of choice on Instagram, and chefs across the country are regularly out ransacking herbaceous borders in search of the unusual flavours carried in these little bursts of colour. Pretty pansies sit atop cupcakes and delicate rose petals float in cocktails in chic cafés, restaurants and bars, with brilliant blue borage swirling in the most stylish gin glasses.

When Zoe Smith began growing edible flowers in her canalside cottage garden in Congleton, she had no idea she would soon be supplying some of her favourite bars and restaurants. In fact, such is the demand for flowers to colour and flavour dishes, Zoe has been inundated with requests for her violas, nasturtiums and marigolds. It first started when she had an allotment – a little haven where she loved to grow fruit and vegetables. But she had to give it up when she moved to Congleton.

“The issue with an allotment,” says Zoe, “is that unless it’s very close to home, you can’t always be there every day, and gardening is best when you do it little and often. “You tend to get gluts, too, with everything ready at once, so you are trying to work out what to do with 50 onions or 30 bulbs of garlic. I gave a lot of it away, but still there were times I’d have to throw things out, and that was a bit disheartening.