The day lilies are nearly finished blooming, but while they last, I love adding them to my salads.
I’ll chop up an open flower or two because they’re so beautiful scattered through a bowl, but the real treat is a handful of unopened buds. They’re crisp, mildly sweet, and wonderfully crunchy. (Just don’t eat too many—some people find they have a laxative effect.)
The flowers we call day lilies (Hemerocallis fulva) are not true lilies, many of which are toxic. The familiar orange day lilies that grow along roadsides, in old fields, and at the edges of the woods here are one of my favorite abundant wild foods of summer. I stick to the old-fashioned wild day lilies and leave the newer cultivars and hybrids alone.
Today’s salad was chopped fresh parsley, cucumber, celery, purple cabbage, Granny Smith apple… and a generous handful of day lily buds and blossoms.
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