Taunton and South Somerset Living Oct - Nov 2021

ADVERTISING FEATURE
INCREDIBLE edibles
When it comes to making cuisine look chic on
Instagram these days, edible flowers are the
undoubted go-to. Striking the perfect balance between
food and flora on a plate can often prove a tad
troublesome, though. But it needn’t be. They can work
in perfect harmony, as Miranda Shearer discovers...
Edible flowers are beautiful, colourful
crowd-pleasers. They have fallen in and
out of fashion for centuries. Mallows,
violets and roses were added to feasts
devoted to military victories by the
Romans. Flower petals were most
commonly eaten in salads back then, and
that is perhaps how the majority should
be enjoyed.
Modern-day restaurants spend
thousands on this decorative foliage but
these fabulous fronds and petals are
deserving of much more than an afterthought.
Incredible Edible Flowers owner Sian
Davies is one of many British growers
championing the nutritional value and
substance of these floral delights. Sian
is passionate about educating chefs
and food lovers on marrying these
flavoursome florals and food properly.
“I am a complete foodie at heart. I love
to eat,” she says. “I find it fascinating
talking to chefs and helping them match
herbs and flowers they have often never
heard of, which are not only original
but elevate a dish beyond comparison.
Sometimes you only need the tiniest bit
to compliment the food, it is often very
subtle and clever.”
Sian wasn’t always snipping, digging,
weeding and sowing her flower farm in
Somerset. She forged a career in the
music industry in London working for
Warner Music. She chuckled as she said
her insatiable desire to grow meant she
always had to find flats with window
boxes and outdoor spaces to grow her
runner beans.
“Both my parents were really keen
gardeners. Growing up between the
Midlands and Wales, I was just used to
going out into their garden and picking
anything at any time of year. When I
moved to London I always needed to find
somewhere with a bit of outdoor space.
The estate agents thought I was mad
declining a second bedroom for it. In my
first flat in West Hampstead, I dug up the
concrete ‘garden’ and put out loads of
little pots of runner beans, lettuces and
tomatoes. It was worth it, for the sheer joy
of picking a tomato.”
Sian later moved to West London, had
her children, left Warner Music, and got
an allotment. “Once I had my first son,
the time difference when working for
Atlantic Records just didn’t work. It really
made me re-think things. I left the music
industry and managed to get my hands
on this totally overgrown and unloved
allotment. It was a magical space with
lots of potential and I realised that I
wanted to do this as a job.”
She retrained with the Royal Horticultural
Society for two years and got a job at
a specialist nursery in Ham just outside
Richmond. This was the springboard to
Somerset. “Moving out of London was
totally on the cards by this point. We
stuck a pin in a map near to where my
husband grew up and started the hunt for
the perfect growing space. I suppose the
house wasn’t even the priority. The top
of the list was to have an allotment at my
back door.”
After much foraging for the perfect
spot, they found a two-acre plot and
dilapidated farmhouse near Axminster.
Sian set to work transforming the land
and setting up her edible flower business.
“It has been a steep learning curve. The
two acres were paddocks, so really good
land. It was the perfect blank canvas. I
planted the first crop in 2017, and the
wind blew it all away. I realised I had to
plant some trees to shelter my flowers.
Then in 2018, my first year of proper
growing, we had snow twice in March
and then we had the hottest weather we
have ever experienced, hose-pipe bans
and a drought.
Photo credit
© Tom Waller Food Envy Photography
“It was pretty challenging. I have learned
that, as a grower, one has to fully accept
what is thrown at you by nature, including
pests, bugs – and a pandemic.”
Luckily this savvy woman has her head
screwed on and her Welsh warrior blood
mixed with sheer grit and determination
to succeed has paid dividends.
And following last year’s ‘write-off’, Sian’s
customers now include Trinity in Clapham
(Head Chef Adam Byatt,) Frog in Covent
Garden and The Ugly Butterfly in St Ives
(two of Adam Handlings’ restaurants,
one of which played a large part in the
G8). She is also about to team up with a
Somerset Gin maker who is interested in
all her botanicals.
It is clear Sian is slowly leaving her mark
on both Chefs and their menus from her
little patch of heaven in Somerset.
And when it comes to her edible flower
fascination, Sian concludes: “Each one
of them is full of vitamins, minerals and
antioxidants. Society garlic flowers are
beautiful, pink and star shaped. They
are great with meat. Begonia flowers are
wonderfully citrus and perfect for fish.
For vegetables I would use loads of herb
flowers like fennel, coriander, tiny thyme
flowers or anise hyssop.
“The more I learn, the more amazing they
are, and the more I want to grow and
educate people in using them with food.
“The coriander flower has to be one
of my favourites at the moment. Not
only does it have beautiful flowers, but
it is also full of vitamin K, which most
wouldn’t know.”
Sian Davies, Incredible Edible Flowers
Incredible-edibleflowers.co.uk
22 | www.minervamagazines.co.uk