Next time you see flowers, don't just stop and smell them, you may want to taste them! Chefs all over the world have been steadily adding flowers to their menus, broadening the scope of their dishes. And this isn't something new. Eating flowers goes back thousands of years.

Stuffing snapdragons for an appetizer (shown here), baking lavender into cookies, and sautéeing daylilies with vegetables and meat are just a few ways to enhance your own menu with flowers. They add flavor to dishes and are sometimes used as a main ingredient. And, some even add a boost of nutrition. Violas, for example, are said to contain more vitamin C per ounce than orange juice and almost three times more vitamin A than spinach.