Gardening: harvesting linden blossoms

Since we live here, we have not been able to harvest linden blossoms from the linden trees before. First year, we were travelling abroad during the days we should have collected them. The second year, we were not able to harvest them because of a storm.

Two weeks ago, we realized the blossoms were ready to be collected and a huge swarm of bees just settled into both of the trees. Both linden trees are actually mature ones with more than a hundred years old.

We did not know before that all parts of the plant are edible, including leaves, flowers and seeds. We were actually interested in the blossoms to make tisane with the dried flowers during winter time. We started then collecting them and, believe us, flowers have an incredible strong smell, like jasmine.

We had been told that the best time to collect linden flowers is right after they open. Actually, there is only a two week period in the year to harvest the linden blossoms if you want the flowers to have their fragrance and taste. This two weeks period is normally during May and July, depending on the location of the trees. At home, it has happened this year at the beginning of June.

We have now many bottles of linden blossoms and dried flowers. We’ll just need some boiling water to make the tisane during winter time or summer nights in the garden, and we are so excited about it!

Love,

Xxx

The family.