Redbud Flowers: How to Pick and Eat

Here's how to easily pick redbud flowers to eat. They are great in salads, raw. But they are good to cook with, too!

Redbud trees are edible? Yes, they are -- and they are tasty! The ones growing wild, out in the woods, are the same as the Redbud used for landscaping in urban areas. All the Redbuds can be real food for regular people, whether you are foraging, gardening, or even just use Redbud trees in a landscape planting. So even if you live in a place where you can't have a garden, if you can have a Redbud tree, you've got some free, and easy to harvest, food.

Just find a Redbud tree in flower and pull off the flowers. It's a simple as that! The flowers can be used raw, but they are good sauteed or mixed in other recipes.

Here at the Haphazard Homestead, my neighbor's Redbud tree started blooming in mid-March. Some branches hung over into my yard. So I pruned the branches and then harvested the flowers for dinner. The flowers are a lot easier to pick when the branches are pruned off the tree and cut into pieces, instead of reaching up into the tree all the time. So if you are going to prune your Redbud tree, wait until the branches are in flower and get some real food as a bonus!

I used the Redbud flowers in a mild black bean chili. Recipe: onion, black beans, green chilis, veggie hamburger, and some wild chives. Cook all that together and then mix in a generous amount of redbud flowers -- about half the volume of your beans (2 cups beans, add 1 cup Redbud flowers). Tasty!

Eastern Redbud: Cercis canadensis, Family: Fabaceae (the Legume, or Bean, family)
Western Redbud: Cercis occidentalis
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More videos about using redbud flowers
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[tanyatatyanina]

my goodness! today I found out that the dandelions are edible and HOW to cook them! Now, I got to know that the tree which I pass by every single day and that I knew tasted like acacia - is a redbud tree and it is also edible! Jesus Christ, my life will never be the same as before lol, THANK YOU! )))

[telosfd]

I did not know these flowers are edible. Simply admire for their beautiful color.

[katboyce]

I love the before and after of the plate haha
Awesome video!

[rubygray]

Nice to know these are edible! I just bought one of these trees, about to spring into blossom, but it is a gift to my beehives. They need the flowers more than I do until the tree grows a lot.

[paulpuljic]

Loved the look of redbud...so I bought two of the rising sun variety...had no idea they are tasty. Going outside to snack on them and I hadn't put them in the ground yet!

[joybickerstaff]

Hi ya Sally! I see Blanche made a comment, she is very nice, she helps me when I don’t understand, both of ur channels r top notch! U both explain and show the plant, show how they r eaten, I have found nooo other channel to do this, that’s what makes both or ur channels sooo valuable to me!!! I learned awhile back that the buds of the redbud was edible, that’s it, just edible, not shown ways n which to use or consume them, I’ve yet to watch ur vinegar one but will. I new Blanche before u, at that time I asked her if leaves were edible as well, yes, well, a comment here mentioned the beans, r they edible??? I’m thinking not since ether u or Blanche did not say so in ur interaction with each other. I cannot wait for spring to be here to harvest what I do know, yet I don’t want it to rush, giving me time to learn and remember/recognize those that I don’t know. Thank u

[Jefferdaughter]

people who enjoy this sort of thing will enjoy the EattheWeeds channel, too.

[davidledoux]

Perfect! Thank you for this very inspirational video. Would you happen to know if you harvest buds from a branch still attached to the tree, will it not grow leaves there?

[k.harris]

Am super excited because I discovered a redbud tree and Juneberry directly outside my front door (have lived here 10+ years) and both are edible. I want tea, pickled and maybe jams.
#summer2020

[kelsieneal]

I love your videos! Do you have one on fermented redbuds?

[carolinakm]

cant you just leave the branch for next year instead of cutting them?
I'm excited to try

[Gothfield]

How can you tell them apart from plum flowers?

[thederb]

So pleased to find your channel. Your videos are informative plus you show many aspects of each plant. So many videos I see consist of just the narrator talking and very little imagery of the plants they're talking about. I subscribed to your channel. I too have an edible plant channel-you might want to check it out.

Besides using the redbud flowers, I also eat its young heart-shaped leaves (in salads) as well as its VERY young pods (in stir fries, like snow peas.) Older pods are too tough.--Blanche from Massachusetts

[ErikFabian]

Great video! What are those berries/olives in the other bowl?

[ChristianVedder]

No thank you 3:28, however you're welcome to have all of Red Bud flowers. It'll be less that I have to skim out of my pool. Wait... my pool is currently Red Bud Flower Soup! Bon appetit!

[jaimeegilmoreduetcovers]

I'm not trying to be rude but maybe for some of us who have never eaten there Redbud flower you could tell us something a little more vague than these taste sweet maybe give us an idea of what they taste the most like compared to something that we might have eaten like for example these are so good they're sweet they taste kind of like a fig or whatever it is just curious what does it taste like could you tell me a little more than sweet thank you so much

[thepotager]

Can you please tell me the botanical name, in not from your location so don’t understand what red buds are? Is it a Cercis? Are all Cercis edible?

[colleenforrest]

The only problem with eating the buds is you don't get any peas!