You can eat this

To clarify: You can eat whatever you like...and you may well suffer for it. These, however, you can eat and they won't kill you or make you sick (unless, of course, you're allergic or someone used foliar pesticides or systemic fertilizer, in which case, ja, they just might make you pretty ill. Then again, so might cookies containing enough preservatives to make a mummy. If it's going to be death by food, i choose death by educated experimental browsing).

Day Lily, Hemerocallis sp. One of my classmates thought it was gross. I liked it. I find it tastes like pale celery lightly sautéed in butter, with a slight wasabi or peppery aftertaste. Try the buds just as they begin to show color. You can eat them raw (rinse them off first) or lightly sautéed with garlic, and added to a green salad. They're planted all over Southern California: usually yellow but sometimes the rose or orange varieties, although i'm not sure it's legal to harvest from the median strips. It would be the epitome of pitiful to be smashed by a car while living off the landscape; and have you seen what they spray along the sides of roads!? Ick. Eat them from your neighbors' yard and leave the medians alone.

Detail of Feijoa sellowiana. Photo courtesy of my classmate, I.F.

Pineapple Guava, Feijoa sellowiana. Deliciousness! I haven't tasted the guava fruits yet because they haven't ripened, but i love guavas and expect to enjoy these. (Probably a result of growing up in the tropics, that one is; guava trees also make good climbing). Not only is this a gorgeous tree, but the flowers on this plant are edible and they taste yummy, like a light fruit sorbet. I think they'd be good on high quality vanilla ice cream, one that was smooth and creamy, with chocolate sauce optional--it had better be good, not wimpy Hershey's. I bet the flowers would also be good in a fruit or garden salad. Mmmm.