Just when I thought I would have zero blog content to post, my brain zero's in on something new to me. Dehydrating chive blossoms is not new to me. However, using them in a new way is new to us.
Of course, you will need a somewhat larger patch of chives in your herb garden to be able to do this. We allowed our chives to go to seed for several years. Did you know that one chive blossom can contain up to 120 or so seeds?
Each of the tiny flowers in the chive blossoms can contain about 1-3 seeds each.
I have used fresh chive tops to infuse into oil in the past (leave chive tops to dry before infusing), but I have not made infused vinegar or used them for other dishes (have added them to baked egg breakfast dishes).
Most salad dressings we make here, use red wine vinegar, and most recipes to infuse the chive blossoms into vinegar, call for white wine vinegar.
A new "first" time for us - I am making us an infused white wine vinegar.
I will use it for salad dressings, for cooking greens (like kale,, collards and turnip greens etc.), and for other uses. I will also try it on marinated boneless chicken, when I do a sheet pan dinner.
Not the best photo, but you can see it's infusing to a beautiful pink color. I'll post a photo later when I have strained the blossoms out of the vinegar.
Oh, I have also read online that you can infuse the chive blossoms in Apple Cider Vinegar. I will definitely try that if we get enough blossoms (information on that is online with LearningHerbs).
Next up, for another "first" for us?
I am dehydrating the chive blossoms for the first year ever, to keep on hand to top dishes with, mix into butters, cream cheese spreads, grind into powder for sauces/soups/dressings/dips, and the like.
You can eat these fresh. I have pulled them apart to toss into an egg breakfast casserole, but they are delicious tossed into potato salad or your salads. They have a delicious garlic/onion flavor.
I ground some of the dehydrated chive blossoms into a powder for the first time. The color is almost a gray color oddly. It will be interesting if these are a nice addition to meals. They contain a lot of goodness and healthy needs for our bodies.
Lastly, I found out you can make a tincture with the chive blossoms. I had to look up what it would be administered for - decongestant. I'm not making a tincture this year, as we have other tinctures, and teas on hand right now, but it is good to learn this "new" information.
By the way, the ground, dehydrated chive blossoms smell amazing! I bet the ground version would make a delicious salt too.
Chive Blossoms ~ Infused Vinegar ~ Dehydrated ~ Chive Blossom Powder © May 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart