Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls picked them every one.

That I can't promise I'm afraid. They certainly will have been picked by someone, whether or not it was by gamboling nymphs I can't say. But take one look at the dish pictured (from Fulham Road  rstaurant Feng Sushi) and you probably wouldn't mind if they'd been picked by a 30 stone IBS sufferer on the way out of a sauna, so long as they'd been washed.

Spring is the a great time for edible flowers: show diners what they've been missing the past six months, lift them out their SAD and keep the manic depressives on the good side of breakdown with the old plastering-over-the-cracks technique of bright colours and nice smells.

For a full list of edible flowers visit this very useful site.

Also I'd better mention this "Don't Press Hot Iron to Face"-style disclaimer: don't go picking flowers that might have had pesticides used on them, unless you fancy a date with Mr Stomach Pump.