Food is more than just sustenance these days. Food is fun. Food is excitement. Food is… branding? For some is certainly is, with many Americans going on to social media to share their food experiences. In fact, more than 3000,000 photos have been uploaded to the Flickr group, “I Ate This”, one of the most active group on the site with more than 19,000 members and growing. So how can you make your daily plate or dinner party opus more exciting?

Even a humble salad can sparkle with the right ingredients that offer color and variety and of course taste. Organic micro greens and edible flowers make wonderful additions to salads, for example. There are many micro green varieties available from the conventional such as kale or arugula, to more exotic options like shungiku, a type of edible chrysanthemum. Although they seem to have only recently made it onto the cover of food magazines, organic micro greens have a long history, dating back between 20 and 30 years. For optimal results, you should store your micrograms at about four degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit). When buying micro greens you should look for the mark of quality, which is usually rated in a scale from poor (1) to excellent (5). Those rated less than three are not even considered marketable. Be creative in your uses for micro greens: put them in wraps or use them on pizzas; add them to sandwiches or even roasted vegetables. The possibilities are endless.

Edib;e flowers are another way to add interest and excitement to a dish. While we may associate them primarily with sweet treats and formal wedding cakes — and sugar flowers for wedding cakes are magnificent — there are other uses for crystallized rose petals and other edible flower items. Given the importance of color in food, edible flowers can pack a punch when added to salads or even sauces. Research has shown that children prefer 6 food colors and 7 different food components; adults, on the other hand, opt for dishes with 3 colors and 3 food components. Given that there are more than 100 types of common garden flowers that are both safe to eat and tasty, the options are infinite.