A little help in the vegetable garden, please

"This old man, he plays five, he plays knick-knack on a chive."

My daughter and I have been working in the garden. Can you tell?

Our planting beds are up and running. We're seeing zucchini, snow peas, arugula and swiss chard. The cilantro is ready for picking.

Now about those chives. These are left over from last year. They've gotten really tall and have bloomed. The round purple flowers are cute -- and edible, I hear. But my son clipped some chives to put on noodles and they were too tough to eat. Thick. Fibrous. Blech.

I'm a new gardener, so help me out. Do I just cut down the leaves and wait for new growth?  Have you eaten the pretty flowers? Does this old man play knick-knack on a chive?

Comments

[Hope]

My husband is the herb gardener and he never lets the herbs bloom because he says it will make the rest of the plant bitter. Not sure if that is true or not, but like I said, he's the herb gardener - not me. And yes, he cuts the chives down until they are about 1-1/2" tall and then they'll regrow.

[allison]

We just cut the flowers off of our chives a few weeks ago, and they're already back at a harvestable height. But our preschooler loves to eat the flowers straight from the garden, so we had to let them bloom and leave them for a little while! If you trim the flowers so the little buds separate, they're great in salads, with couscous or orzo, on a goat cheese omelette... all over the place.