Violet Jelly

Jelly made out of flowers? Yes, you heard me right. A small purple flower can be used to make a delicious jelly:

We've had some lovely weather here in Minnesota the past few days, and the back field is full of violets.

They are one of my favorite springtime flowers.

My camera doesn't take very good closeups, so here is a picture I found on the Internet!
Click to go to their page

This is a Common Blue Violet, (you can view the Wikipedia page here) but every violet is edible.

I remembered reading once about how violets are edible and are used to make syrups and jellies, so I searched it up on the amazing Internet and found a recipe, that I revised a little after some trial and error.

I thought, for my first official post, that I would share the recipe with you so you can make your own home made jelly!

Here is the full recipe, with step-by step instructions provided below.

Violet Jelly
Adapted from the Healthy Green Kitchen

           Ingredients:

2 heaping cups of loose, stemless violets

2 cups of boiling water

Approx. 1 pkg. (1.75 oz) pectin, but it depends on the pectin. Look at the box of the pectin you are using, there should be information on proportions.

Up to 1/4 cup of lemon juice (bottled or fresh work fine either way)

2 cups of Sugar 

Instructions: 

1. Clean violets in water, and put in heat-proof bowl or jar. Pour boiling water over violets, and set out, covered, overnight. You'll notice that the water from the violets is a blue or blue-green color, later, adding lemon juice will turn it a nice purple or magenta.
2. Strain water from flowers into a saucepan, and be sure to squeeze out as much water as possible. Begin adding lemon juice, a teaspoon at a time, up to 1/4 cup, until the color of the water is favorable. 
3. Add sugar and pectin, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to make sure that the sugar and pectin have dissolved completely. When boil is reached, turn down the heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. 
4. Skim off foam as needed and ladle into clean, hot and sterile jars. (Little patterned jars look really cute with the purple jelly in them) Leave 1/8 in. space at the top. Process in a hot water bath (optional) for 10 minutes, like you would other canned goods. Let cool for 24 hours.

If you don't want to process your jelly, it'll last for about a month on the counter. Well, come to think of it, you'll probably have it eaten by then.

Following are step-by-step instructions with pictures.

Pick your violets by grabbing the blossom between two fingers and pulling off. It should come right off the stem.
Keep picking until it looks like you have about enough (2 cups). If you can't come back to the spot you're picking at, you might want to bring a measuring cup.

Then you'll want to rinse them out. We have a lovely "salad spinner",

Click here to see a similar one.

You'll need 2 heaping cups of flowers, Which should look like this:

Put your blossoms into a heat-proof bowl or jar; 

and then pour 2 cups of boiling water over them, stirring them afterwards to make sure they're all covered.

Put a lid on the jar and leave it to steep overnight (or for 24 hours).

You'll find that the water with the violets is actually blue colored,

But we'll fix that later.

Next, you need to strain out the violets into a saucepan.

For some reason the water was purple when I got around to making
the jelly...

Next, add lemon juice, a spoonful at a time to taste, to the blue water. It should turn a lovely purple or magenta. 

Next add your sugar. WAIT! Before you add the sugar, check your pectin "instructions" to see if it should be added with sugar. I made that mistake once and my jelly ended up as more of a syrup.

Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Pour into sterile jars, wipe rims and screw on the lids. Let sit once more overnight (patience is a virtue) Or you can process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes... and voila! Jelly.

It has a delicate, lemon-y taste to it. Perfect spread thinly on a biscuit. Or anything else for that matter.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment!

The Li'l Hayseed