#10 Violet Jelly

Since Spring has sprung, I have been noticing lots of little flowers all over the property. Something I wanted to try last year was to make violet jelly. I made dandelion jelly last year, but missed the window for the violets. Now this Spring, I missed the dandelions and have had time to collect two batches of violets to try my hand at making their jelly.

The process was super simple, but a bit time consuming since I had to forage for the violets. I went all over the property, and I am thankful I had enough to collect 1 pint of the petals for the first batch. I found the violets in more shady areas, like at the base of the pine trees or along the edge of the woods. I’ll be making a note of this for next year so that I can search the same spots again.

These flowers were easier to pick than the dandelions. I just had to pop the petals off, versus having to separate the yellow dandelion petals from the green base that holds them all together. I read that the stems and green parts will make the jelly bitter, and to me that definitely does not sound appetizing.

Here is what you will need to make the violet jelly:

· 1 pint (2 cups) violet petals

· 4 cups sugar

· 2 tablespoons lemon juice

· 6 tablespoon fruit pectin, or 3 ounces liquid pectin

After filling a glass pint jar with violet petals, I boiled water and filled the jar to the brim. I let the violet petals and water sit overnight in the fridge to make a violet tea. The tea will be the base for the jelly. You will notice that overnight, the water will become a dark blue, but it won’t stay that way for the jelly.

Strain the water and petals, and collect the water in a small sauce pan. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the water, which will make the color change from blue to a dark purple. Heat the water up to a boil and add the 4 cups of sugar while gradually stirring. Then add the 6 tablespoons of fruit pectin to the pan. Let the liquid boil for 1 minute.

I water bath canned the jelly, but you don’t have to. I don’t go through jelly quickly like others may, so I opted to can the jellies so that they would store for longer than they would in the fridge. You can just put the violet liquid in a jar, place in the fridge, and be done with the whole process. Pretty easy! The jelly will firm up after it has cooled, so don’t worry about having runny jelly.

To can, I followed the process in the Ball Blue Book for canning. You will want to warm your lids, rings, and jars in hot water. Heat up a pot of water in the meantime, and bring it to a boil. You will want to put enough water in the pot to cover the jars by an inch. Put the hot jelly liquid into your jars, and leave a ¼ inch head space. Apply the hot lids and rings then place the jars in the boiling water. Boil the water and jars for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the burner and let the water and jellies cool overnight. The next day, remove the rings, this will prevent the lids from resealing if they were to fail to seal during the process.

Now you have beautiful violet jelly! We tried it on toast and biscuits, and it was incredible! This will be a recipe for the books and a treat to make for the coming years.