Violet, You're Turning Violet, Violet!

Meet the common wild violet, they grow in abundance in unkempt lawns all over New England:

It all started on Mother's Day when we were visiting with friends. We were all sitting outside enjoying some unusually warm May weather when my friend Andrew, a foraging enthusiast, picked and ate a wild violet to see what our collective reaction would be. Normally, you might think that if violets had actually been poisonous that he wouldn't have taken his life in his hands in that way. If you thought that then you obviously don't know Andrew...

As it turns out, according to one of Andrew's foraging references, wild violets are not only edible but they are commonly used to make a beautiful naturally colorful jelly. Flowers and cooking, two of my very favorite things, my interest (and obsession) was piqued.

I have done jam making and canning before, but I have never made jelly, let alone foraged for the ingredients. But I found a website that outlines the process clearly, and I was confident that I could do it.

Thankfully, the afore mentioned unkempt lawns seem to inexplicably surround our dwelling place...

I needed 2 cups of violet blossoms...so the Little Princess and I headed outside with our little measuring cup and began picking. It was a painstaking process to separate all the blossoms from the stems, and my little cup was filling up very slowly. In addition, the wind began to blow and my blossoms started flying out of my cup. A change of technique was in order so I got a large bowl and picked a whole lot of violets: stems, leaves (grass...) and all. That went much more quickly, and I was able to spend a few hours doing the de-stemming inside out of the wind. It took awhile, but I was determined and told Dear Husband that I was a pioneer woman being a homesteader. He quickly squelched the homesteader spirit by reminding me of the $4.00 box of pectin and the sack of refined sugar I had him pick up for me on his way home, hahaha.

When I had my (approximately) 2 cups of violet petals (green sepals included, they don't seem to have an effect on the color or flavor in this particular recipe), the next step was to make an "infusion" by pouring 2 cups of boiling water over the petals in a glass bowl:

Then I covered the infusion with a plate and let it cool to room temperature. They recipe says you can let it infuse anywhere from 30 mins. to 24 hours. I wanted the fullest color and flavor I could could get so opted for the 24 hours. After it cooled to room temperature, I put the infusion in the fridge overnight.

This is what it looked like the next day (all the colors had leached out of the flowers into the water):



The next step is to strain the petals out of the infusion, a colander with normal sized holes worked ok for this recipe, although I know using cheesecloth is better for making clearer jellies:






As you can see the remaining infusion is a rich eggplant purple color!

Next I boiled the jars in a large stock pot for 10 minutes (you'll want to start the water boiling before you start actually making the jelly, so it will be ready when you need it, also you are supposed to have a wire rack on the bottom of the pot so that the jars are not directly on the heat, but I had to improvise and Dear Husband came up with the idea of lining the bottom of the pans with unused jar lids, it works perfectly)! I left the jars in the hot water until I was ready to use them. The purpose of this is to sterilize the jars so no bacteria ends up in the sealed jar

I assembled all the ingredients that were called for (in addition to the infusion): One 3 oz. packet of Certo liquid pectin (the jellyfier), 1/4 cup of pulp-free lemon juice, and 4 cups of white granulated sugar.

When the infusion is mixed with the lemon juice it turns from eggplant purple into Barney-the-Dinosaur Fuscia, it is pretty amazing!

Add the infusion/lemon juice mixture to the sugar in a large saucepan, stir frequently with a wooden spoon and bring to a rolling boil that can not be stirred down:

I am a dork and thought the swirling of the foam as the mixture began to heat up was cool:

After the mixture boils, add the packet of pectin and boil for 2 more minutes, temper the heat, making sure not to let it boil over. Turn off the heat and when it stops boiling skim off as much of the remaining foam as possible. Have your jar & funnel ready (also boil your funnel to sanitize it) and pour the hot liquid into jars as quickly as possible. Fill jars to 1/8 inch of lip.

Place the seals on the jar and screw the lids on securely. using a potholder, invert the jars onto a dishtowel and let them sit for 10 minutes to seal. As you can see, when I am filling jars, I always chicken out before I get the the 1/8 inch below the lip...so I have a lot of extra space, I need to get over that so I get less air in my jams/jellies! You might hear the lids make a popping noise when they seal, you might not. Turn them over after 10 mins and test the middle of the seal with your finger, if you can't pop it up and down it is sealed. If the jars do not seal you can put them into the boiling water for 5-10 minutes, CAREFULLY take them out with metal tongs and place on the towel to seal again, or you can just put your jelly in the fridge to keep.

And finally, the finished product, one of the most beautiful things I have ever cooked! Dear Husband and I both tasted some from the pan and it has a very fruity and pleasant flavor. It will most likely be making it's debut on an upcoming family camping trip, at which time I will have further commentary on the flavor!

Well, if you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! It really was a fun and exciting process...and unfortunately...on the same website I found this recipe on ( http://prairielandherbs.com/violetjelly.htm ), I have discovered a Dandelion Jelly recipe. As I close this entry I am gazing longingly out the window to the yellow speckled greenery...

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen