Violets and Dandelions

Last summer I ran across two recipes- violet jelly and dandelion jelly. It was too late in the season to try them so I have been waiting (im)patiently for the violets and dandelions to start blooming. They finally started coming up, so yesterday I walked around the yard picking flowers. Well, I mostly crawled and I'm sure the people driving by were curious as to why a grown adult was crawling around her yard on her hands and knees. I was so excited to make these jellies because I absolutely love violets and dandelions. Every spring I put off mowing the yard until their blooms have worn off because I think the lawn looks so pretty covered in a blanket of purple and yellow.

The violet jelly was a lot of fun to make and really simple compared to a lot of things I have made. I started with two cups of violets and poured boiling water over them, allowing them to steep overnight. Then I just strained the liquid, added sugar, lemon juice, pectin and boiled and canned. The fun part about the process was how dark blue the mixture was until I added the lemon juice, then it turned a lovely shade of purple.

I only did five jars- which is amazing if you know me because I usually go all out and make, like, seventy. But since I don't know what it will taste like plus the fact that I have had 'issues' with jellies before (the fact that they never gel) and I didn't want seventy jars of violet water.

The dandelion jelly was just as easy. I started with about six cups of dandelion heads and then cut the yellow petals off (it doesn't take long) and steeped them the same as the violets. Then I added sugar, lemon juice, pectin and boiled and canned. The recipe called for yellow food coloring, but I like my stuff natural so I left it out. It's not a bright yellow like if I had used the food coloring, but it's still nice. I keep telling myself it looks like honey even though it looks a lot like a jar of urine. Supposedly it has a honey flavor and I hope it sets up so I can try it.

I'll keep you posted on how they turn out!