Violet Jelly is a Thing

Violet Jelly is a Thing

I was mowing the yard for a little bit (a very little bit) on Saturday (after working all day on the deck), when I discovered a GIANT patch of tiny violets. I remembered finding a blog post on Pinterest last year claiming that you could make jelly out of violets, but at the time it was summer and violets were out of bloom. I rushed back to the house (much to the dismay of my husband...our yard does really need to be mowed, and we've been putting it off to work on the deck), looked up the recipe, and grabbed a measuring cup to gather flowers in. 

The recipe called for 2-3 cups of flowers. Even after decimating the entire patch of tiny violets, I could still only collect just under 2 cups. 

The next step is to boil 2 1/2 cups of water, pour it over the flowers, and let them seep over night. Here's what it looked like immediately after pouring the water over the flowers. The water turned green from all the sepals still attached to the flowers. The next day the water was a blue-ish aqua.

Then the magic happens. Strain the flowers and keep the liquid, and add 1/4 cup of lemon juice. The water turns from an aqua blue to a bright pink!

Here's what the jelly ended up looking like. So beautiful!

Very strawberry shortcake, and it even tasted kind of berry-ish.

In other news, we got a tiny egg yesterday! So little!

A friend at work gave me a ravioli press (thanks, Grace!), so I made homemade ravioli for dinner last night. Best ravioli I've ever had! It was so delicious!

While Sam was cooking the sauce for the ravioli, I made farfalle (bowtie) pasta with the left over pasta dough. 

Yum!

Violet Jelly Recipe

makes about 4 half-pint jars of jelly

Ingredients: 

2-3 cups of violets

2 1/2 cups of boiling water

1 packet of Sure Jell pectin

3 1/2 cups of sugar

Canning Instruments: 

Spoon

Tall pan

Funnel

4-5 half-pint jelly jars

4-5 flats

4-5 rings

Instructions: 

A. Wash the jars in hot water then place in the oven set at a around 150*F to dry and keep the jars warm. 

B. Boil the flats in a pot full of water and set aside. 

1. Pour the boiling water over the violets and stir. Cover and allow to seep overnight. 

2. Strain the flowers out and keep the remaining aqua liquid. 

3. Add 1/4 cup (1 lemon) of lemon juice and watch the liquid change colors!

4. Add the entire Sure Jell pectin packet and stir until dissolved. 

5. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil, then add the sugar. 

6. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a roiling boil, then set a timer for one minute. 

7. Every 20 seconds or so, check the consistency of the jelly. Stir with a spoon and pull the spoon out of the liquid. You can tell that the jelly is done with the initial liquid pours off the spoon but afterwards two solid drops of jelly drip off. It took almost 3 minutes of boiling for my jelly to reach this consistency. 

8. Once the jelly is the right consistency, remove from the heat and immediately pour into jars. You want to try and leave about 1/2 inch of space between the jelly and the top of the jar. 

9. Quickly put the flats on and screw the lids down tight. 

10. Allow the jelly to sit undisturbed for 24 hours