I know it's Spring now, for sure, as the wild violets have begun popping up all over 2 separate areas of our yard. Last year when they bloomed, I was so surprised to see them and simply admired them each day as I walked around outdoors. But this year I knew I'd be doing more than only admiring them. This year I am harvesting them.
Yup. Harvesting violets. For what, you ask? You see, you can use violets
and their leaves to make tea. Isn't that interesting? Ok, maybe you don't think so, but I do.
It took about an hour to collect enough violets and leaves for the few yummies I wanted to make. First, I pulled the stems off the flowers and placed the flower heads and leaves on one of my dehydrator trays.
I simply put the tray into the dehydrator and turned it on for 12 hours at 95 degrees. The lower heat is used for herbs and delicate flowers. By morning they were nice and crispy and ready to be put into a Ball jar for storage.
By putting 6 dried flowers and 3-4 leaves in a teapot and adding boiling water, in 5 minutes you will have a lovely light blue shade of tea. This recipe and many more for teas and tisanes are in a book by Cassie Liversidge entitled "Homegrown Tea". I've grown many of the plants she suggests in the book and have enjoyed the tea from them over the winter. This year I plan on expanding the teas I grow in the potager garden.
And then there was one last item on my list of "try something new" with the violets. First, the recipe required 2 cups of dark violet flowers pressed down in the measuring cup so as to make a dense and copious amount of violets. That took a lot of violet picking!
The two cups of pressed violets were doused in 2 cups of boiling water and left to sit overnight to steep. By morning the water was a beautiful deep shade of purple. I squeezed the flowers so as to extract every single drop of purple water from them. The violet water was put in a pot on the stove and I added 1/4 cup lemon juice and 4 cups sugar and brought the whole thing up to boil, stirring the whole time. Once it boiled I added 3 oz. of liquid pectin and brought it up to a boil again for 2 minutes. Then the liquid was ladled into canning jars and processed for 10 minutes.
Voila! Violet jelly! Isn't it pretty? How lovely it will be to bring this out to use for a tea party. Can't. Hardly. Wait.
Just one more "food" to be found on the farm,
Who knew?
Deb
