Violet Jelly

This happened awhile ago, but I haven't gotten around to posting it.  Well, better late than never I suppose.

I couple months ago I found a recipe for violet jelly.  You know, those little purple flowers that bloom in your lawn and are considered weeds can be made into jelly.  Who knew?  

The recipe called for 4 cups of flowers, so I enlisted the help of the little people to help.  Their attention span is short, but they were intrigued with the idea of turning flowers into something they would eat, and so were (mostly) willing helpers.  

Isaac gathering violets

Jar is halfway full.  There was a lot of: "Do we have enough flowers yet?"  "Do we have enough  now?"  "Is this enough?" "Are we done yet?"

After the flowers were gathered, 2 cups of boiling water was poured over the flowers, and the mixture steeped for about 24 hours.

Michael is ready to help

Michael adding the boiling water to the flowers (cue faint screaming sounds from the flowers).

Steeping violets

Next we strained the violets and added some lemon juice to the liquid.  I believe the lemon juice acidifies the jelly so you can use a hot water bath to can (you have to use a pressure canner for foods that are not acidic), and it probably adds flavor too.

Removing the flowers from the water

Strained violet water

Add the lemon juice and Voila! the color changes.

Then we transferred the water to a pan on the stove and dissolved a box of pectin and a whole bunch of sugar in the water (4 cups).  After ladeling the mixture into canning jars and processing in a hot water bath, we ended up with violet jelly.

And how does violet jelly taste?  Well, it's got a delicate flavor, so it's hard to describe, but I would say it's kind of grape-y.  And thanks to all that sugar it's very sweet.  Perhaps a little too sweet.

All in all it was fun to make, but I don't think I like it enough to make it again.