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Violet Jelly

We have a yard full of violets. This might be a sign of some PH imbalance, but the effect is quite lovely. It also allows for an opportunity to try out an old time recipe for violet jelly, which may be indeed violet in color when we finish.
In the spirit of Miles Efron, let me keep you in touch with the process:
First, Tucker and I went out and picked 8 cups of violet flowers — no stems. This went much more quickly than we anticipated and feared. We thought we’d only make half our recipe and stop of 4 cups of flowers, but the yard had plenty of flowers and we were not too long in filling the full recipe.
Next we rinsed off the flowers and drained them, fluffing a little to shake out any insects. We found none.
At the same time, we set water to boil.
The rinsed flowers were put in a glass bowl then covered with 3.5 cups of boiling water.
Almost immediately the water turned dark blue. We stirred the water occasionly. then let the mixture settle for the evening. The recipe called for only 2 hours of infusion, but other recipes recommend overnight or as long as 24 hours. The consensus is as little as 2 hours or as long as 24.
We assembled the ingredients that we’ll need in the morning.

  • Sur-Gel or any pectin jelling product. This comes in a 1.75 oz package and we’ll need it all.
  • Lemons for their juice. We’ll need 1/2 cup.
  • Sugar. We’ll want to use 4 cups.


[more in the morning when we get underway.]

Side posting: Many years ago there was a band in Chapel Hill called the Blazers. On their one LP “Store Bought” was a song called “Violent Jelly” writen by on J. Earth. J. Earth is rumored to be the father of Ruby Sinreich.

5 Comments

  1. Ruby Sinreich

    “Violent jelly… sho’ nuff got me in a jam.”

  2. jodi russell

    I made some Violet jam,it tastes quite earthy. Is this how it is suppose to taste?

  3. Paul

    Ours never tasted earthy. If you put stems and stuff other than the flowers, you might pick up earthy flavors or if you didn’t rinse off the flowers.

  4. Katie Jenson

    My jam was delicious. I never knew flowers could taste so good! Now I’m making it for all my friends and family.
    They all love it. You should try it too.

  5. Bob - Davie Curtis

    Yum, yum in my tummy!

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