Foraged Dandelion & Violet Jelly
Ophelia and I made this a couple weeks ago so I thought I would share my recipe. This was such a fun thing to do for me as an adult and she loved it. If you do have children this is such an enriching activity for them and a great way to teach them about the world around them.
Did you know that dandelion jelly, jams, and syrups were called “the poor peoples honey” here in Appalachia (and other places) around the Great Depression? My mom said my great grandmother looked forward to making this every year because of that! And it sure does taste like honey!
So my recipe is as follows:
Like two cups of the yellow parts of the dandelions and a handful give or take of violets.
If you leave any green on the dandelions, your jelly may come out bitter
Roughly 2 cups of water, ideally you want a cup of water per every cup of flowers.
Boil the flowers for 3-5 minutes, the longer the better honestly but you don’t want to scald them.
Sift the boiled mixture through a strainer or cheese cloth (if you had a child helper like me you may want to do this several times) be sure to squeeze any moisture out of the flowers as the dandelions will hold moisture and you’ll loose a lot of the your water if you don’t. Keep the liquid and toss the flowers.
Add 2 generous drops of vanilla extract
1 table spoon of lemon juice (you can do freeze squeeze or bottled it’ll get the same result either way)
When you add the lemon juice watch the color change! Note: all dandelion jelly will be more yellow in color , the handful of violets make a pretty pinky orange.
3 tablespoons of pectin (I used surejel brand)
Note: you could skip this step and leave out the pectin and achieve or more syrup texture to fit your needs.
I actually did closer to 2 1/4th cups myself, I prefer my things on the sweeter side so do what makes your heart happy.
While adding each ingredient in be sure to stir frequently, bring your mixture back up to a boil and let it boil for another 3-5 minutes.
Remove from heat and pour into jars. Note: how you will jar this will depend on what kind of jar you are using I.e canning jar or just a regular jam/jelly jar.
Let cool on your counter to thicken and then enjoy.
Once cooled these should be refrigerated.
This recipe should yield 4, 4oz jars approximately. However you could cut the recipe depending on however many flowers you are able to find.
You can use this recipe with only dandelions, violets or most edible flowers and berries.
PLEASE forage responsibly and leave plenty for the bees in your area, dandelions are first good source for bees. Also be wary of any area that may be treated with pesticides.
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