Inside: What do you do with all those dandelions and violets popping up all over your yard? Make jelly, of course! Read on to learn how to make jelly from wildflowers.
Turning Wildflowers into Jelly?
Mom and I were walking around my yard recently when she kept bending down to pick up violets. “I’d like to try making jelly from these,” she said. I mentioned that I didn’t know about making jelly from the tiny little purple gems currently taking over my yard but that I’d heard of using dandelions. She said she wanted to make some of that, too.
Next thing you know, she did!
In fact, she took on the hard part of this DIY adventure by making three kinds of jelly–dandelion, violet, and lilac–and documenting the process. (Props to Mom for all of the jelly-making pics in this post.) Mine was the easy assignment: taste and write.
First Mom did a little research and found a good website for the recipes. Note, because these are not my recipes, I can’t post them here. For our purposes, we’re giving the reader our impressions of the process, so you can decide if you’d like to give it a try. Homestead Acres is the website, and Kim is your tour guide for the adventure of wildflower jelly-making. Her directions are thorough and easy to follow, so we leave you in good hands.
Dandelion Jelly
Due to a plethora of the cheery yellow flowers, Mom made the dandelion jelly first. While the picking was easy, the sorting was not. She picked six cups of flower heads initially, knowing she’d need extra to make up for the stem and green leaves that needed to be removed to yield the four cups required for the recipe. This was very time consuming–and necessary. The green parts give the jelly a bitter flavor, so it’s important to be particular about removing them. This task took her two hours.
Next she boiled the water to pour over the yellow petals to make a dandelion tea which she steeped in the refrigerator for 24 hours. After that she strained it, squeezing all the juice from the flowers. Then it’s simply a matter of making the juice into jelly. (Again, Kim from Homestead Acres provides pictures and instructions to make the job easy!)
Violet Jelly
By the time Mom had collected enough violets, she was ready for DIY jelly-making adventure part II–violet jelly! While the process was similar, she had a much easier time picking the violets and removing the stems. It’s worth mentioning here that our yards are not sprayed with chemicals–which probably explains why there are so many dandelions and violets in them. Anyway, best to avoid gathering your wildflowers from places that have been sprayed.
While Mom used the same method to make the violet tea, the resulting colors surprised her.
Lilac Jelly
We’re cheating a little here in that Mom picked the lilacs from a cultivated bush. Nothing wild about that. However, the third time must be the charm because she said of the three, lilac jelly was the easiest to make. The flowers pulled right out. Also, no bending or stooping to pluck flowers from the ground.
Again the method was similar to the previous batches of jelly. And once more, the color surprised her. Having expectations the lilacs might behave similarly to the violets because of their purple color, what she discovered was lilac tea started out light yellow and then became a darker color after steeping. Lemon juice didn’t change matters, either. The result was an amber-colored jelly–no purple blush here!
But How Did The Wildflower Jelly Taste?
The lilac jelly was Mom’s favorite. Not only was it the easiest to make, she liked what she described as a “floral taste.”
I liked the lilac jelly, too, but it gained a second-place finish from me. What I found interesting about it was the hint of a licorice flavor. Not wanting to scare the licorice haters, which includes me, I’d describe it as a pleasing taste in much the same way a pinch of anise would add to a recipe. And the licorice flavor was so subtle that Mom didn’t even taste it.
My first choice was the violet jelly, which received a thumbs up from both of us for prettiest color. I liked the fruitiness of the jelly, which to me had a hint of a grape flavor. Mom agreed with the fruity description, but she placed it second in her favorites.
Last but not least, I had for years heard about dandelion jelly, how it tasted “just like honey.” I would say the flavor was more honeylike. There is a difference between honey and dandelion jelly–not just in flavor and nutrition, but also in texture. For Mom, while she admitted it wasn’t bad, she felt the hard work of separating the green from the yellow petals wasn’t worth the end result. That said, others have raved about it. Go figure.
What’s Next?
So what’s the next flower jelly-making adventure? Mom’s seriously thinking about making elderberry flower jelly. (They haven’t bloomed yet.) And next year when the redbuds bloom in spring, don’t be surprised if she’s out there with a bowl picking flowers. Love that adventurous spirit of hers!
Will keep you posted on any further jelly-making developments.
Do you make jelly? Tell us about it in the comments.
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Patsy Reiter
Hi Amy. I think I would like the lilac flavor too. Until now, I never knew jelly could be made from all these flowers. Tell your mom thanks for sharing this unique jelly idea. Patsy 🙂