Violet Jelly

Robert Browning once wrote, 'Such a starved bank of moss Till that May-morn, Blue ran the flash across: violets were born!'

I love violets. 

Really, really love them.   

When I was a kid I read a piece in the newspaper about making violet jelly.    So I made some.   I was probably 13 or 14 or so.  It didn't turn out that year, but I never forgot about it and later on when I was older I found Ewell Gibbons' book, Stalking the Healthful Herbs.   He had a recipe in there for violet jelly and so I made some and it worked!  

This is all it takes:

violets
4 cups sugar
1 pkg pectin

• Pick enough violets to stuff a pint jar.   Take the green parts off.   
• Put the petals in the jar and cover with boiling water.   
• Let sit and steep overnight.
• Strain petals out and add enough water to make 2 cups of  violet juice.
• Make jelly according to the instructions on your pectin.   

Note:  Pectins from different makers are ....different.   They have different cooking methods and those methods are not transferable.  You can't use the Sure-Jell instructions for Ball and vice versa.    It doesn't matter which pectin you use - just follow the directions for that brand.  

Which one do I like best?    I like Ball low sugar pectin because it doesn't matter how much sugar I choose to use.   I can use that same pectin for lots of sugar [violet jelly] or not so much sugar [blackberry jelly].   

Rumor has it that you can make dandelion jelly this way, too.    The Ks vetoed that.   They have no interest in dandelion jelly.   If I can work up the fortitude to pick that many dandelions on my own, I just might try it anyway.