Violet Jelly

Archie and I have been rather busy lately. Much thanks to my new blogger friend Shannon for the inspiration, I now have a new use for the weeds I've noticed in my yard this spring. Violet Jelly!!!

Here are the violets growing in the yard. Please note that we have already eaten two jars of this stuff. For those of you thinking of making a comment to WAIT!!! That is the hated and vile potato weed flower (or something like it) that will kill us all, much like that guy Chris from the book/movie "Into The Wild" who died while living in a bus in Alaska! I don't wanna hear it. From what I've reasearched, it's violets. Plus I've already given jars to my neighbours both next door and the lady across the street. We're not dead yet. That I know of, anyway!

I picked about two cups of them and infused in two cups boiling water. When I first poured the boiling water on them, the aroma was slightly peppery. They sat for about a day in this bowl and made a really pretty blue liquid.

The final result is this pink jelly. It turned pink after adding the lemon juice and sugar. It's really pretty sitting on my kitchen windowsill in the sunlight!
It has a rather delicate flavour. It tastes like something you eat with ladies' food. You know, because it's pink and has a hint of a floral flavour. I made a few batches. I think I'm really going to enjoy this particular jelly in the winter time, when it's all depressing and crappy out. Because it tastes like the hope of spring.

I saw a recipe for Dandelion Jelly as well, but separating the yellow petals from the green thing that holds them all together (sepals, perhaps?) was going to prove to be too time consuming for me to try this time. The violets are pretty easy because it takes only like fifteen minutes to gather enough to use. The prep is super easy. And I like super easy!