Thursday, May 16, 2013

Making Violet Syrup - Part 3 of Eat Your Weeds


I can't believe I've left so many weeks slip by without blogging.  In my defense, we have had many days of heavy rains and a record late freeze that have left my garden bedraggled and gasping and not very photogenic.  And on the days when the weather has been good and the garden inviting -- well, I've been working hard playing catch up on all the garden jobs, trying to get the creeping charlie under control (grr), and getting the vegetable garden in, while trying to control my Annual Spring Horrid Rash that I get every year (chickweed poultices and washes with chamomile tea seem to work about as well as anything the doctor has ever prescribed -- I don't know if any treatments actually ever work, or if the Horrid Rash simply runs its course each time and eventually recedes).

With our crazy spring weather and the total lack of a spring garden, I have been relying on the "weeds" in our yard (along with the remnants of my very successful winter garden -- swiss chard is still going strong, although the kale and collards all bolted and played out, as did the winter lettuce).   One weed I like to use a lot in salads is violet -- which grows profusely in the shady areas of our yard.  Both the leaves and flowers are a great addition to salads.


Here are some snips from around my yard that I add to salads:  red veined sorrel (a perennial), chives, chive blossoms, pansies, lemon balm, red and pink clover, and some violets are in there, too.

A few weeks ago I made violet syrup with the violets in the first picture.


Fill a mason jar about half way with violets, then fill the jar half way with warm water and let steep over night in the fridge, to make a violet "tea" or infusion.


Strain out the violet blossoms.  You can see below that the "tea" has a little bit of color to it.


Boil the violet water (this was about 1 cup) with one cup of sugar to make a syrup.



For dinner I made oat and apple pancakes, garnished with flowers, and served with dried tomato chicken sausages.   The syrup was wonderful with it.



Violets are a good source of vitamin C, and pure violet syrup makes a healthy (as in healthier than artificial pancake syrup) and economical alternative to pure maple syrup.

linked to various blog hops, including Sunny Simple Monday

6 comments:

My Garden Diaries said...

Amazing! I never knew that you could make syrup out of violets!!! How absolutely outstanding! Looks so yummy!!!

Tori B. said...

I like to candy my violets and never thought of making syrup. Thank you for the easy instructions. I'm going to try it.

Lisa | Fresh Eggs Daily® said...

Thanks for linking up to From the Farm blog hop! I make violet syrup also and then add some club soda to make my own (healthier) soda.
Lisa
Fresh Eggs Daily
http://www.fresh-eggs-daily.com/2013/04/the-incredible-edible-violet-homemade.html

Unknown said...

I'll have to try the soda thing! What a good idea.

Tori, I've made candied violets, too, when my children were young -- we would make them together, lots of fun and so good. But now I just use them as is in salads and as garnish -- I'm too lazy to go to the effort of candying, lol.

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

What a beautiful salad! Violet syrup sounds wonderful!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I'd LOVE to have violets in my yard. This year, all I had were dandelions. You could have made six or seven batches of Dandelion Cookies with what I had in my yard. It seems all the yards in my neighborhood have them, except my neighbor who just put a new lawn in last weekend.

Your syrup looks good and so do those pancakes. Being a vegetarian, I'll skip the sausage, though (grin).