Violets are extremely easy to identify. The leaves are heart shaped, the flowers grow on a leafless stem, have five petals, and are usually a blue-violet color ( sometimes yellow or white ). They usually bloom in the early spring through early summer months.
Violet flowers and leaves contain beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin C. The flowers have a bitter sweet flavor, and the leaf tastes slightly like a lettuce or spinach. The flowers are perfect for jellies and syrup. I personally like to eat the leaves in salads.
My family enjoys making violet syrup the most! My daughter, Kairi, happily picked violets today, knowing I would make syrup so we could make one of her favorite drinks, violet lemonade
After picking the flowers, give them a good wash, and remove any stem pieces. Kairi picked two cups worth, which is enough for me to make some syrup with.
To make the syrup you will need -
2 cups of violets
2 cups of boiled water
2 cups of sugar
a splash of lemon juice ( optional )
Bring the water to a boil, pour the boiled water over your violets, and let it steep for a minimum of a couple hours, I have even left it over night. Drain ( you can use cheese cloth if your strainer has large holes, this will prevent small bits of flowers from ending up in your water. At this point your water will be a purplish green color.
Put the violet water and two cups of sugar in a pan, stirring often, do not bring to a full boil. Remove from heat once your sugar is fully dissolved. At this point you can add the lemon juice. We do this because it brings back more of the beautiful purple color. Pour into a container ( I like to use mason jars ) and store in the refrigerator.
As mentioned before, we add this to homemade lemonade, our kids just love it!
This syrup also makes a wonderful, refreshing drink when poured into sparkling water with a splash of cream!
Sources - http://www.ediblewildfood.com/wild-violet.aspx
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