It's almost that time of year again...dandelion season! At least the snow has all melted finally. I think the last trace in the yard disappeared sometime this afternoon. Hard to believe that last year at this time I had already made a batch! But it's definitely not to early to start prepping. This recipe is really so easy and the kids love to help. The same procedure can also be used for violets, lilacs, or just about any edible flower. Dandelion is delicious though. The taste is a lot like honey. Big thanks to my friend Jennifer for giving me the idea last spring! Here goes...
1. OK, pick about 2 quarts of dandelion flowers, try to get as little stem as possible. Some recipes I read said to actually cut off the petals with scissors, but I didn't bother and it was fine!
2. Put all the flowers in one big jar or container and pour boiling water over all of them, just enough to cover. Let it "steep" (like tea!) for several hours or overnight.
3. Strain through a jelly bag, pillowcase, coffee filter, whatever...then add enough water to equal 3 cups of liquid.
Combine in large sauce pan:
Dandelion "water"
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1 package powdered pectin
couple drops yellow food coloring, if you want
Bring to a full boil to dissolve pectin, then stir in 5 1/2 cups sugar. Return to a full boil for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Ladle into 1/2 pint jars, screw on lids, and boil in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. That's it! Makes about 5 jars.
oooh, good to know. I think we may try it!
ReplyDeleteI just wrote my to-do list for tomorrow and I was planning to make dandelion greens for lunch as part of a foraging lesson, since we're always teaching them about where there food comes from! What a perfect way to use the flowers! Thanks so much for the idea! I'll shout out to you in my blog when I do it :)
ReplyDeleteawesome! It's really so much fun...unfortunately up here in MI we had SNOW covering the ground this morning. No jelly quite yet:(
ReplyDeletehttp://wheresdusti.blogspot.com/2011/04/jelly.html
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to where I did my jelly making and shouted out to you for the inspiration! Thanks for your great blog, Jill!
Thanks so much for this tutorial! We made ours this morning (picked the dandelions yesterday) so we're excited to try it! We're giving jars to our neighbors for may day! (P.S. I found you through Dusti's blog! :) I'll make sure to link to you both when I post about it!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you tried it Kory! Thanks for checking out my blog:)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! Got the post done, and linked back to you! Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteThis recipe is excellent!!! Thank you so much for sharing :). The first recipe I used never set, plus I spent way too much time trying to make sure I didn't get any of the green bits in with the flowers. Do you have a recipe for wild violet jelly?
ReplyDeleteOops. I just read where you said the same process can be used for wild violets. Great way to use up all the violets I have in my front yard ;p.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you found my blog! Happy it turned out well for you...this recipe began as an experiment several years ago and now my kids can't wait to make it every spring! Violet jelly (in my opinion) looks pretty but mostly tastes like sugar, but it's fun to try a few times anyways! Let me know if you try it! The pinkish jars in the pic are violet jelly.
ReplyDelete