Old Fashioned Violet Syrup

 

I am blessed here to have many wild flowers to gather in my garden, some have naturally popped up over time, some inherited from the previous owners and some have just ‘found’ themselves here, honest! March is when my big patch of normally green leaves for the most of the year comes alive with delicate, sweetly fragranced violets. For such a short period each at this time I have at my disposal edible beauties to crystallise and decorate cakes with, or to put in salads, but my favourite thing to do with them is to make syrup. Violets can be used for luck, and I think if you find them you’re certainly lucky. If you too have access to this little plant why not give this recipe a go? bb mandyxxx

 

Ingredients

 

Approx 100g violet flowers

Sugar

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

 

Method

 

Gather your violets and rinse well

Pack them into a glass jar and cover with boiling water.

Let it sit in a dark place for 24 hours.

Drain the violets through a muslin cloth placed in a sieve into a bowl.

Squeeze the cloth to extract all the liquid from the flowers.

Measure the amount of liquid you have and add the same amount of sugar eg, for one cup of liquid add one cup of sugar.

Pour the violet water and sugar into a saucepan, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and cook on a high heat until the sugar has melted.

Pour into sterilized jars and store in the fridge.

This syrup is wonderful on pancakes or over ice cream, but my favourite way to use it is as a cordial with sparkling water, so fragrant and refreshing on a warm spring day……’Oh, we hope so don’t we guys!’xxx