What IS That in my Violet Jelly???

Today was the first day of my living off the land and "preserving" what I find.  I found a recipe, thanks to Tipper's post Blind Pig and The Acorn, Easy Recipe For Making Violet Jelly, which inspired me, considering the wild violets I was finding here and there as I walked around our mountain.

Now mind you, I have never preserved a thing, but I was more than excited to take the plunge into canning/preserving; after all, this was a simple recipe, and by George we are Living off the Land! I must admit, I am thrilled with my results.  Granted, I am one to add my own thing or two to a recipe, so while I thank you profusely Tipper, for your fantastic recipe, I had to add a couple of my own touches.  I know you all are wondering what those specs are in the jelly jars, please be patient...I promise to confess. 

But to begin the process, please refer to Blind Pig and The Acorn, Easy Recipe For Making Violet Jelly for the specifics.  The recipe itself is beautifully simple.  But let me tell you, this process was a bit of work, picking violets over the mountain is not an easy thing when you don't have a field of them, rather small growths here and there, and usually on rises off the side of the mountain!  But with Johny's help, we gathered enough for 2 cups of violet beauty!

Yesterday I soaked my violet flowers overnight...and covered them with a plate, don't they look lovely?

Then today...

I sanitized my jars...

I prepared my ingredients, which for the lemon, I used 1/2 a Myers lemon from our tree on the river, and squeezed, including all the juice and pulp, and also grated a little bit of lemon zest into it...I like pulp and the zing of zest!

When I drained the flowers, I marveled at the jeweled color of the violet juice...this is no advertisement for a particular brand of measuring cup, so just focus on the incredible color, this picture does not do the violet color justice!

I began the cooking process.  If you look closely you will see the right side of the pot is still purple while the left side where the lemon was added is turning pink, you can also see I left the pulp, love love love pulp...

Now while the sugar, gelatin and violet water began to cook, I got adventurous, and added some of the flowers that had soaked in the water overnight to create the jeweled violet water...I thought to myself , "why can't I include the flowers in the jelly, you can eat them, so seems logical to include them, it would be pretty", so I added a few hand selected robust water soaked blossoms to my rumbling boil...(this is my confession, the bug looking things are the result of this stage of my creative thought process)!

Now I know why there is a really really really good reason why people strain the juice, the end result is not so very pretty but looks kind of like bugs...but it is edible, so not worries!

So, the rest of the process ended up beautifully.  I did discover that I had extra cooked violet syrup-prepared-for-jelly, so while I initially thought I would quickly sterilize another jar, which I did, I changed my train of thought, an decided, "what the heck, try making violet candy!"  

So I boiled the remaining mixture again, let it cool briefly, then boiled it again, figuring I'd remove more of the moisture from the mixture...and the result was a sticky fluid I drizzled onto a plate to cool.  I am hoping this is something like gummy candy, though I know I did not put enough pectin in it for that.  But now I have this brilliant idea, to make gummy violet candy!

I know, this looks like blobs, but believe me, when I tasted it, it was sweet, and mild, and violety! 

I can't wait to taste the jelly tomorrow and let Tipper and all of you know what I think the flavor is like.  And frankly, today I do wonder if adding those few flowers added to the taste of the jelly...we will know tomorrow.  But today, the flavor, while still warm, was fabulous!

Have you ever made violet jelly and put the flowers in it?  I would love to know!