Like most of the world, we have been feeling the effects of pandemic quarantine. No school has meant trying to fill the day with some activities here and there. As a little girl, I remember being fascinated when someone once pointed out a few flowers and plants that were fine to eat (so long as they had not been sprayed by chemicals). We have an abundance of different colors of wild violets in our back yard. I saw a few different people in my feed recently utilizing them in edible creations and thought it may be fun to see what kinds of things are out there to make. I ran across this simple syrup and not only did it sound tasty, but it is super aesthetic.

Ingredients:

-2 cups violet petals (Likely need 3ish cups violet heads to get to the two cups of petals)
-Lime or lemon juice (Optional if want to alter color)
-3 and 3/4 cups purified water (Non-purified water may have ingredients that affect PH and in turn the taste and color)
-4 and 1/3 cups white sugar (non-white sugar such as organic will muddy the color)
-Sterile jars (to store final product in)

1) Gather 3 cups violets (make sure gathered or foraged from an area that doesn’t spray for weeds/bugs). Alternatively, I hear some places do sell packages of them briefly each year. Check your local farmer’s Markets or co-ops.

2) Pick the petals (removing green components including stems and the base). Pairs well with Audible as this part takes the most time 👌🏻.

3) Boil 1.5 cups of purified water (we used our reverses osmosis water), remove from heat and pour over the violets in a heat safe sterile dish (preferably glass). It’s important it’s purified water as tap water has components which can affect the PH/color.

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4) Cover and allow to sit a full 24 hours.

5) Day 2: Heat half a cup of water slowly and mix two cups sugar into it using double boiler method. You can set a pot in a frying pan with some water in it. The point is to help the liquid heat slower and under more control.

6) Strain the violet water through a coffee filter/tee strainer and add it slowly to the heated water.

7) Added two and a third more cups of sugar slowly (brought temp slowly to 165 degrees for 15 seconds after all sugar was added and dissolved (to take care of any lingering pathogens) and then removed from heat to cool. Violet color is photosensitive so be sure to not actually get it to boiling (212 F). I used a kitchen thermometer. Also, boiling sugar is dangerous. So really watch that temperature that it’s where it needs to be.

8.) I did add a touch of lime to alter the ph and color from blue green to a more purple/pink tone after it cooled (your kids will be mesmerized by this science trick).

This batch yielded about 2.5 times what is shown in the photos included. You can refrigerate up to 6 months or you can freeze it.

Notes: Do make sure you are positive you are dealing with violets and not a similar looking flower. Also, this recipe utilized the deep purple variety. Yellow or white varieties will not give this lovely coloring. The fuchsia ones will result in deeper color. There is some question as to whether its safe to ingest large amounts of the yellow violet variety, so I would recommend avoiding those.