Violets are Blue

Confession: I love homeschooling blogs. I'm fairly certain I do not possess the discipline, personality, and chutzpah required to provide quality at-home education for my children, but I admire those who do it and do it well, and the lifestyle often portrayed in their online journals inspires me to create an enriching home environment for my family. Last spring, I came across a mom somewhere who used the abundance of violets in her yard to make- I believe- violet butter.

(Did you know violets were edible? I think maybe I had that factoid filed somewhere in the back of my mind, alongside countless other bits of knowledge that years of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sleep deprivation are trying to push out of an already crowded brain.)

Eden loves this kind of stuff, and we opted to use our palmfuls of violets to make violet syrup. I'd do a few things different if I had another go at it, but the result was at least very pretty, and it was a cherished time with my nature-loving, colorista daughter.

First, the blossoms are steeped in boiling water for 24 hours. Almost immediately, they turn the water a brilliant shade of blue.

(Yearning for a macro lens)

Once the liquid had steeped overnight, we removed the blossoms and put the strained juice in a saucepan with 2 cups of sugar and a splash of lemon juice. The acid of the lemon caused a chemical reaction that turned the blue-violet to red-violet, a transformation that fascinated Eden. She also enjoyed stirring over the range. When did my baby get old enough to help me on the stovetop?

The syrup was to be boiled for ten minutes before being poured into jars, but my inexperience led to a judgement that it needed more thickening. Oops. Another "next time" reminder: boiling simple syrup longer than prescribed turns said concoction into candy. Next time, just follow the directions.

That night, before our violet syrup crystalized beyond being usable, we had homemade whole wheat pancakes with homemade violet syrup from our own backyard. I regret that I didn't follow the instructions for a syrup I could keep in the pantry a while, but like I said, at least it was pretty.