That name alone was enough to catch my attention last spring. I’ve heard of sugared violets before, for decorating cakes, but never violet syrup. But the blog I was reading and following added a post about gathering wild violets and making a syrup out of them. This young mother would make quite a number of quarts from them to be used on pancakes and waffles and such; her children loved it. I was intrigued.
Of course, by the time I’d read the post–perpetually always a few days to a week behind on my reading–the carpet of violets that cover a good portion of my property were out of bloom. I have been waiting patiently for this spring to gather some and give it a whirl.
And I almost missed them again.
Northeastern Connecticut has been inundated with rain. Rain. And more RAIN. I shouldn’t lament; my well is getting a good replenishing. But who wants to pick flowers in a deluge? Sure, and I could consider the adventure of it but, when the rain is pouring down like that, I’d rather curl up with a good book and a cup of tea. And I confess I’ve indulged that desire a bit over the last few days.
Today it was back to business as usual though. The sun is shining and the forecast is for upper-70’s to mid-80’s over the next few days. Suddenly, that “blah” feeling I tend to experience when it rains steady for too long, has gone away and I’m charged again.
So I picked some violets.
The recipe I have calls for 1 cup of the flower heads to 4 cups of sugar. But you have to brew the flowers in 4 cups of hot water for 30 minutes on up to 8 hours (or overnight) and then slowly melt the sugar into the heated violet “tea”. The recipe says it will not be the pretty purple you expect until you add a bit of lemon juice…a little bit at a time. Right now my “tea” is a lovely green. It even smells green…with a hint of violet. It is hard to imagine a few squirts of lemon will change that to a purple later on but we shall see…who am I to question the logic of chemistry? Or the allure of magick?
May God bless you & keep you!
The Herbal Hare Tomestead and Animal Sanctuary 
I have so many violets in my yard. Maybe I’ll try it.
You should…=)
While on a visit to St. Peterburg, FL my daughter and I made a trip to a downtown “bar” to have a “Bee’s Knees” cocktail, which I’d read about. I expected it to be made with lavender syrup, but surprisingly it was made with violet syrup. It was delicious, and worth the effort of making the violet syrup. I make elderflower syrup for Hugo’s, so adding violet syrup seems doable but I’ll have to hurry. The violets are nearly gone….we’ve had rain, rain, rain, too!
Actually, a cocktail called Bee’s Knees makes me think of honey but I like that it was made with violet syrup…I’ll have to see if I can find a recipe for it online and try it. Thank you for sharing!