LILAC JELLY

The past few weeks, I have been admiring the plethora of lilacs in my yard. I started googling things I could do with them, and found a recipe for lilac jelly on Common Sense Homesteading. I knew right away that I wanted to try it, because edible flowers have always been an interest of mine. If you’re feeling brave, you might be up for this little adventure.

What you will need:

• 2 cups lilac blooms (no leaves or stems)
• 2 ½ cups of boiling water
• ¼ cups lemon juice
• ½ tsp butter
• 4 cups sugar
• One box powdered pectin
• 3 pint sized jars

I am new to the idea of making jelly, and a friend of mine actually looked up the difference between jam and jelly because neither of us had a clue. The difference being that jelly is made from the juice of fruit while jam is made from crushed fruit. So, this is definitely a jelly because it’s made with juice (or flowery water in this case). First I started by picking my lilacs. It may have been my favorite part. Not a lot of things like to grow out here in Wyoming, but lilacs don’t seem to mind the tough desert conditions.

After I had gathered all my blooms, I started taking the flowers off their stems. It is important to note that you can wash your blooms right away, or you can do like it did, and take them off to wash them in smaller portions. After I found two cute, green caterpillars in mine, and felt better about washing the blooms in smaller amounts. This way, I would not miss a creepy crawly of any kind. After washing, I went through again to discard any blooms that looked wilted or brown (please excuse my gardening glove tan lines).

Then I took all of my freshly cleaned blooms and poured 2 ½ cups of boiling water over them. Then I left them to steep for eight hours in a bowl with a plate over them. The recipe also says that you can steep them overnight. After eight hours passed, I strained out my flowers, and left the flower infusion to rest in the fridge for the night.

When I was ready to finish my jelly, I opened my flower infusion and took the particles off of the top to prevent my jelly from having a foggy finish. Then I poured it into a pan with the pectin, lemon juice, and butter. After bringing them to a boil, I added my sugar all at once. Then I brought the mixture to a boil once again, and stirred it at a boiling temperature for approximately one minute.

I had my jars sitting in hot water ready to be canned. I ladled the mixture directly into the jars immediately in order to avoid jelly forming outside of the jar. Mine ended up making about two and a half jars of jelly, which was perfect because I only had three lids!

The recipe at CommonsenseHome.com also provides instructions for long term canning, but because I plan on using the jelly now, I didn’t bother to worry about a water bath canner. The original instructions can be found here and at the link above for those of you who are interested in water bath canner instructions.

If you’re feeling brave, and decide to try the recipe, let me know how it goes! Also, don’t be afraid to email me some photographs of your attempts. I would love to see them.

xx Haley