How To Make Violet Jelly
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Would you like to try a little taste of spring in a jar? Then you just have to try making violet jelly! I have never seen violet jelly on a store shelf, but it’s a family favorite around here.
If you’re wondering what it tastes like, really I have to describe it as spring. Violet jelly tastes like sweet flowers with a touch of honey. It is just amazing!
In the spring, when the wild violets start to flower, you need to head outside to gather them. Now, these are tiny little flowers, and it does take a while to pick enough flowers, but it’s so worth it!
This is also a wonderful job to get your children to help with.
Now, what little child doesn’t enjoy picking flowers?
Of course, make sure you’re gathering your flowers in a clean area. Avoid roadsides and anywhere that might have been sprayed. Once you’ve tried this yummy recipe you’ll want to make lots of edible flower recipes.
Prepare The Flowers For Violet Jelly
To make 1 batch of jelly you will need 2 cups of flowers, make sure there are no stems attached.
The first step to making violet jelly is to make a tea, also called an infusion. Add the 2 cups of flowers into a quart-size canning jar and pour 4 cups of boiling water over them.
As the flowers steep the color from the flowers steeps into the hot water. At first, your tea takes on a pretty light blue color.
Later, the violet tea looks like a dark green, but don’t worry, it won’t stay this way. Cover your jar and set it in a cool place overnight, I just tuck it into the fridge.
How To Make Wild Violet Jelly Step By Step
The next day, you need to strain your flower petals. I line a strainer with cheesecloth and pour the tea into that.
Then, squeeze the cloth to get every little bit of tea out. You will end up with about 3 1/2 to 4 cups of violet tea.
Pour your tea into a pot and add 1/4 cup of lemon juice. This turns the violet tea into a beautiful light purple color!
Now, add your package of powdered pectin and bring it to a boil. Add 4 cups of sugar, stir it well, and return to a boil.
Allow the jelly to boil for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove it from the heat, stir, and skim the foam for 5 minutes.
At this point, you can either pour it into containers and refrigerate the jelly for up to 2 weeks or can enjoy it year-round.
How To Can
Canning is an optional step, but it’s my favorite way to preserve this flower jelly to enjoy all year round.
Pour your jelly into canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headroom. Remove air bubbles by running a spatula around the inside edge. Wipe the edge of the jar clean and place lids and rings on.
Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes or according to your altitude.
Remove the jars from the canner and place them on a towel. Let them sit undisturbed for 24 hours. If any jars don’t seal, reprocess them or store them in the fridge for use right away.
FAQ’s
Looking for more fun flower jelly recipes?
How To Make Violet Jelly
Ingredients
- 2 cups violet flowers
- 4 cups boiling water
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 package powdered pectin
Instructions
- Take 2 cups of violet flowers without stems and place them into a wide mouth canning jar. Pour 4 cups of boiling water over them. Allow the violet tea to cool and then place in the fridge to steep for up to 24 hours.
- Strain the violet tea through cheesecloth. You should have 3 1/2 to 4 cups of liquid. Pour this into a large saucepan.
- Add 1/4 cup of lemon juice to the tea. The color will change from green to purple!
- Add 1 package of powdered pectin and bring it to a boil.
- Add 4 cups of sugar and return the jelly to a boil. continue boiling for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir and skim for 5 minutes.
- Pour into jelly jars leaving 1/4 inch of head space. Wipe the rims and add lids and rings.
- Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes or according to your altitude.
- Remove from the canner and place on a towel for 24 hours until the seals have set.
These values are from a nutritional database and automatically calculated, and should only be used as an approximation.
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Kim Mills is a homeschooling mom of 6 and lives on an urban homestead in Ontario, Canada. Blogging at Homestead Acres she enjoys sharing tips to help you save money, grow and preserve your own food.
I made this last year. It was fun to make as it changed color so many times. The taste is light and delicious. My friends loved it. I just wish I had more access to more violets. I live in the city and I don’t feel comfortable taking them from other people’s lawns. I know there are no chemicals used, nor animals running around on my yard. Hopefully my yard will grow a healthy crop for me.
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What fun collecting the violets. The color of the jelly is beautiful and making the jelly is easy. There’s no hulling billing or other prep. My family really enjoys the taste. a thanks for posting the recipe.
I was worried about making this, but this was so easy and a hit with my friends. I love your recipes and this one hit it out of the park.
found this recipe few years ago and been making it every Spring! Thank you & God’s abundant blessings, His bounty ❤️
Thank you Kim. My granddaughters want their violet jelly. They picked the violets and presented them to me. I’ve used this recipe before and it sets perfectly.
Followed the Violet Jelly recipe exactly. And I now have jars of pretty purple water.. I say water because that’s the consistency of all of them. Can’t even use it for syrup. Very disappointing.
@Hol, sound like it didn’t set, maybe the pectin to sugar ratio was off? I’ve done this recipe for 4 years and one year was really runny – I recooked with a new batch of pectin and it came out better (still not jelly consistency, but syrup at least!)
How many jars will this make? My goal is for 7 little jars. It’s for a homeschool project.
Had more of a pink/red hue and tasted like lemon meringue. I could not taste the violets- thinking there might be too much lemon juice in this recipe.
Update: waited a day and the taste is much better. Thank you for the recipe!!
Can I make this with artificial sweetener and low/no sugar pectin?
I made it once a week ago and it went over so big, with neighbors, friends and even my husband, that I had to make another batch. This time I used little jars so I can bless more people with it, 🙂 It’s delicious.
Can I use white violet flowers?
Can you use the multi-colored violets for the jelly?
Hi Kim! Hello fellow Jammers! #1 This jam recipe is delicious! The lemon to violet ratio is perfect! I’ve made three batches thus far. I was approached by a man who really enjoyed his sample (I made 4oz jars for my son’s baseball team parents) asking if i would reduce the amount of sugar next time. What is the minimum amount of sugar you believe (again this is just opinion not practiced fact) I could use? Maybe 3 cups? Thanks for your guidance!
Hi, I made violet jelly for the 1st time, my water looked right, I added the lemon and got the beautiful lavender color, as it cooked down it became much darker, after processing I opened a jar to test and it has a bitter sour taste, I only used 1/2 the amount of lemon. Is this fixable or what did I do wrong to get a sour taste? Thank you in advance
I just finished making this recipe. Very easy to follow. Honestly the hardest part was picking all of the flowers. Love your recipes. Keep up the good work.
For some reason I’m not receiving your emails anymore. I love all your recipes and have made your peony, violet and dandelion jellys. I’ve tried to sign up again to start getting them, but I get a message saying I’m already signed up. What should I do to get them again? Thank you
I made this jelly yesterday, and it’s beautiful! I want to make more, but I won’t be able to process it right away. Can I keep the tea in the fridge or freeze it for several days until I’m ready to can?
@Suzi, I made my “tea” on monday and did not make my jam until Friday. I did strain out the violets after 24hrs or soaking. It turned out fine.
Do you have to can the jelly or can you just use it right away without needing to do anything with canning?
The violet tea color was a beautiful violet color, I didn’t remove the green parts, just no stem. But I was so bummed when I added them lemon juice, it turned pink! Is the lemon juice there for any other reason besides the color? If the color is what I like them can I omit it next time?
Hi Laura, lemon juice is added to jams and jellies to increase the acidy level making them safe to water bath can. Lemon juice also helps the pectin to form a gel, so I wouldn’t remove it. But if you want to change the color you could try adding some drops of food coloring. The color of the jelly will also depend on the flowers. We have both purple and white violets in our yard and when we use a mix of flowers or just one or the other the jelly changes color.
My Violet tea was a beautiful blue, then dark green, but after cooling and sitting in the fridge for 6 hours, it is very pale lavender… like hardly any colour at all…. will it still turn purple when I get set to add the lemon juice and boil it tomorrow morning?
@Roxanne, after 24 hours mine was a perfect violet. The lemon changed it to more of a pink unfortunately. Still pretty, but not violet.
Delicious! I made two batches last month and everyone loves it.
Thank you.
Not sure you’ll see this by the time o get supplies, but how much jelly does this make? If I get the mini jars (4oz I think?), how many might I expect to fill? Thanks for a fun idea and great recipe!
@Emily S.,
I would like to know the same! I wanted the smaller, embossed jars for gifts as well. 😊
@Tracy, I just made this and it made 12 small 4 oz jars.
Could you, please, clarify the amount of pectin needed? How many tablespoons would it be? Thank you so much!!!
Lana, if you are using normal pectin as listed in the recipe there are 6 tablespoons in a box. I hope that helps!
Hi, do you think I could freeze or dry the flowers until I get enough for 2 cups?
Thank you so much for the recipe! My kiddos and I had fun picking flowers and they thought the color change was amazing! 🙂 At what point in the process should the jelly be set? I took it out of the water bath and it is still liquidy, so wasn’t sure it it will set as it cools or if we did not succeed. Thank you for any guidance you may be able to provide!
I’m so glad you liked it! Jelly won’t set until it’s completely cooled down. It can take a few days. If it doesn’t set try this way of fixing it.
Hi, my husband and I went out and picked a lot of violets today, we removed all the green parts, well what I thought would be 2cups is really 1 plus a little more. I’m going to try and 1/2 the tea recipe and make that tonight, then go and pick some more flowers. The next bunch of flowers I’m going to leave the green part on, took forever to remove it.
Thanks for the recipe
Hi Pat, I never remove the green part on the flowers but I do remove the stems at the same time that I pick them. That way it doesn’t take much time at all.
i made this recipe last night and it is still fluid this morning. shouldnt it be set already ?
I made this today and it’s delicious. Thank you for the great recipe.
Can you do this with lavender?
Yes you could. 🙂 Lavender is a much stronger flower though, so I’d cut it back a lot. Maybe half a cup of blossoms.
Hi Kim, I noticed in your recipe you said to remove the stems but not the green parts (as you did in other flower recipes). I see green in your jar so I just want to make sure/clarify that leaving green on the flowers was ok? I don’t want to end up with a jelly that isn’t edible.
Some people will remove all the green because they think it makes the jelly bitter. But I never have with violets and my jelly always comes out great!
I made the Dandelion Jelly and Love it. Next year I’m making the Violet Jelly as my lawn is covered in beautiful Violets. Thanks so much for the Recipes.
Your welcome, I’m so glad that you enjoyed it! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I followed your directions and my jelly turned out so great! It was a little lighter because my flowers weren’t very dark but still turned out so pretty. The flavor is great! I can’t wait to share it will my family. I am making your dandelion jelly next! Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing, I’m so glad you like it! 🙂
Has anyone tried to add some flower pedals to the mix at the canning stage? For ascetics. Not sure how they would hold up. Or just be nasty.
Could I use Splenda or any other artificial sweetener??
Or at least half sugar and half artificial?
Here’s more information on Splenda and canning. https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_general.html
I personally have used it before. But one option would be to try using a no sugar pectin and lowering the amount of sugar in the recipe. I haven’t tried it yet though.
Made this last season and it won Best in Show in a fairly competitive county fair! Beautiful and tasty. Making it in mini jars as gifts to deliver during quarantine!
Did you use as much sugar as the recipe calls for? Or decrease the amount? New to jelly so these amounts just seem crazy high. Seems like we could do less.
I substituted 1 cup of Agave.
Most jam and jelly recipes have a lot of sugar in them because normally packaged pectin needs that high sugar to jell properly. If you want to use less sugar then you need to use a low or no-sugar pectin. 🙂 I haven’t tried it with this recipe yet. It’s on my todo list.
I remember this jelly from my child hood. I am sixty=five and have not eaten it since I was a child. Violets are blooming here and now that i have the recipe i will make some again, thanks so much for the memories. Mr. Lafferty
I am very new at canning, and have been wanting to make violet jelly for a long time. This year I have a lot of flowers blooming & time to try, so I’m anxious to get started, but I have a question about your recipe: How well does this set-up? I have looked at several recipes, most use same 2 C blossoms, 1/4 C lemon juice and 1 pkg pectin as your recipe, but only 2 C water with 2 C sugar. Your yield is about double of those, so I wonder if the pectin/liquid/sugar ratio allows it to set up as well with the extra water & sugar?
I’m sorry for not answering sooner! Yes this recipe sets up very well for me. I just finished making many batches this past week. 🙂
Mine didn’t set at all ?
Sarah if it didn’t set after a few days you may have over or undercooked it. Try my tips here for fixing runny jelly.
This is so pretty! <3 I've never heard of it but it sounds awesome.
I’ve never considered making jelly before let alone violet jelly. Thanks for sharing your recipe. 🙂
I’ve never heard of violet jelly, but now I really want to try making some.
I’ve never tried violet jelly – it looks almost too pretty to eat! 🙂 I’m sure it’s delicious!
oh my word Kim, never would have thought to make jelly out of these flowers… bet you could do with nasturium as well eh??? what think you?
I have never tried making jelly with nasturtiums but they are edible so it’s worth trying! If you do let me know how it turns out!
I’m making a lot of dandelion jelly right now and I’ll be posting that very soon. It’s so good, tastes like honey!