I always see bloggers making Dandelion jelly or using the greens. We had a large abundance of dandelions in Niobrara and since there were plenty that we knew for certain were chemical free at our farm my mom and I decided to give this experiment a try.
RECIPE FOR DANDELION JELLY
- 1 quart of lightly packed fresh organic bright dandelion flowers (try to use only yellow petals discarding the green which I just pinched off)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 lemon, zest of, thinly chopped
- 5 1/2 cups lavender sugar with lavender
- 1 vanilla bean split (we didn't have a vanilla bean so just used Mexico vanilla)
- 1 (1 3/4 ounce) package dry pectin
Directions:
- Using stainless steel pan, boil the flowers in 2 quarts of spring water for 10 minutes, cool, and strain, pressing the liquid out of the flowers gently, then restrain through a coffee filter.
- Measure 3 cups of the liquid, add the lemon juice, zest and pectin. Optional: add 1 split vanilla bean.
- Put into a deep jelly kettle and bring to a rolling boil, then add sugar and stir to mix well.
- Stir and boil hard for 1 1/2 minutes, or until mixture sheets from a wooden spoon, skim, carefully remove vanilla pod, pour into hot clean half pint jelly jars and seal.
It honestly tastes like a fresh local honey more or less. The lemon does also stand out. It was a lot of work but I think I would do it again as a fun spring activity. Also don't you just love our super fancy stove?? Obviously our cabin needs a kitchen make over at some point!
1 comment:
I'm glad you posted this, I saw your photos on Instagram & was very intrigued. I've never heard of it before & it's interesting that the jelly tastes like honey.
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