What's Blooming?

There's a lot that's green in my garden, and I'm thinking that it would be a perfect weekend to plant a few more items as well as getting out there for "the BIG weeding". In some ways I suppose the spring-weed is cathardic. You pull and pull all of those unwanted plants and overgrown areas to expose beautiful, black, rich soil only to later have it fill in with bits of color, fragrance and delight!

I stepped out this afternoon and realized how badly I need to weed, but also took stock of a few things.

I knew the one gooseberry plant was coming along quite nicely. It's snuggled up to the house and already has berries the size of my pinky finger. Bet we'll be eating gooseberries by early June!

Next I went to check on the current bush and found it pretty loaded.

Of course there are plenty of flowers blooming including the chive blossoms. I LOVE making chive blossom vinegar in the spring and love topping salads with the beautiful leaves as well. This area is in front of our fence along a path. It was an area that my husband didn't like to mow and I didn't care what was planted there so long as it didn't look overgrown and unkempt. It finally looks filled in and full of several goodies including gooseberries, raspberries, chives, alpine strawberries and many types of flowers.

My spouse always complains that several of my gardens are too "jungle-like" but I actually don't mind them being filled in. This is part of my herb garden which has many types of gourmet and medicinal herbs. It came along quite nicely this year with the mild winter. Originally we filled it in with some flowers, but i may move them out for more herb space!

How does your spouse feel about your gardens? 

Early Spring Finds and Easy Violet Blossom Jam

While the garden is just starting to pop up with some of the early spring plantings beneath my hoop house, I've been searching for springs bounty. So far I've come home with ramps for cooking and pickling, garlic mustard for pesto, wild onions and garlic, and violets for jam. I know there is a lot more out there starting to burst forth, I just have to find the time to go and get it!

Each year, I've been learning more about foraging too. I really do enjoy learning about what you can eat for free in nature. It's produced some wonderful foods and beverages, and my children enjoy heading out with mom to see what she can find.

My new favorite though is violet blossom jam. We made violet jelly last year, straining the violet blossoms out after they soaked overnight. This year though, I left them in, and made a freezer jam recipe. Maybe it was the laziness of not wanting to pull the canning items out of the basement, but it ended up being pure genius! I actually think I prefer the violet blossom jam to the jelly we made last year. If you can imagine a cross between a kiwi, melon and strawberry flavor with a hint of light floral as an aftertaste, then you can imagine how wonderful the violet blossom jam is.

The jam takes very little time to make too. In fact this year it took me even less time, since I bribed my daughter to pick the flowers initially. Picking the stems off the violets was the most consuming part of the process for me.

It's wonderful though, and I encourage anyone out there to try it and let me know how it turns out. Hurry though, violets are the gems of spring and won'tr be here in this abundance for long.

Violet blossom freezer jam is like spring in a jar!

Violet Blossom Jam Ingredients:
2 cups, loosely packed violet blossoms. Remove their stems.
The juice from 1 lemon
1-1/2 cup water
2-1/2 cups sugar
1 pkg. pectin

Place the violet blossoms and 3/4 cups of the water into a blender and blend well. Next add the freshly squeezed lemon juice to the blender and notice that the liquid turns from purple to fuchsia. Next the sugar and blend until the sugar is dissolved.

Next add the remaining 3/4 cups of water and a package of pectin into a non-reactive pot and bring it to a boil. Continuing to boil hard for 1 minute. Pour the hot pectin mixture into the blender with the pulverized violet blossoms and sugar and blend until thoroughly smooth.

The "jam" may now be poured into small jars or small storage containers. Once it is cool, add lids to cover and store in the freezer.

This recipe makes approximately 4 pints of violet blossom jam.

Blooming Lilacs

I went on a foraging expedition the other day to our local county property - I was HOPING to find Morels, but instead found several wild strawberry patches and raspberry brambles. I also returned home with a LARGE bunch of powdery purple old-style lilacs. The kind that have SO MUCH fragrance (insert smell-o-vision) that the entire house is filled with the sweet heady scent when the bouquet is brought into the house. The lilacs I cut are from an old bush near a farm house that was recently tore down.

Lilacs are my FAVORITE summer flower and it really is a shame they don't bloom all summer long. I haven't tried growing any of the ever blooming type lilacs, I'm just not sure they'd smell the same!

I learned through experience, how to keep my lilac bouquet fresh the longest:

• Collect flowers in early morning just as the dew starts to dry, or in the evening.
  
• Carry a small bucket of lukewarm water to place the newly cut stems immediately into water.
  
• Harvest "cluster-type" flowers before all the buds have opened.
  
• Once you have the lilacs at home, remove any foliage that would be submerged in water and re-cut the stems on a slant before putting them in the vase.
  
• One final tip I was taught was to split the branches, slitting them so that the water can more easily move up the woody stems!