Wild Violet Jelly

Did you know you could make jelly from wild violets,  the pretty little purple "weeds" that grow in your yard every spring?  You can!  And let me tell you, it's good!  It has a very unique taste that is hard to describe.  It doesn't have a floral taste like you might think.

Wild violets also have numerous health benefits! They are high in vitamins A, C, bioflavonoids, calcium, and magnesium.  The leaves can be used for skin rashes, sore and swollen joints, eczema, digestive problems, bruises, made into a cough syrup, used as a laxative, sore throats, arthritis, and they are a natural diuretic with cleansing properties!  You can read more about that HERE. I'm going to post an old recipe from my great grandmother on how to make a salve from the leaves sometime later next week, so be sure to check back!

In addition to the health benefits of wild violets, you can also use the flowers to be visually appealing in different food dishes.  Toss a few flowers into a green leafy salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing for a pop of color.  You can also put the flowers in ice cube trays, fill with water, and freeze to have ice cubes with little violets inside every cube.  Or, fill the trays with white wine and freeze to enjoy in a glass of wine!  Put a few of the flowers on top of a cake to add a touch of elegance.  The possibilities are just endless!!

To make the jelly, you only use the purple flowers.  Look how pretty they all look in a bowl!

Violet Jelly
3 cups violet flowers
3 cups water
approx 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
4 cups sugar
1 box pectin
6 half pint jars

1. Collect and rinse violet flowers
2. Bring water to a boil and add violets.
3. Allow violets to steep overnight in water.
4. Strain liquid through a sieve, discard flowers.  It will be a blueish liquid like this:

5. Add enough apple cider to bring the liquid back up to 3 cups.  It will turn from the blueish color to a pretty purple color:

6. In a medium sized pot, add liquid and stir in pectin
7. Bring the liquid to a boil.
8. Add the sugar.
9. Return to a full boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Make sure to continuously be stirring to prevent scorching.
10. Ladle hot jelly into half pint jars.
11. Process in a water canner for 10 minutes.
12. Allow jelly to sit so it will set up, do not move or disturb.
Yield 6 half pint jars

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Also, if you haven't already, be sure to check out the web page I created for Mama Hamptons!

It's Been Forever!

It's been forever since I last posted and I've had a lot going on!

Last Wednesday, we put Daisy the dog down. Ryan took it especially hard, but I have been okay.

2 weeks ago, we captured a pregnant, stray cat to take to the humane society. We took her and the society told me that they were going to have to put the cat down since she was pregnant. I couldn't knowingly let them put her down, so I brought her back. We are now "foster owners" until I can find her a good home.

Our cat, Nutmeg, went missing for several days. Our neighbor came knocking on our door with Nutmeg under his arm. She had fallen asleep on one of his flatbed trailers and he unknowingly took her for a ride. She spent several days over at his old house. He went over there to check on things and saw Nutmeg coming in and out through his old dryer vent. We were so happy to have her back.

Then, we finally took our Myrtle Beach vacation. It was wonderful! We spent 13 1/2 hours in the car each way. The girls were very good in the car considering the long drive! We got there Saturday evening and left Tuesday morning. It was so much fun! The girls had a great time seeing the beach and the ocean for the first time. I took tons of pictures and I will post them when I have more time.

While we were on vacation, our foster cat, Peaches, had 5 kittens. They are all now living in our bathroom until we can find a good home for them. They are just the cutest things. I have some pictures of them also.

The farmer's market is still doing extremely well. I have started selling my pickles and relishes by the case. We just spent the entire weekend canning over 200 different items.

As far as crafts go, I hope to have a new project up by next week. I have an idea for a cute pet bed. I also have a few other things in mind to start sharing again.

Market and Other Things

Last weekend, we went up to my dad's and came home with 720 ears of corn! That's a lot of corn! We make the trip up there, and the family takes what they want. This year we only had 6 dozen left over after everyone took what they wanted. I had Ryan donate it to a local halfway house.

This is the best corn I have ever had! I love Silver Queen corn! It is so sweet and good!

After I put up the corn, I saved the cobs and made Appalachian Jelly this past weekend. If you've never had the jelly, put it on your list of things to try!

In the past few weeks, I had pickled over 300 lbs. of cucumbers! I am hoping that will last me until the Farmer's Market is over in October, but I really don't think it will. I make bread & butter, dill, jalapeno, habanero, horseradish, hot & sweet, and dill chip pickles. The habanero ones are my biggest seller.

WE took the kids to the fair 2 weeks ago to let them see all of the animals. Jaiden finally warmed up this year and wasn't afraid to pet anything. Arya on the other hand, just wasn't quite sure of those huge cows!

I hate to say this but, the fair is the biggest waste of money! We spent over $50 just to get in, eat and get something to drink! It's just so expensive! I am glad I had extra money from doing the market!



I have also been spending some time picking green beans from our garden. This was the first year we planted beans and I don't think I will plant them again. There is just too much bending to get all beans picked. We also got a ton of tomatoes that have just now started to be picked. We have had some mild weather and the tomatoes were not turning.


This is my stand at the Farmer's Market. I took this picture the first week. I have now expanded onto another table to hold everything I make. I was afraid to make too much stuff the first week in case it didn't sell. Now, I could almost use a third table! It's amazing how much we can grow learning from experience!


This was just a small taste of what I have been up to. I have also started trying to get ready for our vacation in 3 weeks. I hope to have some craft projects up pretty soon! I have to get my craft show inventory up for the shows that start in October.

Blackberries, Blackberries, Blackberries

This is a 3-in-1 blog post today! I am going to tell you how to freeze blackberries, make blackberry cobbler, and freeze blackberry cobbler. Last week, it was a peach kick, this week, I am up to my elbows in blackberries!

For those of you that like blackberry cobbler and think it is too hot to use the oven right now, you can freeze your blackberries to use later. All you have to do is rinse your berries and allow to drain. Place in a freezer bag and freeze overnight. The next day, use a food sealer to seal the bags. It's that easy! When you are ready to use the berries, pour into a colander and allow to thaw, then rinse.

Now the best part, cobbler!! I usually make this cobbler 6 at a time. I have halved the recipe to make 3 (you could do the math to only do one). As good as this cobbler is, you'll probably want to make 3, one to take, one to keep, and one to freeze. As you can tell, I was in the picture taking mood! Oh, I cook these in the disposable 8x8 aluminum pans.

Blackberry Cobbler (3)

Crust
2 c. all purpose flour
2 c. sugar
2 c. milk
6 tsp. baking powder
4 tbl. margarine, approx.

Filling
1 qt. fresh blackberries
2 c. sugar

In a large saucepan, mix blackberries with sugar on high. Stir to incorporate the sugar. Allow to cook for about 10 minutes.






Melt butter in microwave. Pour enough butter to completely cover the bottom of the pan. Mix all the dry ingredients for the crust. It is important to mix the dry ingredients together before the milk to avoid a lumpy batter. Slowly add milk. Your batter will be very runny. Pour the batter into the pan with the melted butter. You want the butter/batter mixture to be just under the halfway point in the pan.

Ladle 1/3 of the blackberry mixture to pan. Make sure to get some of the juice! Do not stir this at any time!! You want your cobbler to fill the pan about 3/4 (give or take)full.


Bake at 350* for 30 minutes.
(no idea why the camera decided to make my cobbler look red. I assure you, it's a deep purple color)


To freeze the cobbler, cover pan with foil. Freeze overnight. Remove foil, place in a food saver bag, and seal. When ready to eat, allow to thaw and warm in the oven at 350* for about 5 minutes.

Pickle Making: 101

There is nothing like making pickles yourself! They are so much better than store bought ones. And, cheaper too! With a few basic supplies, you can turn your home grown cucumbers (or store bought) into delicious pickles!

Before you start, you need a few basic canning supplies:
1. Hot water canner - They are about $18.00 from Walmart. You do not need a pressure canner to do basic canning.
2. Canning tongs - Ball Canning makes tongs that are specifically for lifting hot jars in and out of the hot boiling water. The pack also contains a magnetic lid lifter and a thingy for popping air bubbles in jelly. ("thingy" is my technical term)

Make sure to get pickling cucumbers. They are smaller than the other cucumbers and are grown especially for pickling. There are such things as "salad cucumbers", these are not the same, the pickles made out of salad cucumbers just do not taste as good.

Pickles

10 lbs pickling cucumbers
1 package Mrs. Wages Dill Pickle Mix
White vinegar
12 pint sized canning jars with lids
Kosher salt

1. Cut your cucumbers. Cut in 4ths for spears or thin slices for chips. Place in a large bowl of ice water with some kosher salt. Let sit for a hour.

2. Filler your canner half way with water and place on burner set to high. Be sure to cover with lid.

3. Prepare pickling mix according to package directions.

4. Pack cucumbers into jars, tightly.

5. Pour pickling liquid into jars, leaving and 1/2" space from the top of the jar.

6. Place lid and ring on jar. Do not over tighten.

7. Using tongs, place jars into boiling water.

8. Allow to sit in water for 10 minutes.

9. Remove jars and allow to sit until cool. Make sure that all of the lids have popped down. Some will pop after they have set for few minutes after being taken out of the water.

10. Store pickles in a cool, dark place until ready to use. Pickles will be ready to eat after 24 hours. Be sure to refrigerate any jars after opening.

What I've Been Up To

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be doing so well at the Farmer's Market!!! I just cannot keep up with orders! My first week, I sold 30 jars of jellies and pickles. Last week, I sold over 60 jars of jellies and pickles! On top of all this, I am selling assorted baked goods.

This weekend, my grandmother's brother came up from Georgia and brought me a bushel and half of peaches (75 lbs.) Saturday afternoon, I peeled, sliced, and froze peaches until I was so sticky that I needed a bath! I have never seen peaches so big in all of my life!
With the peaches, I plan on making peach jelly, peach topping, peach muffins, peach cobbler, and peach fried pies. Peaches, peaches, peaches!
Also on Saturday, I got 2 bushels (80 lbs.) of cucumbers to pickle. I got through about 60 lbs. of them. I already have 144 jars of pickles!! My white shirt that I had on yesterday has been yellowed and my old tablecloth is now a pretty yellow!

I am so tried after this weekend! I got a charlie horse last night and my leg is killing me. I still have lots of work to do!! I need to make up some more jelly, baked goods, and cobblers. No matter how busy I have have been, I am making sure to spend ample time with the girls! We have a movie to finish this evening!

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

If you like blueberries, I have a treat for you! This is one of my coffee cakes I am selling at the Farmer's market. Very easy to make!

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

2 c. All Purpose flour
1 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 stick margarine, softened
1 c. milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pint fresh blueberries

Streusel:
1/2 c. b. sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/2 stick margarine

Mix all cake ingredients in a bowl except blueberries. In a separate bowl, mix streusel ingredients. Oil and flour a 10" tube pan. Pour half of cake batter in pan. Add blueberries. Pour remaining batter on top. Sprinkle streusel topping on top of cake. Bake at 350* for 45-50 minutes. When cool, turn onto cooling rack, then onto serving plate.

Strawberry Jalapeno Jelly

This is another tasty treat I am making to sell at the local Farmer's Market and it is good!! Last night, I spent over an hour looking for a recipe for making this and I came up empty. I found strawberry jelly and I found jalapeno jelly, but no recipe with the two combined. Plus, the recipes for strawberry jelly called for 7 cups of sugar for one batch and I thought that was outrageous!! So, I decided to make my own! Here's my strawberry jalapeno jelly recipe from my kitchen to yours.

Strawberry Jalapeno Jelly

2 1/2 lbs. fresh strawberries, hulled
3 jalapenos, stems removed
3/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp. lemon juice
8 cups sugar (makes 2 batches)
2 packages powdered pectin

Place strawberries, jalapenos, and vinegar in a food processor and puree. Add lemon juice. Measure out 3 cups of strawberry mixture and bring to a boil. Add one package of pectin and allow to boil for 2 minutes. Add 4 cups cups of sugar and bring to a roaring boil for 3-4 minutes. (It took awhile to get mine to boil.) Pour into sterilized jars and process in hot water for 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make another batch.

Makes 12 half pints

Great over cream cheese.

Peach Jalapeno Jelly

One word, "Yum"!!! This stuff is so good!! I made two batches yesterday to sell at the farmer's market to earn some extra money. I can eat this stuff right out of the jar with a spoon, but you can serve it over cream cheese with crackers.

Peach Jalapeno Jelly

6 lbs. fresh peaches
3 fresh jalapenos, stems removed
2 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 c. apple cider vinegar
6 cups sugar
2 packs dry pectin

Peel and de-pit peaches. Place peaches and jalapenos in food processor to puree. Add vinegar and lemon juice. Measure out 3 cups of peach mixture and heat to a boil. Be careful, it will splatter. Add 1 packet of pectin and bring to a boil for one minute. Add 3 cups of sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into sterilized jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Repeat process with remaining ingredients.

Makes 12 half pints