Cutting, Storing and Using Herbs

Today at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show, I share Propagating, Planting, and Preserving herbs. (stop by at 2 pm if you are at the show.) Here are a few additional pieces of information of how to use those herbs you will be growing this year.

Herbs are lovely, but they are better when used.  Not only will the plant thank you by becoming bushier, your palette will thank you for sharing all these gorgeous flavors!

Here is an easy way to wash, prep and store your fresh cut herbs.

• Wash herbs in a large bowl of cool water, swishing them with your fingers to remove grit.  Lift the herbs from the water with your hands.  If there is a large amount of grit int he bottom of the bowl, wash the herbs again in fresh water.  Spin them dry in a salad spinner or blot dry with a clean kitchen towel.
• To keep herbs fresher longer, wrap the stem ends of cut herbs in a damp paper towel and stow in a zip seal bag.  Place in your crisper drawer and enjoy the herbs for more than a week.  Works on store bought herbs too! Hard herbs work best with this method, the ones with woody stems, like rosemary, oregano, marjoram and thyme.
• Soft herbs like to be  treated as you would a bouquet of flowers. Snip the base of the stems and put them in a glass of fresh water, changing out the water every day or two if it starts to cloud. Store them in the fridge.
• Basil may blacken in the refrigerator so keep it fresh by placing the stems in a glass of water and keep them at room temperature out of direct sun.
• To quickly separate the leaves from the stems of tender herbs, like parsley, dill, or cilantro, simply give the whole bunch a shave.  Hold the herbs by the stems over a cutting board, leaf ends angled down.  With a chef knife, shear the leaved off the stems using a downward shaving motion.  turn the bunch as you go and you will have a nice pile of herb leaves to work with in your recipes.
• Chop herbs using a very sharp knife.  A dull one can cause bruising of the leaves.  After stripping the leaves from the stems, gather the herbs into a pile on a cutting board.  Rest the fingertips of you guiding hand on the tip of the chef knife to keep it in contact with the cutting board.  Keeping the tip against the board, lift and lower the knife to chop across the pile as you chop stopping to gather the herbs back into a pile as needed.

Extend the flavor of your herbs by fashioning them into butters, vinegar, syrups and more.

Flavored Butter (sometimes called compound butter)

• Mash chopped hers plus a bit of salt and pepper into a stick of unsalted butter.  Wrap the butter in plastic and refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for up to a month or more.
• Melt over potatoes or grilled meat or vegetables, spread on toast or enjoy on crackers with tea.

Simple Syrup

• Bring 1 cup water., 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup packed hers to a rolling boil in a small saucepan.  Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.  Strain out the herb cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.  
• Use the syrup to flavor iced tea, make sorbet and prepare an alcoholic cocktail.

Herb Vinegar

• Put herbs in a wide mouth jar and bruise with the a wooden spoon.  Heat white wine or distilled white vinegar to 110 degrees (microwave on hi for 2 minutes or use your stove top.)  Pour the vinegar over the herbs then seal the jar and let sit in a cool dark place for about 2 weeks to infuse.  Decant and strain into another jar after steeping and enjoy for a year unrefrigerated.
• Splash on steamed or grilled veggies, douse a grilled salmon or make into a marinade or salad dressing.

Herbed Oil

• This is a dangerous undertaking, so make with caution and keep the finished oil no more than 2 days in the refrigerator.  Never steep or store at room temperature.  In a blender puree 3/4 cup herb leaves with 1/3 cup olive oil.  Add 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice.  
• Brush on bread round wit craft bruschetta, drizzle over over grilled fish or add to vinegar to make a salad dressing or marinade.

Anise hyssop - Herb of the Week

Last week I visited the Morton Arboretum and photographed a Golden Anise hyssop.  I love this plant, but had never seen a version with yellow leaves.  That was when I realized I had not done an herb of the week on this amazing bee and butterfly attracting plant.  

 

So this week’s Herb of the Week is 

                Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum).

The Native Americans found many uses for this North American native plant. The Cheyenne drank a tea of this herb to relieve a "dispirited heart." The Cree included the flowers herb in medicine bundles, and the Ojibwa made a protective charm of it.  The dried plant has been burned as an incense. Because of its height it makes a great back border in contemporary gardens and if you love butterflies in the garden, this plant will attract them, along with hummingbirds.  There are some who believe it has protective qualities and should be planted near the back door. It's a wonderful addition to the cottage garden.

This native perennial plant is 2-3½' tall, branching occasionally near the apex. The four-angled stems are light green.  The leaves are up to 4" long and 2" across, broadly lanceolate in shape they can end up a bit rounded in a mature plant.  They edges have a slight serration. They look a bit like catnip, another mint-family member, but larger.  The upper surface of the leaves is conspicuously veined and dull green, while the lower surface is white. The foliage has an anise scent. A member of the Mint family (Lamiaceae) they do have a square stem.  The small purple flowers are arranged in dense whorls that are crowded along the spike becoming more colorful toward its tips. The flowers bloom in scattered locations along the spikes for about 1-2 months from mid- to late summer. 

Almost any form of bee is drawn to Anise Hyssop flowers so watch if to see a parade of honeybees, bumblebees, digger bees, masked bees and Halictid bees along with and various butterflies, skippers, and moths. Deer, squirrels and other mammals  normally avoid consuming this plant as the anise scent of the foliage is repugnant to them. The anise scent may also deter some leaf-chewing insect species.

To Grow

The preference is full or partial sun, and will inhabit moist to dry conditions. The soil can consist of loam, clay-loam, or contain some rocky material. Anise Hyssop is generally disease resistant, but can drop leaves in a drought.  Occasionally, slugs and insects will feed on the leaves, creating holes. This member of the Mint family is more resistant to drought than many others.

Typical habitats include openings in dry upland forests, upland areas of prairies, scrubby barrens, and thickets. Cultivated forms of Anise Hyssop are often grown in flower gardens; these cultivars are often hybrids and vary in their fidelity to the wild forms of this plant. 

One popular variety of Anise hyssop Agastache scrophulariaefolia (Purple Giant Hyssop), has flowers with similar coloration to Anise Hyssop. However, the foliage of Purple Giant Hyssop doesn't have an anise scent and the undersides of its leaves are green, rather than white. Purple Giant Hyssop is hairier than Anise Hyssop, and it tends to be a taller plant. 

Anise hyssop is easily grown from seed, either by starting indoors as you would tomatoes or by sprinkling outside in spring or fall. Fall-planted seed will remain dormant and then sprout in the spring; this is the way mature plants sow their seed, after all. You can also winter sow Anise hyssop seeds. Your established anise hyssop will produce plenty of volunteer plants for you to share with friends or use to expand your planting. Fortunately, they’re extremely easy to transplant. Plantings can be increased by root division, too.

Seeds require light to germinate, so barely cover at room temperature to germinate 5-30 days. Keep soil moist but not sopping.  Don't put in direct sun. Transplant to 1 ft apart in rich soil and full sun or partial shade - stalks will be stronger in full sun. It might need staking in partial shade. It will thrive in full sun in well-drained garden soil

This perennial generally blooms the second year from seeds but might bloom the first year if it is happy. Cut it back by 1/3 after blooming, and it will get bushier and rebloom. Plants get 3-6 feet tall. Anise hyssop is hardy from zone 5 to 9.  It self-seeds readily and its roots travel underground, but it is not too aggressive. Deer avoid it, but rabbits generally do not.

To Use

Herb lovers claim it as a culinary herb, using the fresh or dried leaves in tea and crumbling the tangy flowers over fruit salad.  Bees love the flowers, and so do herb crafters, as blossoms retain their fragrance and color when dried.  As a result be sure to use it as a cut flower and in potpourri, and the flowers dry nicely to navy blue (the dried seed heads look pretty nice in the winter garden, too). 

This herb smells like black licorice and in fact has some chemicals in common with licorice, but the scent also has notes of lemon, pine, sage, black pepper, and camphor giving it a complex scent and flavor. The leaves or flowers are edible and can be used to sweeten tea or flavor sugar or quickbreads and muffins (add 1/2 cup chopped fresh flowers). Trim the flower heads and use fresh or dried in a tisane (herb tea), or separate the tiny flowers from the main stem to dot over the top of a fruit salad or garnish a summer cucumber soup.

Steep the leaves in milk for flavoring when making ice cream. You can make anise-hyssop honey by putting some dried leaves in a jar, pouring warm honey over them, and leaving the leaves in the honey for a month so the honey to soak up the herb taste. Make some delicious butter cookies by adding 2 tablespoons of the fresh minced flowers to a basic butter cookie dough. The flowers make a nice garnish for iced tea too.

Steep 2 teaspoons of fresh or 1 teaspoon of dried herb in a mug of hot water for 7-10 minutes for a slightly sedating and tranquilizing tea.  Anise Hyssop is native to the US, so Native Peoples used it regularly in madicinal brews.  The Cheyenne drank a tepid tea of anise hyssop to relieve the pain from coughing with chest colds. This herb produces sweating, and the Cheyenne also used it for sweatlodges. The Cree added it to regular tea to improve the taste, the Dakota and Omaha people flavored cooked foods with it, and the Iroquois made it into a wash against the itching of poison ivy.  It's also a traditional poultice for burns.

Medicinal Properties

Anise Hyssop Agastache foeniculum leaves have antibacterial properties and are taken as an infusion to alleviate coughs and colds. Anise is a carminative, warming digestive aid. So beyond the medical uses mentioned above among Native American Peoples, it has other well practiced uses, like Anise Hyssop clears excessive dampness in the stomach and spleen and heaviness in the chest. It is used as a preventive for heat stroke and summer colds.

The leaves are used topically as a compress for angina, burns, fever, headache, heatstroke, and herpes. The plant is excellent in baths and foot-baths for simply cooling off or for treating sunburn and fungal conditions such as athlete’s foot and yeast overgrowth. I use it in tinctures for colds, sore throats, flu, and respiratory problems. I craft salves with an anise hyssop base for wound healing. Poultices made by mashing fresh leaves into a paste and applying to wounds and injuries is also very effective due to is antibacterial properties. 

Recipes

Strawberry Anise Hyssop Jelly

An Original Recipe by Christine, lifesalasagna.blogspot.com

Makes about 8-9 4-ounce jars (about 4 half pints)

4 lbs fresh strawberries

2 cups sugar

12-14 large (24-30 small) Anise Hyssop leaves gently rinsed and patted dry

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, strained

Stack Anise Hyssop leaves on a cutting board and slice into wide 1/4-3/8" chiffonade.  Add to large 6-8 quart pot with the sugar, give it a stir. Wash, trim and chop your strawberries, adding them to the pot, and stirring occasionally as you work. Place the pot on the stove and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently.  When the berries are starting to cook and just before they reach a simmer, give them a good smashing with a potato masher or back of a large spoon. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir gently, occasionally.

Remove from heat and begin draining berries in small batches.  Stir gently with fork and remove all of the Anise Hyssop herbs and unripened strawberries that did not cook down.  Do not press solids as you do not want any in your liquid. Return liquid to the stove on high heat and bring to a full boil. Boil liquid down by about half, stirring often. This will take about 20-25 minutes. 

Return the strawberry solids to the pot and add the lemon juice. Stir well and reduce heat until a gentle simmer can be maintained. Stir frequently so that it does not scorch until a small dab of jam placed on a frozen plate, and returned to the freezer for about a minute, is firm.  It will not gel but will have a nice, non-runny consistency. This will take about 5-7 minutes.

Not canning:  Pour into sterile hot jars and allow to cool before refrigerating. Use within 1-2 weeks.

Canning:  Pour into sterile hot 4 ounce jars, 3/8" headspace and process for 5 minutes.

You can make this in smaller batches by reducing the recipe and sticking to proportions:  1/4 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 4-6 Anise Hyssop leaves to each 1 lb of strawberries.

Anise Hyssop Syrup

20 leaves (1 handful) anise hyssop

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Directions

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan over high heat.  Bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain and refrigerate.

Cough drops

You must make a syrup with sugar, not honey to make cough drops, but you can use raw sugar or brown sugar instead of white sugar and it will work just as well.

Instead of pouring your strained hot syrup into a bottle, keep boiling it. Every minute or so, drop a bit into cold water. When it forms a hard ball in the cold water, immediately take off the heat. Pour your very thick syrup into a buttered flat dish. Cool, then cut into small squares.

A dusting of powdered sugar will keep them from sticking. Store airtight in a cool place.

Strawberry Anise Cocktail

1/2 oz anise hyssop syrup

3 oz vermouth

1 oz vodka

2 ripe strawberries, washed and stems removed

Directions

Place ice and all ingredients except the strawberries into a cocktail shaker.  Place a fine mesh strainer over the cocktail shaker and press the strawberries through it with the back of a spoon to "juice" them into the shaker.  Shake until nice and cold and strain into a glass.

Lemon Sorbet in an Ice Cream Freezer

The ice cream freezer was patented on this day (May 30th) in 1848. Now at the time they were hand crank and required elbow grease as well as large amounts of chipped ice, but they did create a great frozen treat.

When my husband was Farm manager and later Site manager for Kline Creek Farm in Winfield, Illinois, every summer we would have an Ice Cream Social where we would hand crank hundreds of gallons of ice cream to serve to visitors. 

courtesy of 1890 farmer on flickr.com

The volunteers used ice blocks from the previous winter's ice cutting on the lake at the farm. They crushed it and mixed it with rock salt, then packed it around the one-gallon metal containers that held the ingredients. The salt melted the ice while a crank turned the container. As ice melted, more was added until the eggs, cream, sugar and flavoring became ice cream.  It took about one and a half hours to make a gallon of ice cream this way.

When you make ice cream with herbs you generally do so with a simple syrup rather than eggs and cream, which results in a Sorbet rather than an  true ice cream.  However, you can still freeze it and enjoy on a hot day using your ice cream freezer.  So selebrate the patenting of the Ice Cream Freezer with this great recipe using my favorite herb! 

Lemon Verbena Sorbet

2 1/2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped lemon verbena
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine the water, sugar, and lemon verbena in a medium, heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil. Stir the pot until the sugar dissolves, and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Allow the pot to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the herb-syrup to steep while it cools. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until thoroughly chilled. Strain, add the lemon juice, and process in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer the sorbet to an airtight container and let firm in the freezer for at least 2 hours before serving.

Happy birthday, Nicholas Culpeper!

This herbal practitioner wrote The Complete Herbal in 1653—and it's still in print. Culpeper's work is a fascinating combination of astrological herbalism and careful observation of the way medicinal herbs were used in folk healing practices of his time.

Nicholas Culpepper was an English botanist and herbalist, which at the time was synonymous with also being a physician. He was born on October 18, 1616 and died at the very young age of 38. He wrote or translated a total of 79 books. Two of the most notable are The English Physitian (1652) and The Complete Herbal (1653). He did however; use the classical method of classifying herbs by Element, planet and constellation and left behind an excellent body of reliable pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge on that basis.

Nicholas Culpepper is influential in the English speaking world because he wrote in English rather than in Latin or Greek and classified herbs in the classical manner and thereby kept this methodology alive for posterity. Culpepper knew Latin and Greek but wrote in English for the sake of the majority and the poor who only understood English. Culpepper's father was a church minister and was well versed in matters Christian, Biblical, astronomical and astrological.

It should be remembered that astrology as it was practiced by Culpepper bears little resemblance to what it has become today. In Classical Astrology herbs were classified by Element, planet and constellation, as they had been for millennia, based on their color, geometry, degree of heat, time of maturation, and other factors. The planetary association was used symbolically and not literally to derive the nature and character of the herb and from this, its action and subsequent medicinal use. To gain knowledge of the herb, some contemplation of the symbolic associations of each planet (not physical planet) - parts of the body, humeral correspondences, degree of heat, etc - in relation to the indications presenting themselves, to see how and when the herb can be used. This type of understanding and use of astrology, it seems, would be difficult to teach another person unless they had a natural inborn aptitude or at the very least a strong desire to honestly learn it. One thing is certain, the average person, although wanting, could not merely open a book and immediately comprehend it.

An example of this methodology out of Culpepper's writing is as follows: On the herb Lovage: "It is an herb of the Sun, under the sign of Taurus. If Saturn offend the throat, (as he always doth if he be occasioner of the malady, and in Taurus in the Genesis), this is your cure."

Keep in mind that in this application of astrology the Sun is hot and dry and Saturn is cold and moist. They naturally oppose each other. This does not mean that Saturn literally rules over the throat. It means that the condition present (cool) produces a condensation of "substance" to take place in the area of the throat that warmth will dissolve and break up. Warmth on a sore throat almost always works to clear it.

Other physicians would liked to have stopped Culpepper from bringing his remedies to the common folk; he translated some of the standard Latin medical texts into English; the equivalent of revealing closely guarded medical secrets. To reveal such knowledge was a banned practice because of medical monopoly enforced by government. Culpepper cleverly waited until the English Civil War which made it all but impossible for the College of Physicians to enforce the laws.  He made his translated writings available in the vernacular English and sold them at a low price, making it possible for anyone who could read to have them. 

It is noteworthy and not insignificant that Nicholas Culpepper’s most famous work, The Complete Herbal(1653) was , aside from the Bible, the only text in history to never go out of print!  Herbalists today still revere it and find much value within its pages.  Thanks to his determination to bring healing to the masses by introducing them to the wonder of the herbs and plants available to even the poorest of people, Culpepper represents so much of what draws many of us to herbalism in the first place.  He recognized the right we all have to good health and the wonder of the plant kingdom which can make that health freely available to all.

The Complete Herbal is now available in digital copy at Bibliomania.  I love the fact that they have uploaded it by herb, of course these are the names of the herbs as he knew them so violets are under “heart ease.”  At the bottom are his recipes for curative syrups and conserves and other medicial uses. 

Like this one- Making Syrups

A syrup is a medicine of a liquid form, composed of infusion, decoction and juice. And, For the more grateful taste. For the better keeping of it: with a certain quantity of honey or sugar, hereafter mentioned, boiled to the thickness of new honey.

You see at the first view, that this aphorism divides itself into three branches, which deserve severally to be treated of, viz.
1. Syrups made by infusion.
2. Syrups made by decoction.
3. Syrups made by juice.

Of each of these, (for your instruction-sake, kind countrymen and women) I speak a word or two apart.

First, Syrups made by infusion, are usually made of flowers, and of such flowers as soon lose their colour and strength by boiling, as roses, violets, peach flowers, &c. They are thus made: Having picked your flowers clean, to every pound of them add three pounds or three pints, which you will (for it is all one) of spring water, made boiling hot; first put your flowers into a pewter-pot, with a cover, and pour the water on them; then shutting the pot, let it stand by the fire, to keep hot twelve hours, and strain it out: (in such syrups as purge) as damask roses, peach flowers, &c. the usual, and indeed the best way, is to repeat this infusion adding fresh flowers to the same liquor divers times, that so it may be the stronger) having strained it out, put the infusion into a pewter bason, or an earthen one well glazed, and to every pint of it add two pounds of sugar, which being only melted over the fire, without boiling, and scummed, will produce you the syrup you desire.

Secondly, Syrups made by decoction are usually made of compounds, yet may any simple herb be thus converted into syrup: Take the herb, root, or flowers you would make into a syrup, and bruise it a little; then boil it in a convenient quantity of spring water; the more water you boil it in, the weaker it will be; a handful of the herb or root is a convenient quantity for a pint of water, boil it till half the water be consumed, then let it stand till it be almost cold, and strain it through a woollen cloth, letting it run out at leisure: without pressing. To every pint of this decoction add one pound of sugar, and boil it over the fire till it come to a syrup, which you may know, if you now and then cool a little of it with a spoon. Scum it all the while it boils, and when it is sufficiently boiled, whilst it is hot, strain it again through a woollen cloth, but press it not. Thus you have the syrup perfected.

Thirdly, Syrups made of juice, are usually made of such herbs as are full of juice, and indeed they are better made into a syrup this way than any other; the operation is thus: Having beaten the herb in a stone mortar, with a wooden pestle, press out the juice, and clarify it, as you are taught before in the juices; then let the juice boil away till about a quarter of it be consumed; to a pint of this add a pound of sugar, and when it is boiled, strain it through a woollen cloth, as we taught you before, and keep it for your use.

If you make a syrup of roots that are any thing hard, as parsley, fennel, and grass roots, &c. when you have bruised them, lay them in steep some time in that water which you intend to boil them in hot, so will the virtue the better come out.

Keep your syrups either in glasses or stone pots, and stop them not with cork nor bladder, unless you would have the glass break, and the syrup lost, only bind paper about the mouth.

All syrups, if well made, continue a year with some advantage; yet such as are made by infusion, keep shortest.

Culpepper clearly states that he used cold blooded reason, proven by experience through observation in Nature through great diligence and good conscience to write about what he did for a living. It seems pretty straight forward.  I find it interesting to note that in some things the world does not change. The powerful and interest minded always seem to suppress those with the simplest and cheapest knowledge. However, if Culpepper's practices worked, as is evident that they did, then why is it summarily presumed that they would not work today?  Gives one something to think about, eh?

How Tuesday - Violet syrup

I have to admit I am busy with the spring garden in preparation and the programs I have been doing and scheduling, but I just had to share this (so I am not just posting this becasue it keeps me from writing a blog myself!!)

With spring the violets bloom first.  Here in Illinois they are coming, but with 37 degrees as a high and snow predicted I am guessing we will not have a bumper crop here for a bit yet.  However, if you live a bit farther south than the great lakes, this is the perfect time to make Violet syrup and flower jellies.

My freind Tina Sams (of the Essential Herbal Magazine) had a great post back in 2009 that she recently updated about how to make violet syrup.  Her blog is great so I suggest you click the link and check it out.

http://theessentialherbal.blogspot.com/2009/05/violet-syrup-et-cetera.html

We were again published in the Essential Herbal Magazine.  If you want to subscribe to this reasonably priced Herb Magazine for all types of herb lovers, check out this link: Essential Herbal.

Thank you!

Herb of the Week - Violets

   

Wonderful wild garden and prairie flowers, Violets also make great borders and companions for upright flowering plants, like hybrid roses and herbs.  They are easy to grow from seed and since this is garden planning time, I thought you might want to know more about this special little edible flower.

So this week's Herb of the Week is Sweet Violets.

The Ancient Greeks considered the Violet a symbol of fertility and love, they used it in love potions. Pliny recommended that a garland of them be worn about the head to ward off headaches and dizzy spells.  The scent of violets is fleeting, so making a syrup or freezing a tea made from fresh leaves and flowers is a great way to preserve its wonderful scent.

To Grow

Violets are perennials that spread via runner.  They are originally from Europe, but are now naturalized throughout North America, and can be found growing in most any soil or situation. Violets are easily cultivated through root cuttings or seeds. There exist over 900 species, however all have practically the same medicinal and edible herb values.

The heart shaped leaves, often with scalloped or slightly serrated edges, are dark green, smooth or sometimes downy underneath, and grow in a rosette at the base of the plant.  Roots are creeping and send out runners. Depending on soil and the amount of light the plant receives the flowers may be from deep purple or blue to pinkish or even yellow white. All have 5 petals, which may have a yellow (fur) or beard on the inside of two of the petals, blooming from March to June.

To Use

Gather flowers in full bloom, leaves anytime, and rootstock in fall. Dry root for later use.  Medicinal and edible, the flowers and leaves of viola are made into a syrup used in alternative medicine mainly for respiratory ailments associated with congestion, coughing, and sore throat. Large doses of the root contain an alkaloid called violine which is emetic (causing vomiting).  In some cultures this was used as a cure, although I don’t recommend it. 

A decoction made from the root can be used as a laxative. Tea made from the entire plant is used to treat digestive disorders and since it is rich in vitamin A and C great for cold season.  New research has detected the presence of a glycoside of salicylic acid (natural aspirin) which substantiates its use for centuries as a medicinal remedy for headache, body pains and as a sedative.  Other constituents in the plant such as Eugenol, Ferulic-acid, Kaempferol, Quercetin, Scopoletin, also show promise in the treatment of many kinds of cancer, arthritis, AIDS, gum disease and more, although these studies are still recent. Used externally the fresh crushed leaves reduce swelling and soothe irritations. Violet leaf oil is good for tinnitus (ringing in the ears.)

As a bath additive the fresh crushed flowers are soothing to the skin and the aroma is very relaxing.

Flowers are also edible and used in salads, made into jelly, frozen in ice cubes and candied for decoration.

Recipes

Simple Violet Syrup (for treating coughs, colds and headaches)

2 cups boiling water

1 cup packed fresh flowers and leaves

2 lb. sugar

Pour boiling water over fresh crushed flowers and leaves cover and let stand for 12 hours. Strain and squeeze through cloth, add sugar and boil for 1 hour or until syrupy. Store in glass jars. Give 1 to 3 tsp. 2 or 3 times a day (only 1 tsp. for children.)

One of my herbal pals at Prairieland Herb Farm in Iowa  has a blog detailing how to make violet syrup.

Violet Tea

1 cup water

1/4 cup fresh or dried violet leaves or flowers

Steep dried or fresh violets in 1 cup of water for 10 min. stain, use honey to sweeten to taste. Take in 1/2 cup doses twice a day for medicinal use or enjoy one cup slowly as a morning tea.

Violet Jelly

Violet flowers make a killer jelly.  I like this recipe although when I first started making this I used the Sure-Jel recipe for grape jelly and substituted about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of fresh violet flowers for the grapes.

2 heaping cups of fresh violet petals
2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup well-strained, clear lemon juice
4 cups sugar
3 oz liquid pectin (Certo) (you can also use powdered Sure-Jel dissolved in water)

Wash petals well, drain and place in heat-proof glass or nonreactive bowl. Pour boiling water over petals and let steep from 30 minutes to 24 hours. It usually takes about two hours for violets. Strain through a fine sieve, reserving the clear, purplish liquid or infusion. If not using immediately, refrigerate up to 24 hours.

Place jars and lids on rack in pan or stockpot deep enough to cover them with about two inches of water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, keeping the jars hot until ready to fill.

To make the jelly, stir lemon juice and sugar into reserved infusion in a two-quart nonreactive or stainless steel pan. Bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Add the liquid pectin and continue to boil two minutes, skimming any foam that may rise to the surface.

Ladle quickly into jars to within about 1/8 inch from the top; clean each rim and threads of the jar as it's filled, and place flat lid and ring on each before filling the next. Screw band on tightly and invert jar on tea towel for about 5 to 10 minutes. Jars should seal and lids should pop shut within 10 minutes as they cool. If they do not seal, you can place them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes or place in the refrigerator.

Sealed jars will last up to one year in a cool, dark place. Put any unsealed jelly in the refrigerator. They should keep about three weeks. Makes four or five half-pint jars.

We will soon be sharing garden planning tips so if you are thinking about including herbs in your flower or vegetable garden or creating a personal herb garden, please stop back for more info.

Marcy