Growing Violets / Making Candied Violets - Week 12

Violets (also known as pansies or violas) are a pretty and prolific edible perennial that are very shade-tolerant. I also provide a recipe and instructions for making your candied violets. Candied Violet recipe: as many violets as you want to candy, harvested 10 at a time if possible (this yields enough to make 60+ violets) 1 egg white 1/2 cup superfine sugar (or equivalent amount of regular granulated white sugar blended for 10 seconds in a blender) 1/4 - 1/2 tsp water a spoon a soft paintbrush 1. Working 10 at a time, cut violets from the plant. Inspect for any insects/insect damage and discard any flowers that are unsuitable. 2. Add your water to your egg white. You just want to add enough so that the texture changes and it becomes slightly less viscous. 3. Paint a thin layer of the egg white mix onto each of the petals of the violet, front and back. I recommend you start by painting all the petals on the "face" side of the flower, then flip over and paint the back. 4. After the flower is coated in egg white, dip it into your container of fine sugar face side down. Gently smush it into the sugar so that the face gets coated, then using a spoon coat the back side of the flower with sugar. Once it is well-coated on both sides, tap the flower with your spoon to remove any excess sugar. 5. Trim the stem as close to the flower as you can. 6. Set the flower to dry on a drying rack or plate face up. Leave undisturbed for 24 hours. After 24 hours, flip the flower face down and leave undisturbed for another 24 hours. 7. Once the flowers are completely dry, store them in an airtight container for up to 3 months.