Each spring as the weather warms, days lengthen and the earth begins to wake up, I find myself eagerly anticipating that very first violet blossom. Sometimes the first hint I have of viola’s presence is when I catch a whiff of beautiful fragrance floating in the air. More often I am checking the violet patch each day ready to bear witness. Violets only bloom for a short while in the spring, perfuming the air with incredible fragrance and upon sight, filling the eyes with a feast of purple color. Be sure to search for some, you won’t be disappointed!

Make Violet Honey

My absolute favorite way to enjoy violets is by making and eating violet honey. The flavor of the flowers and of the honey harmonize together magically. It really is incredibly tasty and makes me think that this must be the perfect fairy food. Violet honey is wonderful on toast, biscuits, in tea or by the spoonful, and it is easy to make.

Step One: Visit The Violet Patch

Visit the violet patch and gather as many flowers as you like. Take some time to enjoy your visit breathing in the beautiful perfume of the violets and munching some leaves and flowers.

Step Two: Garble & Wash

Next it is time to get the violets ready to become violet honey. Depending on how careful you were with your harvest, you might need to garble your violet flowers: picking out any unwanted blades of grass or other plants, snipping the long stems off the blossoms and looking for anything else you don't want in your honey. When you are done garbling your violet flowers gently rinse them and dry them on a cloth. Wait for all of the water to evaporate so you don’t get water in your honey which can lead to spoilage.

Step Three: Add The Honey

Next fill a jar with violet flowers and cover with honey. Check your violet honey after a few minutes to see if the fairies sipped a bit of honey off the top and add more to cover the flowers!

Step Three: The Hard Part, Waiting...

Now is the hard part, waiting. Try to wait a day or two before you indulge in your tasty violet honey so as to let the violets infuse into the honey. A great trick shared by Learning Herbs for keeping herbs covered with honey when making herbal infused honey is to turn the jar once a day. (Keep it on a plate to make any messy accidents easy to clean up.) This helps to keep the violets covered until they have crystalized in the honey which prevents spoilage.

The Healing Power Of Violet Honey

The combination of violets and honey is not only amazingly tasty it is also used by herbalists as a medicinal preparation. Violet and honey are both wonderfully helpful for soothing cough and scratchy throats. Violets are known to be especially good for helping those with respiratory ailments associate with thick, yellow mucus. They also help to gently support the immune system during healing. The sweetness of honey combined with violet can be heart soothing reminding us during those hard times, that life can be sweet. Violets are like a compassionate and kind friend, wonderfully for supporting those experiencing grief and heartache.

Visit my Materia Medica to learn more about violet.