Spring is a great time for new beginnings, and our household is no exception! Tony, of course, has been working with all the fresh herbs that are popping up from every crevice of the ground. This week he has been making flower teas and syrups. So far he has gathered forsythia, dandelion, violet, and cherry blossoms. These teas and syrups will be used for various things: flower jelly, soothing syrups, flavorings and more. The more he learns (and shares with us) the more interesting these herbs get.
Did you know, for example, that purple violet tea will go from a luscious, deep purple to an almost teal green overnight? It was interesting, but profoundly disappointing.
Mrs. Grieve’s A Modern Herbal mentions that an infusion of the flowers can be used as a substitute for litmus, with alkali turning yellow, and acids turning red. Perhaps the green is on its way to becoming yellow. Interestingly, one small pot of the syrup, made with the same water, has remained deep purple more than 24 hours later. The mysteries continue!
As a side note, John Gerard, a seventeenth century herbalist, writes this about violet syrup:
“It has the power to ease inflammation, roughness of the throat, and comforteth the heart, assuageth the pains of the head and causeth sleep.”
The syrups are novel and interesting, and Tony hopes to make them delicious. Me, too!
Let me not forget the beautiful cherry blossoms! Tony spread a sheet below the tree, and he and Beau enjoyed rapping the branches to release the blossoms.
There is something about a bowl full of cherry petals that makes me feel positively Victorian! And the scent is strangely cinnamon-y. We will have to see what they taste like. Another first!
The Fullers Four 