Dandelion Jelly

Spring has sprung and so have the dandelions in my lawn.  In a truly labor intensive effort of weed control I sent the kids out to pick dandelions since I was laid-up due to some post-operative soreness.  My darling wife was kind enough to assist the kids and I sat at the table and processed the flowers.

I should note that it is best to process the blooms as you pick them, and pick the blooms first thing in the morning as well.  I processed the flowers by peeling back the green parts and clipping them with a set of kitchen scissors.

Make sure you're harvesting dandelions from a lawn that hasn't been sprayed with pesticide. 

Ingredients:

Dandelions, as many as you can collect (should end up with 2-3 cups of  petals)
6 cups of water
6 cups of sugar
3 tbsp of lemon juice
~8 tsp of pectin (read the directions on the box).

Combine the lemon juice water and dandelion petals and bring to a boil in a dutch oven.  Allow to cool and poor the mixture into a gallon jar to steep in the refrigerator overnight.  Strain the petals out, bring to a boil, add sugar and return to a boil.  Add the pectin as per the box directions and jar as per any jelly.

This makes a lovely pale amber jelly that I find to be reminiscent of honey.