I found just one jar hiding in the back of my cupboard. A honey sweet taste of Spring.

We are dandelion lovers in this house. Cheerful flowers, bunny snacks, first food for bees… And for us! I confess that I have never acquired a taste for them as a salad green. I know that is by far the most common way to enjoy them. The rabbits will just have to do it for me I guess. We much prefer the petals.

If you have never had dandelion jelly you are probably a bit surprised. It’s hardly the most glamorous flower, or a flavour that you see celebrated often. It’s the closest you will ever get to being a bee and turning flowers into honey. Honey is the closest thing in taste to this jelly, it is so mildly floral and sweet. Take the extra time to keep the green bits out if you want to keep it that way though, they will make it bitter! (And then you will cry after all of your hard work.)

I have used more than one recipe in the past. Most flower jellies have very similar instructions. I usually split making this into two days. Day one is picking and cleaning the flower petals. I also try to make the tea this day. Sometimes if I am quite tired after flower picking day I will pop the petals in the fridge with the intention of making the tea the next day, but this is risky territory. Add too many delays and you risk ruining your hard work! (Definitely don’t wait to pull your petals off of the picked dandelions though. They close or dry up withing a few hours and are an absolute nightmare to work with at that point.)

Day two you will strain your cold tea and use it as a base for your jelly. It is exactly the same as any other jelly recipe, with the tea as your juice and your standard sugar, acid and pectin. Pop in the fridge or follow safe canning practices to make it shelf stable.

What do you think, will you let your dandelions live this year and have them for tea?