Blossom Syrup - Bottle Up A Bit Of Springtime!

We humans only traditionally eat a few hundred of the more than 50,000 edible plants in the world, and one of the most neglected categories of edible plants is flowers.  Flowers add color, smell, and intersting flavors to many foods and drinks including teas, jellies, salads, soups, syrups and main dishes.

It's springtime in the northern hemisphere and flowers are everywhere.   Years ago I heard a radio interview with a hiker who had run across an on old prospector in small shack in the mountains of California.  The old man welcomed the hiker in for a breakfast of sourdough pancakes and his own homemade orange-blossom syrup which the interviewee described as the best syrup he had ever tasted. He apparently asked for the recipe but the old man told him it was a secret.  He had gone back there every year and was offered the same hot breakfast, but never the recipe.  Finally the old man died and the interviewee was lamenting that the recipe for that ambrosial syrup was lost forever.  Seeing all the blossoms this Spring reminded me of the interview and made me want to try capturing some of the essence of springtime in some blossom syrups.  There are a lot of options for making blossom syrups (e.g. in addition to citrus blossoms I understand that elderberry blossoms make a delicious syrup) but two that I had readily available were lilacs and dandelions.

Here is a partial list of edible flowers:

• Artichoke (flower bud)
• Broccoli (flower buds)
• Cauliflower (flower buds)
• Caper (flower buds)
• Chamomile (flower)
• Cannabis (flowers or buds)
• Chives (flowers or buds)
• Chrysanthemum (flower)
• Citrus blossoms (lemon, orange, lime, grapefruit)
• Clover (Trifolium)
• Daisies (Bellis perennis quills)
• Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale leaves, roots, flowers, petals, buds)
• Daylilies (Hemerocallis buds, flowers, petals)
• Elderflower (blossoms)
• Hibiscus
• Honeysuckle
• Jasmine (flower)
• Lilac (blossoms)
• Moringa oleifera
• Nasturtium (blossoms and seeds)
• Osmanthus fragrans (flower)
• Pansies (Viola x Wittrockiana flowers, petals)
• Pot Marigolds (Calendula officinalis petals with white heel removed)
• Roses (Rosa petals with white heel removed, rose hips)
• Sesbania grandiflora (flower)
• Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus buds, petals, seeds)
• Violet ('leaf and flowers)
• Zucchini blossoms (blossoms)

Here is how to make lilac syrup for pancakes, waffles, snow-cones, or teas:

• 4 cups Lilac Blossoms (take the clusters and strip the flowers into a bowl)
• 2 cups Water
• 3 cups Sugar
• 2 drops Food Coloring (optional - I only had blue but would have preferred to mix blue and red for a light purple)

Boil the water.  Add the blossoms.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Add food coloring if desired.  Allow to cool to room temperature and then to steep overnight in the fridge.  Strain out the petals and measure the amount of liquid left (I had about 1.5 cups).  Put twice the amount of sugar as blossom water into a saucepan over high heat and dig a hole in the sugar until you can almost see the bottom of the pan.  Heat until you see the sugar melting (a tiny puff of smoke may emerge) and then quickly add the blossom water.  Stir and bring to a boil (keep stirring because it will foam up and boil over if you don't).  Cook until any sugar lumps are dissolved. 

Here's how to make dandelion syrup:

• 4 cups dandelion blossoms (about 200 flowers - don't use flowers from lawns with chemicals - break off the flowers as close to the yellow as possible)
• 2 cups Water
• 3 cups Sugar
• 2 drops Food Coloring (optional - I didn't use any for the dandelion syrup)

Boil the water.  Add the blossoms.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Add food coloring if desired.  Allow to cool to room temperature and then to steep overnight in the fridge.  Strain out the petals and measure the amount of liquid left (I had about 1.5 cups).  Put twice the amount of sugar as blossom water into a saucepan over high heat and dig a hole in the sugar until you can almost see the bottom of the pan.  Heat until you see the sugar melting (a tiny puff of smoke may emerge) and then quickly add the blossom water.  Stir and bring to a boil (keep stirring because it will foam up and boil over if you don't).  Cook until any sugar lumps are dissolved.

Enjoy these syrups on pancakes, waffles, as a flavoring in snow-cones, or as a quick sweet herbal-tea (1 1/2 Tbsp of syrup for each cup of water).