As I've been learning about canning, I thought I'd try some dandelion jelly. After all, dandelions are so easy to come by. The recipe called for 4 cups of petals, so I went out to get them. I came back a half hour later, with 2 cups... I made a half batch.
To collect, I picked up a bowl and headed out into the yard. I grabbed all the flowers in my yard. This added up to not a whole lot. So I headed down to a park that I know is not sprayed and started picking. After a half hour Elizabeth called to say that dinner was prepared. I got home with very grungy hands and a mere two cups of flowers. I've read that you can freeze the flowers without damaging them. Maybe next time I'll just pick a few from my yard and when my bag reached the full amount, then I'll make the jelly.
You want to pick the largest flowers you can find to keep you prep work down. You will then pull off the green. I just used my fingers to squeeze as much of the yellow flower out and pull as much of the green away as I could. Some of the green still got in, but that is ok. You want to remove as much of the green as you can, because it is bitter.
I then boiled the flowers for a few minutes to get the flavor out of them, added the sugar, forgetting that you are supposed to add the pectin first, and then added the pectin. I then remembered the lemon juice and added it. Next time I think I will make the jelly in the morning when I'm a little clearer in the head and don't make so many mistakes. I had the recipe in front of me to reference, and kept referencing, but still made mistakes.
The next day, I came back to check it out and guess what? It didn't set. I poured it back into the pan, got it heated up again, added a little more pectin and sugar and burnt it in the process. It is now too dark, and too thick. It tastes ok, but it has the look and consistency of honey.
The first recipe I read on dandelion jelly actually claimed it tasted honey-like. It does. I recommend trying it if you have not. It is a little too sweet to eat on its own, but works great on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The recipe I ended up using is this one, but I cut the recipe in half as that is how many blossoms I had.
