Foraging Recipe: Lilac Jam!

April showers bring May flowers. Some of the most beautiful of May's flowers include lilacs. Surely you know the fragrant flower clusters by name, sight, and scent..but did you know they make a kick-ass Jam? Lilacs are the very essence of spring. Here is a recipe that will allow you to bottle up the taste of spring for months to come. 

The ingredients you'll need:
 2 cups, loosely packed lilac blossoms, without green parts & stems
Juice of 1 fresh lemon
3/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water (a second time)
1 pkg. Sure-Jel pectin

Directions: Put 3/4 cup water and the lilac blossoms in a blender and blend well. Add the lemon juice and notice how the lilac paste turns a richer purple as soon as the lemon juice hits the dull purple paste. Add the sugar and blend again to dissolve. Next, stir the package of pectin into the second 3/4 cup water in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil, continuing to boil hard for 1 minute. Pour the hot pectin into the blender with the lilac paste. Blend again and pour into jars or small storage containers. Let cool, then cover with lids and store in the freezer. The jam will turn a deeper purple as it sets up. You can dip out the jam whenever you want some.

And, it tastes like spring, too! This will keep in the freezer for about 1 year! :)