Herbal Spotlight: Queen Anne's lace with QAL Wildflower Jelly Recipe

This QAL jelly is delectable and oh-so-pretty!

These lacy, white wildflowers are familiar to most, popping up in fields & roadsides wherever they please. They are also not-just-edible, but DELICIOUS! ​ In this post, I will talk about identifying & foraging Queen anne's lace, its traditional uses, & I'll also share my recipe for incredibly delicious jelly made with these beautiful flowers.

Queen Anne’s lace is also known as Wild Carrot, & you will notice her foliage looks very similar to garden carrot’s. This plant has so many uses: her roots are long, pale, & quite-thin. They have traditionally been used to help prevent kidney stones; gathered before flowering, they used in soups, stews & teas. The leaves can be chopped & added to salads for a parsley-citrus flavor. Flower clusters can be ‘french-fried’ or fresh flowers can be eaten raw, used for jelly, or made into cordials & syrups. 

This herbal ally blooms from early Summer all through to mid-September

​The flowers grow in umbels or clusters of multiple, small flowers. Many, but not all feature a deep purple 'heart' just-off-center in the umbel.  It is a member of the Apiaceae family, which includes some poisonous, dangerous plants, so it is very important you are 100% sure what you are gathering when collecting QAL for culinary or medicinal use. Fortunately, Queen Anne’s Lace is easy to recognize when you know what to look for.

An easy key ID factor that is easy to remember too is “The Queen Has Hairy Legs”-- Queen Anne’s Lace has solid, green stems covered with tiny ‘hairs’ while her dangerous lookalikes, Poison Hemlock & Water Hemlock, have hollow, smooth stems with purple splotches. Once you confirm solid, hairy stems, you can rule out the poisonous look-alikes. Additionally, older flowers of QAL curve up & in upon themselves to form a bird’s nest shape -- an additional unique ID factor.​

Hairy Legs Indeed!

Not surprisingly, my favorite ways to use QAL are for jelly, cordials, & syrups. The flowers are also lovely for drink garnishes. We have had an especially large bloom of them this year -- something I have definitely been taking advantage of, especially for the jelly!  This is a typical wildflower jelly, made by steeping the flowers as a ‘tea’ overnight, but QAL jelly has two very unique characteristics. First, the flavor is unlike anything else, sort of a floral-peachy flavor--almost a natural Juicy-Fruit-Gum taste, but less sweet-- truly delicious. Secondly, most of the time the addition of the lemon juice causes the liquid to turn a gorgeous soft-pink color! It must be a pH thing [alkaline soil maybe?] & not every batch does it, but more-often-than-not, adding the acidic juice instantly turns the QAL tea from yellow-orange to pastel pink & every batch this year has done it.
​Let’s get started with a batch--

Queen Anne’s Lace Wildflower Jelly

2 cups QAL Umbels 
5 Cups Water 
3 TBS Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice 
3 1/2 Cups Sugar 
1 Pouch Liquid Pectin [or 2 TBS powdered pectin]

 First things first--Confirm your ID & gather your blossom. As always, be sure to gather flowers only from plants you are sure have not been treated with pesticides. You'll need about 2 cups of flowers [or about 20 umbels] to make a batch of jelly. Sort your blossoms, taking care to remove any hitchhikers; remove leaves, stems &  green bottoms of the umbel bases. Pop your flowers in a colander & give them a good rinse. Bring 5 cups of water to a full boil. Carefully pour the water into a large mason jar & add your cleaned flowers, pressing them down into the water with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool completely, cap & set aside to steep overnight.

Strain off your liquid the next day with a fine strainer or cheesecloth. You can compost or toss out the spent flowers. Measure out 4 cups of the pale yellow-orange liquid into a heavy pot. Prepare your jelly jars & have them at the ready.  Add 3 TBS fresh lemon juice & your pectin to your ‘QAL tea’ in the pot. It is at this point your jelly will most likely turn pale-pink! ​

The addition of the lemon juice turns our jelly from pale yellow to soft pink!

Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once at full boil, add your sugar, stirring to combine until fully dissolved. Bring this mixture back to a full, rolling boil & cook until glossy & thick, about 5-10 minutes. Ladle the jelly into jars leaving ¼” head space & set aside to cool completely or process for 10 minutes in a canner water bath if you intend to store it -- And there you have it!  Queen Anne’s LaceWildflower Jelly!

Outrageously beautiful AND delicious, we find it pairs nicely with sharp cheeses on a cheese board [& looks so pretty there too!] or with grilled chicken-- but you seriously can’t go wrong just slathering it on toast!  Let me know how you use yours--& did it turn pink? I am so curious about the science behind that…  Until next time-- TAKE CARE & take time to  #StopAndEatTheFlowers