Let’s not forget the Violets
tammy March 29th, 2008
Violet flowers and leaves have to be my absolutely favorite wild flower to eat. So delicious! And they are blooming right now here in Virginia. Pictured below is a hybrid of the common blue violet (Viola papilionacea) and white violet (Viola blanda) — a Blue-white hybrid. There are many, many species of Viola, and I believe most, if not all, are all edible.
Violets are super nutritious and super medicinal when used regularly as a fresh food and/or nourishing herbal infusion or tea. For infusions, you would pick the fresh leaves and flowers and then dry them and store in an air tight container. Use 1 oz per quart of boiling water, tightly capped and steeped for about 2 hours (I use a canning jar). For tea, use about a tablespoonful of either fresh or dried herb with a cup of boiling water, steeped for about 10 minutes.
Among other things, Violet is a prime anti-cancer herb, a blood tonic, and so good for your heart and circulation. It is mucilaginous, meaning it is soothing and healing to mucous membranes throughout your body. Many herbalists teach the “doctrine of signatures” meaning that plants will often show by their appearance and/or structure their medicinal uses and ways of supporting the body. Looking at the close up view below, I can definitely see the signature for the heart (leaves), circulation (veinous pattern on flower), and mucous membranes (cilia-like stamens in the flower throat). What do you see?
Some gourmet cooks will candy their violet flowers as decorations for bakery items. I think I will try this myself. It seems simple enough. I’m going to use the recipe posted here. You just dip violets in egg white and then in sugar and sit them out to dry and harden. Viola! (pun intended) You now have candied violet flowers!
For more wonderful recipes and information about this amazing plant, I highly recommend the chapters on Violets in Susun Weed’s Healing Wise (Wise Woman Herbal Series)
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[...] an earlier post I had lamented that although I had tons of violet where I work, I couldn’t find a single one [...]
It seems to me I often feel sleepy after eating fresh violet leaves. Not in a bad, druggy way, but I seem to get reallllly relaxed and then nap-prone. Is it just me?
That’s interesting, BK. I don’t think I noticed sleepiness in myself, but definitely a certain calm. Sometimes I think the deep relaxation that comes with certain herbs we take is the result of our body relaxing as it receives exactly what it needs in various circumstances. So, while the herb may not have specific relaxing properties, it is nevertheless deeply relaxing to you because it is such a comfort to you in your particular needs. Does that make sense? In other words, it may be deeply relaxing to one person because of their particular need, but not so much with another person with different needs.
I experienced this deep relaxation with fresh ginger tea last winter. Everything I read said that ginger was a powerful stimulant, but everytime I ingested it fresh as a hot tea with honey I became so sleepy I literally had to go get in bed and take a nap. Not stimulating at all to me, at least not on the surface level. I’ve come to believe it worked this way for me because I was extremely cold and dry and had a lot of digestive congestion last winter and the warmth and moistness of the tea (plus the other magic medicine of ginger) was exactly what I needed… it made my body say ahhhhhh! It was stimulating in the sense that it got my circulation and digestive organs moving better, but the effect that I experienced was relaxation. But there may be many others who would not experience it that same way.
Thanks for your reply, Tammy! Hmm, that makes sense. Particularly as since then, I’ve eaten a fair chunk of violet leaves (wow, I love really these little plants) without such a dramatic reaction.
Good thinking
Enjoyed your latest post on bittercress … out to find some …
Hey BK, I was thinking about you today and the sleepy side effect you mentioned on Violet. I drank some infusion yesterday and, YES, immediate and pronounced sleepiness followed. My eyes became gritty and sleepy as if I had been up all night or something. I drank some more just now, and yep, sleepy again. Actually kind of nice to feel so relaxed…
Have you noticed that depending on the area they’re found in that while I’m certain it’s the same plant there are many variants in the flowers color? I’ve seen white(like your photo) and the purple variety is what grows around my home, but have even come across a red variety.