I love
seeing the brief white carpet of flowers early each year. It is a real sign of
things starting to warm-up. This edible plant is only here for a couple of
weeks and loves partial shade. The plants on our farm love growing along ancient
hedgerows.
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| Violets under the hedgerow |
Sweet
violets (Viola ordata) are a fragrant native wild flower that creeps and hugs
the ground with heart-shaped leaves. It also grows in Europe, Asia, Canada, the
US and Australia. The flowers are white or blue-violet in colour. They make
excellent food for the larvae of Lepidoptera
(moths and butterflies).
It has a
very romantic history in folklore with the Greeks using it to make perfume and is a symbol
of love and fertility, the Romans used it for brewing wine, as herbal remedies, in festivals, to sweeten food, the ancient Britons created cosmetics from violets and in medieval France it is a sign of deep love.
The flowers
and leaves are edible and high in vitamin A and C. They can be cooked as greens
or used in salads. Flowers can be made into jellies and are very pretty candied
or frozen in ice-cubes.
Common
names include sweet violet, English violet, Wood violet, March violet and sweet pansy. I hope you like them as much as I do.
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| How I use violets in my work |
