Lilac Jelly? Who Knew This Was A Thing?

Lilacs are plentiful at this time of the year; they are a Maine classic. Lilacs are lovely; they smell wonderful…even if they do make me sneeze a bit…they are such a solid sign spring is here, and the nice weather will be around for a while. What I did not know you could make an edible jelly out of lilacs. I was on Facebook this weekend when I noticed my friend and one of the nicest humans you could ever meet, Erin Fletcher, had made a couple of batches of lilac jelly. Wait…what?

Yes, jelly that is made from lilac flowers. Erin shared the recipe she used from commonsencehome.com. I have to admit, and it looked easy enough that even I was tempted to run out and collect some lilacs and give it a go. It is basic canning, and other than the pectin, most people would have all the ingredients needed. I even learned you could candy the flowers with a bit of egg white and sugar.

Erin said the darker the flower, the darker the jelly. The recipe from commonsencehome.com commented that the light flowers make a yellow jelly and to use flowers that have not been sprayed with chemicals and not growing along a road so that they are cleaner from the start. But the big question is, how does it taste? Well, I did not make any myself, but Erin said it tastes a bit like honey. Yum.

Do you still have some excellent-looking lilacs? Grab some and make some jelly. Let me know what you think.

LOOK: Here Are 30 Foods That Are Poisonous to Dogs

To prepare yourself for a potential incident, always keep your vet's phone number handy, along with an after-hours clinic you can call in an emergency. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center also has a hotline you can call at (888) 426-4435 for advice.

Even with all of these resources, however, the best cure for food poisoning is preventing it in the first place. To give you an idea of what human foods can be dangerous, Stacker has put together a slideshow of 30 common foods to avoid. Take a look to see if there are any that surprise you.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

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Categories: Food, Local News, Moose Morning Show, Nature