Making and using Lilac Syrup in our farmhouse kitchen

Last Updated on February 8, 2023 by Michelle

Lilacs are at their peek around our old farmhouse today, so I’m making lilac syrup, canning it, and making two lists: ways to use it and who I wanna gift this deliciousness to this year. I thought I’d share in this post all the info you need to do all of the above or just make a jar of this deliciousness to enjoy in your morning cup of tea tomorrow.

I’ve always loved lilacs. Right after I married, I purchased a bare root Yankee Doodle lilac through the mail and planted it, just a little twig, in our side yard. Then we moved 7 years later, and I never got to enjoy those amazing deep purple blossoms because it takes that long for blooms to grow when you’re planting a little brach of a tree. (Watch for an upcoming post about planting your own lilacs the right way.)

UPDATE: I got to talk at length with Ed Laivo–an edible landscaping specialist with Nature Hills, with over 40 years of extensive experience–all about lilac tips and care. You’ll love that post, right here.



Hop over to this post for my recipe for lilac syrup.

If you’d like a fun little history lesson about old farmhouses and old English lilacs, you gotta read this post.

And check out Nature Hills for the best mature lilacs you’ll find anywhere–you can order them online and be enjoying your own amazing purple clusters NEXT SPRING!



Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

How to water bath can your lilac syrup

After you make your lilac syrup (full directions here for making a delicious liquidy lilac sweetener) you may want to can it.

If you’re just making some to enjoy over the next month or two and have room in the fridge for it, no canning necessary. But if you’d like to gift this deliciousness to a friend, or if you’d like to put it away until January and indulge in this taste of summer in the midst of a chilly winter’s afternoon then you want to water bath can it.

Also, if you want your lilac syrup to be thicker, to slather on pancakes or to use as a summery sauce over vanilla ice cream, you’ll want to read my upcoming post for how to make a thicker lilac syrup. I personally prefer this recipe for liquidy deliciousness, since I like to use my lilac syrup to sweeten my hot tea, kombucha, lemonade, and ice tea.

I prefer maple syrup for my pancakes. But, I should tell you, if I didn’t have my own sugarbush, this is where I would be buying my syrup. This family-run sugarhouse makes some amazing all-natural syrup. As if the sheer deliciousness of that wasn’t enough, they also make all-natural treats like maple sugar, maple cream, and maple cotton candy!

But, back to our lilac delicacy…

 

Water bath canning is super easy. Just fill your canning pan so there’ll be at least one inch of water above your jars. Once you have the water to a rolling boil (honestly this is the part of lilac syrup that requires the most patience, just waiting for water to boil), place your jars in.

You only need to leave your jars of syrup in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes. That’s it. Easy, right? I don’t know why the thought of canning always intimidates me just a little. And I always assume I need to leave a whole afternoon open for the process, which is silly. This batch of syrup took less than an hour from beginning to end, and the bulk of that time was, like I said, spent waiting for a pot to boil. (And I didn’t even watch it, cause I totally know what they say about a watched pot.)

Carefully take your jars out and line them up on your counter, in a draft-free area. I like to cover mine with towels, to keep them nice and warm until they seal. That usually only takes a few hours at most, but I usually leave mine sitting on the counter covered in towels over night. Mainly cause it makes me feel a little bit like a legit homesteader, even though most days I totally don’t.

I also like to leave the jars lined up with towels over them because It also reminds me of Mom. She always had towel-covered jars lining a corner of her counters during the harvest season of Dad’s amazing gardens.

Dad would have LOVED Nature Hills. He would have never believed the variety and quality of flowers, plants, trees, and yes, lilacs you can order at Nature Hills, the world’s largest online nursery.



I’ve written a good bit about mom and dad, not only cause they are a part of who I am and I miss them, but also because they inspired my desire toward this homesteading life long before I even realized it.

If you like lilac syrup you’ll love maple syrup. I’ve written more posts than I care to count about our backyard maple syrup production.

If you want to try your hand at baking with maple syrup, you’ll wanna read this post.



Yes, you do need a few simple tools if you wanna water bath can. But it’s really simple. The items you’ll need are listed at the end of this post.

How to use your syrup, all year round

Use it in place of plain ole sugar in things like:

  • lilac lemonade
  • lilac-infused cocktails
  • cake recipes that call for a sugar syrup
  • iced tea
  • hot tea
  • lilac kombucha (my FAVORITE!)
  • lilac sparkling water

Or enjoy your lilac syrup one of these fun ways:

Pour it as a lite syrup over vanilla ice cream; an amazingly special summer night treat.

Brush a cake with lilac syrup before icing it; your cake will not only be extra delicious, but extra moist.

Sweeten your next fruit salad with drizzles of lilac syrup. You’ll not only add a taste to relish on your fruit, but you’ll keep it pretty and bright as well, instead of letting the apples, pears, and bananas turn brown before they’re all eaten.

Who to gift your syrup to

For starters, I plan on gifting a few jars to my mother-in-law and grandmom when I see them next. They are both avid tea drinkers and deserve a special fancy lilac kick to their tea every once in a while.

But so many others would love these beautiful purple jars of sweetness… a new neighbor, our amazing mail lady, our bestest next-door friend, the pastor’s wife, a hostess, a grown daughter moving into her first apartment, a teen daughter’s friend who invites her over, any friend/any time. Truly, there’s no limit to how many people I know who would love a jar of this delicacy. They don’t have to know it was so, so easy to make and, well, it literally grew on trees.

So tomorrow I’m gonna make some cute little gift tags and be ready for any and every opportunity to share this deliciousness that I just bottled and tucked away in my root cellar.

And, finally, how to enjoy a chilly New England spring evening

Meanwhile, my husband started a fire in our brick oven. Yes, even though spring has definitely arrived here on our New England homestead, today was a chilly overcast day. So my thoughts turn from delicious blooms of spring to deeply warm fire-baked pizza.

All four daughters are home and congregated around our kitchen counter, which is covered in flour, dough, bacon, and oh-so-much cheese.

One daughter will start her post-college adult life as a mechanical engineer in a few weeks. Another will soon return to her Marine Biology studies but is working at home for the summer. And the other two decided to take dual-credit college credits over the summer, so it’s not often we’re all in the same room at the same time.

And I am a happy girl.



So, yeah, our old farmhouse has a wonderful old Rumford fireplace and bee hive oven, but it is also full of money-pit problems, so don’t let me romanticize it too much. If you wanna know some of  the bitter truths (and joys) of owning an old farmhouse? I wrote about those here.

Wanna know where you can unearth some rustic farmhouse treasures of your own? You will LOVE this site I just discovered–Antique Farmhouse. I’m already addicted.

 



I welcomed y’all into my little farmhouse kitchen and made some lilac syrup with you this week. If you aren’t following on facebook, take a second and follow my fb page here. And in case you missed the video, here’s a link and I’ll plop it here…

 

 


“Consider the lilies [and lilacs], how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? “ Luke 12: 27-28

 

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