Violet Springtime Fairy Vinegar:
A Mineral-Rich Spring Tonic
Written by Juliet Blankespoor with Meghan Gemma
Photography by Juliet Blankespoor
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When violets begin to pop up in the spring landscape, it’s our cue that a vernal promenade of mineral-rich, cleansing herbs is in full swing. Violet keeps excellent company—look for herbs like chickweed, cleavers, dandelion, plantain, and stinging nettles when violet’s heart-shaped leaves and purple blooms appear on the scene.
These nourishing spring beauties all fall into the category of tonic alterative herbs. Many herbalists call them “blood cleansers” and indeed they can help to optimize the quality of the blood by affecting cellular metabolism. They also work their magic by supporting the elimination of wastes by improving liver, kidney, digestive, and lymphatic function.
Alterative herbs can be helpful for:
- Spring fasting and cleansing
- Low immunity
- Skin conditions like acne and eczema
- Cancer prevention
- Autoimmune conditions
- Rheumatic conditions*
Violet is one of my choice herbal alteratives as its tender young leaves are optimally delicious for infused vinegars, spring salads, and pestos. In addition to being a classic cleansing herb, violet is rich in soluble fiber and is a traditional lymphatic and respiratory remedy; helping to bolster us through the last weeks of cold-season coughs and colds. You can read more about violet’s medicinal uses here.
*Please consult with an experienced herbalist before using herbs for any of these conditions or for cleansing.
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Early spring foraging for springtime fairy vinegar ingredients
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Mineral-Rich Springtime Vinegars
My daughter and I like to celebrate springtime by gathering up our baskets, greeting the sunshine, and picking fresh wild and garden herbs for “fairy vinegar.” The lawn and gardens are filled with medicinal herbs during this time. I call it fairy vinegar because all the plants are so little and darling this time of year, and because a pinch of this and a pinch of that, topped off with wee blossoms, has a magical feeling.
Vinegars made from high-mineral herbs are a great way to sneak some extra medicine and nutrition into the diet! When you add vinegar to foods that are high in minerals—such as dark leafy greens—the acidity helps the body assimilate those minerals (in addition to all the minerals packed into the herbs themselves)!
Herbal vinegars have a steadfast place in the medicine cabinet, but they’re also widely popular both as a condiment and an ingredient in homemade salad dressings. In fact, many plants that are traditionally prepared as herbal vinegars easily straddle the divide between medicine and spice.
Apple cider vinegar is the most popular for medicinal preparations, but I prefer balsamic vinegar, as our family enjoys its flavor. Most any type of natural vinegar will be serviceable, but note that distilled white vinegar can be highly processed and is sometimes made from genetically modified corn.
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Harvesting violet flowers (Viola sororia)
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Materials List
- Canning jar of appropriate size for your recipe with a plastic lid, or a metal lid lined with a piece of natural wax paper
- Fresh herbs (see below for suggestions)
- Vinegar of choice
- Labeling materials
- Straining cloth; either muslin cloth, tighter-weave cheesecloth, cotton gauze fabric, or a clean old T-shirt
- Flip-top bottle or used glass vinegar bottle to store your finished vinegar
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Ingredients for Springtime Fairy Vinegar
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Springtime Fairy Vinegar Recipe
This recipe is a celebration of spring! Therefore, I encourage you to gather whatever seasonal herbs feel most exciting to you. I’ve listed a number of possibilities below; you can combine them in any proportions you desire—just be sure to pick enough to loosely pack a Mason jar of your choice. One suggestion is to gather a handful of each or any of the following herbs, freshly picked and not dried. Or try making your own version from whatever darlings are springing up in your garden and fields.
- Violet, leaf and flowers (Viola spp.)
- Dandelion, leaf and flowers (Taraxacum officinale)
- Stinging nettles, leaf (Urtica dioica)
- Cleavers, leaf and stem (Galium aparine)
- Chickweed, herb (Stellaria media)
- Plantain, leaf (Plantago spp.)
- Purple dead nettle, leaf and flowers (Lamium purpureum)
- Mint, leaf (Mentha sp.)
- Garlic mustard, leaf (Alliaria petiolata)
- Creasy greens, leaf (Barbarea verna)
Please be 150% sure of your identification before gathering any plants. Need a field guide? Check out our foraging and plant identification book list.
If you aren’t familiar with any of these wild herbs, you can buy dandelion greens and burdock root from the grocery store or farmers market, and include emerging herbs from your garden, like lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) and bee balm (Monarda didyma).
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Adding the vinegar to the herbs
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- Wash your fresh herbs, chop them coarsely, and combine them in a sterilized glass jar (choose any size based on how much vinegar you’d like to make). Note that the proportions are not exact; the tighter you pack the herbs, the stronger the vinegar will be flavored.
- Top off with your vinegar of choice—completely cover the herbs with vinegar. It may be helpful to tamp them down with a sterilized kitchen instrument.
- Cap with a plastic lid or a regular mason jar lid lined with natural wax paper (to avoid corrosion of the lid by the vinegar).
- Label the jar with the name of the herb(s), date, and type of vinegar. Cover the label with clear packing tape.
- Place in a dark cabinet for four to six weeks.
- Strain through a cloth—either muslin cloth, tighter-weave cheesecloth, cotton gauze fabric, or a clean old T-shirt. Be sure to press out all the vinegar when you strain by either wringing out the herbs in the cloth or pressing out the plant material with a potato ricer or similar press.
- Pour the strained vinegar into a sterilized jar with a plastic lid, and label with the ingredients and date.
- Store in the refrigerator and use within six months to one year.
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Dosage is 1-3 Tablespoons (15– 45 ml) daily.
I recommend taking herbal vinegars with food, as they will be better assimilated, and the acid will be less likely to aggravate digestion or cause issues with tooth enamel. Integrating them into salad dressings and condiments is a perfect way to easefully eat your mineral-rich spring herbs!
Safety & Contraindications: For the most part, the herbs mentioned in this lesson are quite safe for general use. But there are a few exceptions to note:
- Violet: Avoid the internal use with individuals who have the rare inherited disorder G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) deficiency, because it can aggravate hemolytic anemia.
- Dandelion: Because dandelion leaf is a powerful diuretic, it will compound the effects of pharmaceutical diuretics. People who are allergic to bee pollen or honey have a high likelihood of reacting to dandelion pollen, and therefore should avoid ingesting the flower or any preparation from the flower that would contain pollen (i.e., the infusion).
- Stinging nettles: Nettles are diuretic and astringent, and can be very drying as a tonic herb for folks who already have dry skin and dry mucous membranes. Additionally, its diuretic effects may compound pharmaceuticals with the same action. Nettles may potentially alter blood sugar levels—diabetics should monitor blood sugar levels closely when ingesting the plant as food or medicine.
- Chickweed: Avoid use if you are prone to kidney stones, as this plant contains dietary oxalates, which can increase the formation of kidney stones.
P.S. If you enjoy herbal vinegars, take a peek at my Hibiscus Pomegranate Fire Cider Recipe. This spicy, ruby-red vinegar is ideal for boosting the immune and circulatory systems during the cold winter moons.
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Hibiscus Pomegranate Orange Fire Cider
Meet Our Contributors:
JULIET BLANKESPOOR founded the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in 2007 and serves as the school’s primary instructor and Creative Director. She's been a professional plant-human matchmaker for close to three decades. Juliet caught the plant bug when she was nineteen and went on to earn a degree in Botany. She's owned just about every type of herbal business you can imagine: an herbal nursery, a medicinal products business, a clinical practice, and now, an herbal school.
These days, she channels her botanical obsession with her writing and photography in her online programs and here on her personal blog, Castanea. She's writing her first book: Cultivating Medicinal Herbs: Grow, Harvest, and Prepare Handcrafted Remedies from Your Home Garden. Juliet and her houseplants share a home with her family and herb books in Asheville, North Carolina.
MEGHAN GEMMA is one of the Chestnut School’s primary instructors through her written lessons, and is the principal pollinator of the school’s social media community—sharing herbal and wild foods wisdom from the flowery heart of the school to an ever-wider field of herbalists, gardeners, healers, and plant lovers.
She has been in a steady relationship with the Chestnut School since 2010—as an intern and manager at the Chestnut Herb Nursery; as a plant-smitten student “back in the day” when the school’s programs were taught in the field; and later as a part the school’s woman-powered professional team. Meghan lives in the Ivy Creek watershed, just north of Asheville, North Carolina.
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