In my area I am just about to be able to harvest a few things from my garden, but until then I am making do with other people's abundance. Upon learning that a friend had copious amounts of gorgeous lilacs I asked if I could have some to experiment with as lilacs are in fact edible.

There are several things I have been working on in my experiments - some of which really deserve a blog post of their own, but here are a few things you can do with your lilacs:

Lilac sugar
Lilac syrup
Lilac jelly
Lilac ice cream
Dried lilacs
Candied lilacs
Lilac meringues

Some of these are as simple as cramming some (dry) lilac blossoms in a jar with some sugar and some - like the ice cream - are more complicated. In other news I have found my most favourite ice cream recipe and will be sharing that in the days to come! Stay tuned!

LILAC SUGAR HEARTS

Remove lilac blossoms from stems. The stems are not poisonous, but get do not have a nice taste so you don't want that in your sugar.
Put large heap of lilac blossoms in mortar and grind with pestle into a juicy pulp.
Add white sugar until mixture is a damp consistency.
Press damp lilac sugar into molds and wait a few days until completely dry before removing.

I'm not totally sure where I will use these, but aren't they adorable!