"funemployment" series: Nicole Anderson

We who work in the “Biz” sometimes have maddeningly long forced vacations on “funemployment.” As I get to know my coworkers better I find we all have some intense creative projects to fill our time. My friend Nicole found herself googling flower jellies in her down time and was overtaken by inspiration to fulfill her desire to make violet jelly.

I first met Nicole three years ago on second unit of "Underdog." She was carrying around a platter of a billion exquisite cheeses and crackers decorated with grapes and strawberries. The platter was such a beautiful sight I never forgot her OR her brilliance in introducing me to my now favorite cheese Dill Havarti. Nicole "Crafty", (Local 481 craft service) and I have worked together on a few shows since, last being "Edge of Darkness” on which we bonded over some conversations about our tastes in Men and of course our tastes in food.

On her social networking site this past spring she posted photos of this violet jelly she made and I thought it a great story to get out there on the good ole blogtastic. This particular blog entry has been only brewing in the thoughts of Jessica Therrien since spring, but flower jelly has been 2o years in the thoughts belonging to Nicole Anderson. She divulged "I have a friend from Iran who made rose petal jelly. It was such a beautiful light rose flavor, with a pretty pink color that it never left my mind. I always thought about making a flower jelly since I make a lot of "pick your own" berry jellies, and I grew up IN a flower shop and there is that deep connection to flowers. I had time since I wasn't working and undertook the making of it"

Violets grow in the wild yards of New England in the spring, so she put out an ad on “craigslist” for people's violet harvestings. A New England independent film producer who also collects “face up” pennies as a Set PA, offered to gather the plethora of violets growing in her pristine backyard for Nicole. Claire’s yard does not get touched with pesticides, Miracle Grow or any of those other crazy “supplements” our over fluffed suburban yards do. Nicole now had her all natural violet supplier.

As a side note, it’s peculiar to me that these two would take part in this granola project, but on the same token I can’t imagine these goofnuts not teaming up. The yield (or “shit ton” according to Claire) of white and purple violets would arrive under night’s veil. The Supplier would deliver the goods at the predetermined drop off point (under “crafty’s” porch, in the “cooler”) at random intervals throughout the harvest season. Nicole was very amused by these drop-offs from “someone who doesn’t even live CLOSE to where I live. At all, she lives about an hour away. One time it was her whole family piling out of the car to make the delivery” Now that’s a film “community” stretching over the miles for ya!

It ended up being 5 batches of violets that yielded 60 small jars of jelly. Nicole removed the flowers from the stems and used the flowers fresh and made violet tea from the petals. Adding lemon juice is necessry for ph balance and makes the color bright pink. She then adds pectin, brings it to a boil, then adds cane sugar, and boils for a minute more... and voila violet jelly. (note: photos by Nicole)

Nicole says “flower jelly is more about the novelty of using a flower, than the flavor. The Jelly only has a slight hint of violet flavor.” She is a seasoned do-it-yourself berry jelly maker. She likes to use “the pick your own” variety of wild berries for the experience of getting in there and picking from the yields of the earth, and also to support the local growers efforts. She completes the whole food full circle aspect by sometimes mindfully using organic sugar and, feels better when she can give away her finished foodstuffs in full confidence that she oversaw the whole process, giving the people a great all natural product. She notes "it is very rare for people to make their own pectin. There are purists who do this, extracting it from citrus peels themselves." Nicole uses store bought pectin.

Organic heads would agree with her methods. I myself like this thinking of building from scratch as best as you can the “old fashioned”, but now very much back in fashion way. While we are talking she feeds her cat organic catnip and comments on the wildcat padding around her kitchen during our phone call. I will also note for fun that our interview was scheduled to pleasantly pass time while she waited for the Oil Man to arrive.

Her Jelly is a delicacy definitely to be sold on the Etsy that I am sure would be fruitful. I personally put in an order for clover flower jelly this spring.