Honey & Chive Blossom Vinaigrette


Honey & Chive Blossom VinaigretteThis honey and chive blossom vinaigrette is a frugal, easy and healthy homemade salad dressing that pairs beautifully with fresh garden salads all season long.

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Chives are one of my favourite herbs to grow at home. They’re incredibly easy to grow, they’re one of the first things to bloom in the spring and the last to die in the fall, and they’ll come back year after year with little to no effort at all. 

They’re also packed with flavour, they make an excellent addition to a wide range of dishes and can easily be dried for use in the winter months. But personally, I think the real star of the chive plant has to be the stunning purple flowers that burst open mid spring. 

These chive blossoms are not only beautiful to admire, they’re edible too! You can crumble the flower petals over your salad or pasta dish as an oniony garnish similar in flavour to chives, but with a pretty pop of purple colour. Or you can use the blossoms to infuse oil, vinegar or salt and add these infusions to your cooking. You can even use the flowers as part of a handpicked spring bouquet! 

 

One of my personal favourite ways to use chive blossoms is to infuse them into white vinegar and use this as a base for one of my favourite homemade salad dressings: honey and chive blossom vinaigrette. 

Chive-infused vinegar and a little raw honey are all you need to make this simple yet delicious vinaigrette that pairs beautifully with fresh, hand-picked garden salads full of whatever is on offer at the time; Lettuce, peas, strawberries, tomatoes, red onion, carrots, blueberries, radishes… This vinaigrette goes great with them all, so feel free to get creative!

 

How to make chive blossom infused vinegar

Making chive blossom infused vinegar is really easy. Just pinch or cut the blossoms off of the chive plant with a pair of kitchen or garden shears, clean them up and make sure there are no bugs on them (I just brush them off with my hand), then stuff them in a Mason jar and cover with vinegar. Let the mixture sit for a few weeks while the vinegar infuses and turns deep purple/pink in colour. 

Chive blossom vinaigrette

Once it’s had time to infuse, strain the blossoms out and mix the vinegar with a little raw honey to add sweetness. I usually add about two or three tablespoons of honey to every pint sized (16oz) jar of chive blossom vinegar, but you can adjust this according to your own tastes. You can then use the vinaigrette as-is or blend it with a little olive oil and pour over salads, much like you would with a balsamic vinaigrette. 

Once ready, the vinaigrette is a useful addition to your own kitchen and also makes a beautiful, functional and frugal gift. Since it’s a vinegar, it keeps well for a long time. I do personally store mine in the fridge once I’ve strained it and mixed it with honey. But it should be pretty shelf-stable since both vinegar and honey have a very long shelf life.

The best part of all though, is that you’re able to use a part of the plant that you might have otherwise gone to waste. Plus, this is an extremely frugal, healthy, organic homemade dressing that makes an excellent alternative to anything you’ll find on store shelves.

Honey & Chive Blossom VinaigretteSo? What are you waiting for? Grab some jars & some white vinegar and go take advantage of the chive blossoms that are probably already growing in your garden. And if you’re not growing chives, then plant some! But in the meantime, check with friends, neighbours and family members, because chances are someone you know will have chives growing in their garden and will be happy to share with you, especially since most people don’t use the blossoms anyway. 

Just remember to ask for permission before harvesting anything out of anyone else’s private garden. And maybe make them a bottle of honey and chive blossom vinaigrette as a token of appreciation. After all, there’s no better way to say thank you than with a gift that’s grown from soil, made by hand and given from the heart.

 

This honey and chive blossom vinaigrette is a frugal, easy and healthy homemade salad dressing that pairs beautifully with fresh garden salads all season long. #chiveblossomvinaigrette #chiveblossomrecipe #chiveblossomvinegar

Honey & Chive Blossom Vinaigrette

Ingredients

  • Chive Blossoms
  • White Vinegar
  • Raw Honey

Instructions

  1. Harvest as many chive blossoms as you want or are able to by cutting or picking the blossoms just below the base of the flower.
  2. Clean and inspect your chive blossoms to ensure they are bug-free.
  3. Pack chive blossoms into Mason jars until each jar is full to the base of the jar rim and cover blossoms completely with white vinegar.
  4. Place lids on jars and store in a cool, dark place for 2 to 6 weeks. (The longer you leave the vinegar to infuse, the more the vinegar will take on the flavour of the chive blossoms).
  5. After your vinegar is infused and is purple/pink in colour, strain out chive blossoms and transfer vinegar to a clean Mason jar. Add as much honey as you desire, then screw the lid on and shake vigorously until vinegar and honey is well combined.
  6. Transfer vinaigrette to a bottle with a pouring spout (optional) and store in the refrigerator.

 

Wishing you homemade, homegrown, homestead happiness 🙂

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CATEGORIES
HOMESTEADING
REAL FOOD
NATURAL LIVING

4 Comments

  1. Quincy Rae

    Just came across this and going to try it out right away. So excited! How long does the vinaigrette last, quit a while I would imagine

    Reply
    • Ashley Constance

      I’m glad you’re excited! Yes – it should last a long time, especially if it’s just the vinegar and honey stored in the fridge. If you choose to add oil, that may bring the “life” of the product down. Most oil-based homemade vinaigrettes are good for up to two weeks.

      Reply
  2. Joy M

    Your email was such great timing! I loved this idea and ran right out to pick chive blossoms that are just right and popped them into a jar with my mild homemade apple cider vinegar. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

    Reply
    • Anna Sakawsky

      Oh I’m so glad! Yes, I actually wrote this post a couple years ago but thought it was the perfect time to revamp and revive it! Enjoy:)

      Reply

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ABOUT ANNA
Hi! I’m Anna, and I’m a city girl turned modern homesteader who’s passionate about growing, cooking and preserving real food at home, creating my own herbal medicine and all-natural home and body care products, and working toward a simpler, more sustainable and self-sufficient life each and every day. 
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It’s easy to romanticize homesteading, but the truth is that those homegrown vegetables, those freshly laid eggs, that loaf of bread rising on the counter, and that pantry full of home-canned food takes time, effort and dedication. It doesn’t “just happen” overnight!

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Back then we still lived in our city condo and were just beginning to dabble in all of this stuff. But my husband Ryan and I felt a sense urgency to start pursuing a more self-reliant lifestyle, and we committed to taking small steps, one day at a time to make that vision a reality.

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There are so many reasons to grow your own food at home:

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Got out for an early morning harvest today. Been up since 3am, contemplating life, the future and the past, the order of things…

There is a rumbling right now, not just in North America, but around the world. Many of us can feel it, and know we are on the precipice of something big.

I’d been hearing about this new song that’s become an overnight viral sensation, written by an (until now) unknown singer named Oliver Anthony. His new song Rich Men North of Richmond has had 14 million views on YouTube in the past week alone, so I decided to check it out.

I also saw a clip of him playing a Farmers Market last week, and anything that has to do with Farmers Markets always has my attention;)

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Another garlic harvest in the books!

Garlic is easily one of my favourite crops to grow. It’s pretty much a “set if and forget it” crop. We plant in the fall and leave it to overwinter, fertilize a couple times in the spring, start watering only once the ground starts to dry out, and then harvest in the summer. We can even plant a fall succession crop after our garlic if we want so it really makes great use of garden space all year round.

Over the years we’ve managed to become completely self-sufficient with garlic. We now grow enough to eat all year (and then some!), plus we save our own seed garlic and usually have extra to sell or give away. And around here fresh, organic garlic ain’t cheap, so it’s a good cash crop for anyone who’s serious about selling it.

It took me a few years to really get the hang of garlic, but it’s one crop I’m now very confident with (knock on wood, because it’s always when we make statements like this that next year’s crop fails! Lol.)

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Being around so many other kids and families who are also pursuing a homesteading lifestyle helped show our little one that this is a movement that is so much bigger and greater than what our own family does on our little plot of land. This is a lifestyle worth pursuing, with a community unlike any other.

Glad to be back home and more excited than ever to involve my kids in everything we’re doing. But also, I think I speak for my whole family when I say we can’t wait to go back someday!
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If you’re simply looking for ways to save a little extra cash this summer and live well for less, here are 12 tried and tested frugal living tips for summer that you can use to save money this season without sacrificing a thing.
Head over using the link in my bio!
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A brand new issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine just dropped!

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🌱 How to forage and use five common edible and medicinal weeds

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🌹 How to grow and arrange your own cut flowers at home

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💇How to make your own all-natural herbal hair care products at home

🧑‍🌾 Why “community sufficiency” is the new self-sufficiency

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*** This will be the last quarterly issue! ***

This little magazine has grown so much over the past 4 years and 32 issues, and now it’s time for another exciting evolution.

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I’m also excited to announce the brand new Modern Homesteading Magazine blog, which is currently under construction and will be launching soon. While we will still be maintaining digital subscriptions, the blog will be accessible to all, free of charge, so that more people might benefit from the empowering and increasingly important information that we cover in each issue.

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If you’ve ever grown your own garlic, you might have noticed the spiral-shaped shoots that suddenly pop up in the centre of the stem, usually about a month or so before the garlic bulbs themselves are ready to be harvested.
These are garlic scapes, and believe it or not- they make delicious pesto! Get the recipe through the link in my bio- https://thehouseandhomestead.com/garlic-scape-pesto/
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This honey and chive blossom vinaigrette is a frugal, easy and healthy homemade salad dressing that pairs beautifully with fresh garden salads all season long.
Get the recipe through the link in my bio.
https://thehouseandhomestead.com/chive-blossom-vinaigrette/
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Whether you live in the city and grow a few herbs on your balcony, have a few backyard chickens in the suburbs or live in the country and have a larder full of enough home-canned food to survive the apocalypse, if living a more homemade, homegrown, self-sufficient lifestyle is important to you, Modern Homesteading Magazine was made for you!
Read it today through the link in my bio!
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This radish top pesto recipe makes good use of the edible radish greens that often get discarded once they’re separated from the root. The end result is a peppery, slightly spicy twist on a classic pesto recipe.
A perfect condiment for all your summer snacking!
https://thehouseandhomestead.com/radish-top-pesto-recipe/
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