I did this on instagram stories last weekend, & when I said something about how I should probably stop bombarding unsuspecting knitters with the ongoing saga of What Yard Trash Will I Shove In Jars This Week, a whole bunch of folks said they actually like it.

So, since I’m trying to do less work stuff & more life stuff this summer (while still feeding the gaping maw of the content machine that rules our lives), I figure cool, perhaps weekends are for life stuff instead of work stuff.

Right now, that means chive vinegar (plus it’s gorgeous).

So, this starts with the chive plant in my herb garden. It overwinters fine here (Maine), & it’s always one of the first herb plants to flower.

Once the flowers open, I snip them off. I can usually do this two or three times, a week or so apart, because the flowers don’t all open at once.

I bring them in & fling them in a random jar. Here it’s a quart mason jar, but anything that’s clean, that you can seal up fairly well, & that you can get the flowers back out of later is fine (so not something with a super narrow neck). Pick a size you can fill fairly full with flowers.

Figure out the volume of your jar & put something like 1/3 to 1/2 that much vinegar in a pot. My jar is 32 ounces, so I did about a cup & a half of white vinegar. Don’t use your fancy stuff, just plain vinegar is fine. Toss in a little bit of sugar and salt (I did about 1/4 cup of sugar and maybe a tablespoon of salt) & heat it up enough to get the sugar and salt to dissolve. Let it cool then dump it on the flowers.

Top the jar off with a tasty vinegar you like. I use apple cider vinegar we make from the cider we buy in the fall. You want a live vinegar (one that still has critters in it, not one that’s been heat treated/sterilized/pasteurized), because you want our wee microbe friends to get in there & chomp on the sugar & flowers.

Put lid on loosely & let it sit for a week or so. Give it a little shake when you think of it. In a few days it will turn PINK & fill you with glee (tell me it’s not just me…).

After a week or so, strain out the flowers, & it’s ready. Use it like any other flavored vinegar (I love it on potatoes).