Canning Cookbook- Wild Plum Jelly

A drive in the Iowa countryside in the early spring is a beautiful thing. Wild flowers are abundant in the roadside ditches and farm fields. Day lilies bloom in huge clusters all along gravel roads. Dandelions smile in the sunshine. Many country roads are bordered with row after row of bushes covered in pristine white blossoms. The blooms are teeny tiny and smell sweet. Before too much longer these same bushes will be covered in little red wild plums no bigger than an olive. 

These miniature fruits are a real treasure. They are sweet and juicy, just like their full-sized counterparts, and make amazing jams, jellies and sauces. When I was a little girl my dad used to load my sister and I in the car and we'd head out into the country to pick wild plums along the roadsides. Sometimes we'd bring home boxes full of them.

These plums are really very tiny. They truly are about olive size with a fairly large pit for their size. They aren't the easiest thing to eat fresh but they are very sweet and juicy. I found the  best way to use them is to cook them whole, and strain out the pits. The skin usually cooks down and pretty much dissolves, leaving a beautiful rosy color. They are a freestone fruit so the flesh of the plum doesn't cling to the stone.  

To make this recipe you need roughly a gallon of wild plums. You can cook with the pits in (you'll be straining anyway) or pit the plums beforehand- it's up to you. I don't pit them first- too much work! After sorting out the bad ones and cooking them, straining and discarding the pits you'll have anywhere from 6 to 10 cups of liquid, depending on the juiciness of the plums. To make the juice wash the plums well and remove any stems. Discard any that might be buggy. Place in a large stockpot and add enough water to cover the plums. Bring this mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 30 to 45 minutes until the plums have broken down completely.

Line a colander with two layers of cheesecloth (or use a jelly bag) and place over a large bowl. Ladle the plum mixture into the colander. Allow the juice to drain off into the bowl overnight (in the fridge). Discard the plum pulp (add it to your compost pile if you have one) and your juice is ready to use. Let's make some wild plum jelly!

Wild Plum Jelly

5 1/2 cups wild plum juice

2 cups water

1 box powdered pectin

71/2 cups sugar

Prepare a boiling water bath canner, half pint jars and lids.

Measure 5 1/2 cups juice into stockpot. Add the pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add the sugar all at once; return to full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat.

Ladle into hot jars to 1/4 inch headspace. Process in canner for 10 minutes.

NOTE: This recipe has not been tested by the NCHFP. If you are not comfortable canning untested recipes, please do not use this one.

Canning Cookbook- Gooseberry Jelly

Ever since finding them at the farmers market in town I have been obsessed with gooseberries. Not as common as they once were, these tart little jewels remind me of childhood when gooseberry pie seemed to be as common as cherry pie. We don't need a lot of whole pies at our house, so I'm always looking for new ways to use gooseberries that fits in our tiny family food needs. Jams and jellies are perfect. 

Making jelly is very easy. Once you've got the fruit juiced it's a piece of cake after. Of course you can do it old school and cook until you have reached the gel point, and not use pectin, but I find using pectin offers more flexibility. Inside the box of pectin there is a little flyer with directions and using these directions makes it easy to use different berries or fruits, and even combinations to make your own custom flavors.

I love this gooseberry jelly. It's the perfect balance of tart and sweet, and can be any color from pale golden to a rosy pink, depending on the type of berries you have. Let's get busy making jelly, shall we?

Gooseberry Jelly

4-5 lbs gooseberries

1 cup water

1 box powdered pectin

7 cups sugar

Crush or grind the gooseberries. Place in large saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Pour the berries into a juice bag over a large bowl. Allow the berries to drain naturally until the bag stops dripping. Gently squeeze bag to remove all juice. Measure 5 1/2 cups juice (you can add apple juice if you don't have quite 5 1/2 cups).

Prepare a boiling water bath canner, half pint jars and lids.

Put juice in large pot, stir in the pectin. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Add the entire amount of sugar at once. Return to full rolling boil while stirring; boil one minute.

Ladle jelly into hot jars to 1/4 inch head space. Process for 10 minutes.

NOTE: This recipe has not been tested by the NCHFP. If you are not comfortable canning untested recipes, please do not use this one.

Canning Cookbook- Spring is just dandy!!

The dreaded enemy of yard fanatics everywhere, the bouquet of love presented by a chubby child's hand, a weed to some, a flower to others, the beautiful and sunshiny spring dandelion is one of the first signs of warmer days ahead. I so loved the days when my kids were little and they would bring me little bouquets of "flowers". No they were not weeds- they were bouquets of love, and always made me smile.

These days dandelions are so much more. They are also a valuable food source. Yes! Your common yard dandelion is a delicious treat in disguise. Young leaves are a delicious addition to salad mixes, and the blossoms are used for all sorts of things. Today I'm going to be using them for jelly, but we have tried dandelion wine as well- it was too sweet for me, but it was a first try.... I noticed this year that even some seed catalogs offered dandelion seeds in the section of salad greens- imagine that! 

Harvesting dandelions for jelly is fun. The Chef and I, on a warm sunny day, took a box across the street to the park, sat down in the grass and picked. We filled an entire copy paper carton before we knew it and barely had to move from our spot. ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: Pick your dandelions from a location you are 100% positively sure has not been treated for weeds!!!! Once you have a nice big pile, it's time to head in the kitchen.

Wash the dandelion blossoms gently with cool water to help get rid of that bitter "milk" and any extra friends with many legs you might have gotten. I'm not a big fan of friends with THAT many legs- yuck.  Drain them well- a salad spinner works great for this, and spread out onto a towel-lined tray to start working on them. You will be separating the yellow petals from ALL the green parts. It's a little time consuming so pull up a chair at the kitchen table and put on a movie while you're working.

Go ahead and pick as many flowers apart as you can. You will be measuring PACKED petals for the jelly and it can take a lot more than you think. You can pick and pack as you go too- whatever works for you. So let's get busy making our Dandelion Jelly. You will need:

2 cups packed dandelion blossoms

4 cups water

5 1/2 cups sugar

1 box powdered pectin

Bring the water to boil, pour over dandelion petals in large pot or pitcher. Allow this mixture to steep for a couple hours or overnight. When it has steeped, strain into a clean pot using a jelly bag. DO NOT squeeze the bag- let it drip for a half hour or so on it's own. If you don't have a jelly bag you can line a small strainer with coffee filters and strain- slow process but it works in a pinch.

Next, measure out 3 cups of liquid and place in large pot. Combine with pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil while stirring the entire time. Add the entire measure of sugar at once, and return to boil, still stirring. Boil exactly one minute, then remove from heat. Ladle the hot jelly into prepared jars and fix lids and rings. Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Remove jars and allow to cool. 

A lot of people wonder what it tastes like- well, it tastes amazingly like honey! It kind of looks like honey too. It's great on toast or biscuits and I've also melted some and used to make pan sauces and glazes for different meats by adding herbs and spices. It's very versatile and looks so pretty in the jar- it makes a great gift. I have experimented with other flower petal jellies as well, so maybe this spring we will do some more- just make SURE the flowers are non-toxic and pesticide-free. Have fun playing!!