It was much cooler and less humid yesterday, so we picked 18lbs of chokecherries, and shook 85lbs of crabapples off the tree (the poor thing looked like it was going to crack from the weight). I spent 4 hours cooking the chokecherries down to 13 cups of juice for future jelly, which I froze. The pulp was added to berries that my husband picked while I was at the summit, for future wine. And the blue hands will come in handy when I dye yarn for my SAFF workshop samples later today.
I'll chop and juice some of the crab apples today as well(boy, do I wish I had a fruit press), and save a bunch for wine. But we're going to eat some of them- they're surprisingly tasty for crab apples, not dry and quite sweet, and large for crabs. And the rest, we'll give away. There's no way I can use 85lbs of apples (which doesn't take into consideration the hundreds of pounds still on the tree).
I think I'm going to experiment with hot pepper jellies. The fruit/pepper jellies I bought in Oregon on the family vacation were wonderful. But mostly, I just hope that the jellies actually jell. I'm going to double up on the pectin, just to make sure, since last year's crabapple jelly is still as liquid as when it went into the jar. It's going down the drain very soon...
2 comments:
Ohhh, I make the hot pepper jelly that is in the Better Homes and Gardens pink recipe book. They put it out to raise money for breast cancer research. It looks like their usual book, but just pink plaid cover instead of red. I'm not a fan of hot pepper jelly, but I used to make it for my mom who loved it. Now my kids are eating up the rest of the last batch that I made her. Who would have guessed that toddlers would like pepper jelly?
Pepper jelly on cream cheese on crackers... mmmmm! One of my very favourite treats :^)
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