Jelly from anything!

[Jeff]

You can make Jelly at home with any juice!  In this case I happened to have some highbush Cranberries I picked out by the edge of N. Caribou Lake road, so that is what I used for this demo. Video shows start to finish so you can see how it is done!
RECIPE
"Jelly From Anything"
Set jar lids and rings in shallow dish ahead of time. This recipe makes, give or take enough jelly to fill 72-80 oz of jars, so plan accordingly. About 10 8oz jars or 6-7 12oz jars.
5 cups juice plus 1/4 cup lemon juice
 7 cups sugar
 1 teaspoon margarine
 1 package of "Jell-Ease" (thats the sav-a-lot brand of pectin)
tea kettle or pan of boiling water.
Heat selected juice and lemon juice Jell-Ease and margarine (margarine is the anti foaming agent) until it just comes to a boil.   
Stir in sugar (dont just dump it all in at once, but add continuously as you stir it in)
Continue to heat jelly to a "boil you cannot stir down".  Then continue to heat for 3 minutes, keeping the jelly stirred at all times.
With your third hand, when you are at that point where you have the three minutes to go, poor boiling water over the lids and rings.
Dip the jar mouths in the boiling water and set aside for filling.
Using a jar funnel, fill a jar, then place on the lid and secure the ring, and invert the filled jars on a towel. (dont invert wide mouth jars, only your typical narrow mouth jelly jars) Continue quickly until all jars are filled.   when 5 minutes have elapsed, turn the jars right side up and let cool.
Your Done!
Inverting the jars allows the 300+ degree jelly to finish sterilizing anything that is not already.
 
 

[SwampDonkey]

Great video. Mom makes some awesome hugh bush jelly but we never made any this year. I hate getting stung by yellow jackets, I suppose she does to. We are eating the bog kind this winter.

Don't leave us in the dark about the grape story. I'm going to make grape jelly and juice after I get the firewood for next year all cut and hauled. Grape recipe takes 5 cups of juice, it's on the Certo (pectin) package.

[SwampDonkey]

Forgot to mention, my brother has gone gangbusters planting clumps of highbush cranberry around his property. The leaves turn a bright red/orange in the fall, so that is a plus. He's not making jelly. Leaves of my wild plum also turn orange.

[Don P]

There was a blurb on the radio yesterday about making autumn olive jelly... I guess every cloud  .

[Jeff]

I used this recipe one time to make jelly from a can of hi-c orange drink.

[kantuckid]

My wife's granny made jelly from apple peels as she was making apple butter. Everything but the worm got into a jar. 
Jelly is sort of like wine, can be made from anything thats got juice-for me the larger question is how good is it? We make one jelly from the pectin recipes actually- Pepper Jelly. We used red and green jalapeños for color and some heat but truth is that it's so much better than any you'll buy it just makes sense. We eat almost all of it on two things: Pagoda brand frozen Pork Egg Rolls from Walmart  and an occasional fried green tomato & fried okra bits. 
Comfort food at it's best. Our cranberry crop doesn't exist but my wife cannot eat roasted bird w/o some homemade relish. 

[21incher]

I put in 100 American cranberry bushes and found you can't eat the jelly made from them. I made 2 dozen jars and tossed them out from the most god awful bitterness. Only berries I have tried that won't make decent jelly. On the other hand I can make wine from just about any berry.

[SwampDonkey]

What's American cranberry bushes? There are several species of viburnum and some are almost alike, and the only one we use is Viburnum trilobum. Viburnum opulus var. americanum is closely related to European highbush cranberry, whose berries are bitter and toxic. Peterson's lists opulous toxic as well.

https://newfoundland-labradorflora.ca/flora/dview/?id=140

[21incher]

I bought  them from the local soil and water district spring tree sale. They were called  American Highbush Cranberries.  Supposed to be edible but way too bitter  for us. Loaded with  millions of cranberries right now and they hang on through the winter. The birds love them all winter. I don't  think they are a true cranberry though. They make a beautiful 12 ft high hedge now.

[SwampDonkey]

I've read that there are some people selling them as trilobum and they are not. If it isn't edible jelly than you did something wrong or they aren't the right berries at all. We've made jelly for years in this area, like everyone into jam making.

And no, they are not true cranberries. The true cranberries are a vaccinium like blueberries and grow on bogs. I have picked them, but they are not as abundant or as big a bush as a blueberry. The bog ones I find are on wetter ground. The best blueberries I've picked were on old jack pine burnt land on firm dry ground, glacial sand. Big wide bushes, sit on a stump and pick a gallon a bush. We used to  pick them by the 3 gallon pale. Bog cranberry picking on the other hand is tedious and like work. Small low bushes. Not for me. If you've tried to pick any, you'll agree.

Another bush that is like highbush cranberry is squash berry, viburnum edule. But they will also make jam/jelly. It is also called highbush cranberry in the west were it grows much taller than here in the east. As far as I know, not any here, more to the north or in Newfoundland.

[21incher]

I was told later that the berries are not good to use for anything before they are hit by a hard frost so maybe I didn't  wait  long enough.  Not going to waste time trying again. I make great choke cherry jelly  though. 

[Don P]

You do realize the Allman Brothers have been singing Jelly Jelly Jelly in my head all day.

You're welcome 

[SwampDonkey]

Have never waited for hard frosts, usually late September we pick. We don't get hard frost until late October. And almost November before a puddle will crust over with ice up here. We pick them when they are deep red and soft.  Been colder up at Jeff's than here already, he had ice in the dog water dish.

One (2) thing frost does help with is turnip and parsnip flavor. Brings the sugar out. Parsnip right now is about tasteless compared to the spring of the year. I learned that from dad's uncle Arthur. He had a big garden and he could eat. And we had a local turnip grower here, he never harvested until late October. Much better taste than a bitter tasting summer harvested one.

[kantuckid]

You do realize the Allman Brothers have been singing Jelly Jelly Jelly in my head all day.

You're welcome  

So my SIL, calls the wife to say "she could have gotten us into the KY flood fund raiser that had Patty Loveless and most all of the KY folks that are singing in my head, "but she wasn't sure we'd want to go... BTW, they raised a bunch of money to help a very sad area right now.  

[kantuckid]

Have never waited for hard frosts, usually late September we pick. We don't get hard frost until late October. And almost November before a puddle will crust over with ice up here. We pick them when they are deep red and soft.  Been colder up at Jeff's than here already, he had ice in the dog water dish.

One (2) thing frost does help with is turnip and parsnip flavor. Brings the sugar out. Parsnip right now is about tasteless compared to the spring of the year. I learned that from dad's uncle Arthur. He had a big garden and he could eat. And we had a local turnip grower here, he never harvested until late October. Much better taste than a bitter tasting summer harvested one.

We've had two killing frosts so far, about two weeks earlier than normal, but up higher where our house is, we still have impatiens alive down low to the ground and lots of marigolds still pretty among the mums. My Okra is deader than a doornail. My shortlist of foods I don't like comes up a lot from our Northern friends: turnips, parsnips, rhubarb, rutabagas are all on my no/no food list, otherwise I'd "eat a rock" so to speak... 
I wish I had some nice red berries to make jelly. Be a nice switch from strawberry jam. 

[Don P]

We've had patches of kudzu killing frost here.

[Jeff]

I go by the killing frost, same as rabbit hunting.

[SwampDonkey]

Kentuckid, because you harvest the stuff in warm weather. I wouldn't eat it either without some hard frost. I don't mean 30 degree light frost, I mean 25 degrees frozen ground frost. And especially over winter the parsnip. World of difference. And some people confuse parsnip with parsley root, looks the same, but not.