Anybody like to make jams and jellies?

[uncletree67]

I love the taste of home made stuff alot better than store bought. We have a strawberry farm here, so my mom and I got together and put 20 up jelly jars of jam. This morning I just finished putting up wild blackberry jam, it is cooling off on the counter now. There is a old rock pit close by my house and it is full of wild blackberries. I have lucked up with having my own blackberry farm, supplied by mother nature. Now, my wife and I are freezing blackberries for home made cobblers this summer(MMMMMMMMMMMMM.....). Make some home made vanilla ice cream to go right along with it. Peach season starts here in june and I can't wait. Please list any wild jams or jellies you may have tried or seen. My would be Purple Hull Pea Jelly!!!!!:):):):)

[blonde_princess]

Nice!!! Can't say that I've made any wild varieties... Down here, I'm way tooooo scared to try "wild" things that are growing. :)

[laynes69]

Mom and dad have a ton of blackberries. We picked 10 gallons one year and I sold 90 jars of blackberry jam in 1 day! We have alot of blackheart cherry trees, so we make cherry jam. We also make blackraspberry, strawberry, and have made mulberry. I like the cherry jam the best. Put some on warm bisquits, and it tastes like a cherry cobbler, or pie.

[gardencrazy]

I have Concord grapes that grow wild in my back yard. So I make grape jam. I'm also have apple orchards that aren't too far from me and I make apple pie jam with the apples. My friends' boys call it "bumpy jelly" and eat it with a spoon right out of the jar!!! two of the more uniqu ones I make are Habanero Gold Jelly and Kiwi Daiquiri Jam. YUM!

[lumina]

Apple Pie Jam...wow that sound delicious. I've done crock pot apple butter (very easy).

I've made blackberry, boysenberry, raspberry, strawberry, and apricot.

Made nectarine once, yuck. ;) Maybe I needed a better recipe.

My problem is that the fruit floats to the top quite often and or other consistency issues. :rolleyes:

[Longtail]

I grow all the currants and would like to get around to jellies as well as the red and black raspberry and blackberry and elderberry. I froze them all up figuring on winter projects but just couldnt get motivated .They are stiil going to get used in pies i guess? The currants and gooseberries are [positivly loaded with blossoms right now.

[uncletree67]

laynes69, cherry jam sounds great!!!!!! we are not lucky on having any cherries grow around here. cherry cobbler is one of my fav's to eat. once peaches start coming i am going to make peach jam and peach syrup for winter time. fresh fruit syrup on warm pancakes is so awesome. anybody got any good recipes for fruit syrups let me know. i know of one web site called pickyourown.org, it has recipes for anything.

[rutabaga]

I wish we had more fruit available to us. I have done marmalades, (seville orange, grapefruit and tangerine) last year we did well over 100 pounds of grape jelly, then one year someone gave us peaches so we did peach jam and butter, 2 yrs ago someone gave us hog apples and bartlett pears so we did lots of apple butter and pear butter. Always the favorite at our house is prickly pear jelly that we do in September. It is the best in my opinion. This year we have raspberries so hopefully we will get enough berries to put up a few pints. EXCITEMENT!!

[murphysranch]

I love making jam. Can't be bothered with jelly - don't want to waste the fruit solids. A couple of years ago I made peach jam, and years ago I made orange marmelade and strawberry jam. This past April, our fruit trees had bloomed, and a frost came along and wiped out the crop. We have lost Cherries, Asian pears, Barletts, Prunes, and two peach trees worth. Dang weather. You all have too much rain, while we are in a drought, but then we got hit with a frost.

As for floating fruit, just make sure you have the directions down exactly to the letter. This will help to prevent the fruit from floating to the top.

[RozieDozie]

My favorite wild jams are Dewberry (sort of like blackberries) and wild plum.

I made and sold jam, jelly, and preserves for years. I love fig preserves, grape jelly and red raspberry jam. Just writing this makes me want to get out the jars and lids. :)

[Jackie-T]

One year my oldest daughter took her pony for a ride and came back with a bucket filled with wild blueberries, black berries and raspberries. Not enough of any one to make a batch of jam but plenty together to make a batch so we did and it was the best jam we have ever had to date and that was over 20 years ago.

[Patio Princess]

We LOVE homemade preserves. Sadly, I never have enough strawberries, raspberies, blackberries, etc. to make it, so I have to buy berries. It really does taste better than the store-bought stuff. I also make orange and lemon marmlades.

[springfever]

Anyone else make peach honey? How about pear preserves? I have one cherry tree and it is loaded. It looks like about one more week or so if we have sun!! Now if the squirrels and birds will just leave me a few.

[florin]

One reason fruit will float to the top is because it is a little under ripe. One thing you can do is let your jam sit in the saucepan a couple of minutes before you put it in the jars. I like making unusual jellies and jams like banana bread jam (tastes like banana nut bread), black forest cherry, Jalapeno pepper jelly, peach pear and lime jam.

[springfever]

I'm not able to have seeds any longer so I am going to make blackberry jello this year. If the blackberries do as well as I think they will this year, I have never seen so many blooms!
Oh, does anyone have any hints about low sugar recipes. Most of my husbands family are diabetic and I try to not use too much sugar.

[florin]

You can use Pomona's Universal Pectin which allows you to use none to a little sugar when making your jams and jellies or you can buy the Ball or Sure Jel low sugar pectin to use.

[Emerald]

We LOVE homemade preserves. Sadly, I never have enough strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc. to make it, so I have to buy berries. It really does taste better than the store-bought stuff. I also make orange and lemon marmalade.

___I love a good marmalade! When I lived in Florida they would make marmalade out of any citrus that was in season- one of my favorites was a lemon/lime marmalade. But to buy that up here you almost have to take out a loan!:D
__ Do you think you could be persuaded to let us in on the secret to making good marmalade?? Pretty Please?:o

[tweed]

I've never made jelly or jam before.
Jelly just seems so hard to make, after reading how to make it.
That being said, I am going to try to make Strawberry and Blackberry Preserves this year.
I would also like to make a small run of old-fashioned Apple Butter. Nothin' better on a biscuit in the morning. :)

Steve

[Emerald]

I've never made jelly or jam before.
Jelly just seems so hard to make, after reading how to make it.
That being said, I am going to try to make Strawberry and Blackberry Preserves this year.
I would also like to make a small run of old-fashioned Apple Butter. Nothin' better on a biscuit in the morning. :)

Steve

You can make a great Apple butter by using your crock pot! You don't have to sit there and stir constantly! I just peel and deseed my apples first so I am not trying to get all that out when it is hot. Then you just start putting them into the crock pot until it is full, I usually put a bit of apple cider or even a touch of orange juice to get it going- after it starts cooking down I slowly start adding more peeled and cored apples - as it keeps cooking down you add more apples until you run out of space in the crock pot or you run out of apples- I think that by the time I cook down and fill my large crock pot I will have used about 10pounds of apples-(don't for get to prop that lid open with a wooden spoon to let the moisture out.) and I use many different kinds if they are all the same price at the stand and they let you fill your own bag. I use the same thing for making my pies too- a few different kinds of apples give it a richer flavor. you know that it is done when you put a dollop on a plate and tip the plate a bit no clear liquid forms around the dollop.

ETA: At the end of cooking I add just a bit of sugar if it needs it and I add all the spices that I would to apple pie and make a nice spiced apple butter.

[tweed]

You can make a great Apple butter by using your crock pot! You don't have to sit there and stir constantly! I just peel and deseed my apples first so I am not trying to get all that out when it is hot. Then you just start putting them into the crock pot until it is full, I usually put a bit of apple cider or even a touch of orange juice to get it going- after it starts cooking down I slowly start adding more peeled and cored apples - as it keeps cooking down you add more apples until you run out of space in the crock pot or you run out of apples- I think that by the time I cook down and fill my large crock pot I will have used about 10pounds of apples-(don't for get to prop that lid open with a wooden spoon to let the moisture out.) and I use many different kinds if they are all the same price at the stand and they let you fill your own bag. I use the same thing for making my pies too- a few different kinds of apples give it a richer flavor. you know that it is done when you put a dollop on a plate and tip the plate a bit no clear liquid forms around the dollop.

ETA: At the end of cooking I add just a bit of sugar if it needs it and I add all the spices that I would to apple pie and make a nice spiced apple butter.

Thanks for the heads up on the Apple Butter, Emerald! :)
So after you have cooked them down, added sugar and spices, you just transfer them to jars and then give them a water bath?

Steve

[lumina]

Hey Emerald. I made crock pot apple butter. Was wondering how long it took for yours, I think it took all day & night for ours to get done. :) Yummy and easy!!

[mjc]

When I do crock-pot apple butter, 24 hours is about right...

[Siegmund Family Farm]

Does anyone have a recipe for Rhubarb jam?

[Emerald]

It takes me from one morning to start it and by after noon I add more and more apples as the ones in the crock pot cook down and at night I do put mine crock pot on low so I don't worry about it. Then the next morning I put it back on high and usually by the late afternoon or early evening it will be done. Then I just water bath can it and label it- so about midnight (or so it seems :D) it is all done. If I get a good crop of peaches this year I might try some peach butter too. Or at least make some nice peach leather for snacking on.

[CityMouse]

Hey Emerald,

I have never made crock pot apple butter before but it does sound easy. I was wondering if it would speed up the cooking if you pureed the apples before putting them in the crock pot?

[mjc]

Emerald's looks like it takes 36 hours or so...I usually puree them have apple butter in 18 to 24 hours.

[CityMouse]

I love apple butter but have always made it the old fashion way over a hot stove.:D I will definately try this method. I wonder if you could use the crock pot to make jams or marmalades? Have you ever tried to do that? I found a great website with some very unusual marmalades. Its www.fooddownunder.com Just type in marmalade in the search box.

[blonde_princess]

I made some Strawberry Wine Jelly yesterday and a heavy buttermilk breakfast bread to go with it. Mmmmmm that was good!

[Yachoved]

I've made wild muskeedine (sp?) jelly as a young teenager growing up in East Texas, I didn't find anything wild in Louisiana to make jelly with. I've made wild blackberry and black raspberry jellies in Missouri. and I now have half gallon jars of plum juice and cherries to make jellies of when I get a chance. I like using Pamona's fruit pectin and not using as much sugar.

[Emerald]

Hey Emerald,

I have never made crock pot apple butter before but it does sound easy. I was wondering if it would speed up the cooking if you pureed the apples before putting them in the crock pot?

I'm sure that puree-ing the apples would make it cook faster- I think that mine only takes as long as it does because as the first full batch of apples that I put in start to cook down I keep peeling and adding more apples the whole first day until it just can't take another apple to fill the big crock pot (it is one of those silver/black oval ones). You could probably go ahead and puree all of the apples that you wish to use ahead of time and just put it into the fridge to keep until you get them all in-as apple butter is brown anyhow you might not even have to put in any lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. I did receive a nice big (roaster?) cooker, like the ones that you would bring to a big pot luck with either hot dogs or meat balls in, this last Christmas and I was thinking that big roaster I could cook down more apples than before and give the butter away for gifts. I usually take some out before I put the sugar in but after I put the spices in and that smaller batch has the fake sweetener in it (for my diabetic hubby and uncle) but that I freeze as I am not sure how well it would can and that it might go yucky as sugar is usually the reason you can water bath jelly and jam and fruit butters.(I'm sure that the acid level doesn't hurt there either!:D)

[mjc]

I don't bother to peel or core my apples, I just split them in half, drop them in a big roasting pan with a little water to prevent sticking. I bake it until they are soft, then run the whole mess through a food mill (Victorio strainer). At this point I decide whether or not I'm going to do apple sauce (just add some sugar and ladle, hot, into jars and process in a boiling water bath) or make apple butter...which means put it the crockpot and let it cook down (adding sugar and spices when it is reduced some).