Blackberry Jelly
On Tuesday I spent several hours making blackberry jelly. I ended up with 15 pints and 14 jelly jars of jelly. Whew! I was one tired woman but the hard work was so worth it.
That night I shared a picture of the results of my efforts on Facebook and I wanted to share it with you as well.
I used to make blackberry jelly with Sure-Jell, but I got brave last year and tried it the old fashioned way.
Blackberries are a fruit that actually doesn’t require pectin to be made into jelly. So, I saved myself close to $20 to make all of the jelly by using just blackberry juice and evaporated cane juice (Sugar).
The first step to making blackberry jelly is to juice the berries. I usually boil them for about 5 minutes. This really gets the juices flowing.
Up until this year I have always used a tomato juicer attachment to get the juice. However, I wasn’t having much this year (getting gummed up) luck so I crushed the berries and let them strain through some cheesecloth.
I saved up the juice for a week or so in order to make all of the jelly I wanted at one time.
I made a total of 4 batches that had 8 cups of juice and 8 cups of sugar. This 1:1 ratio turned out to be just right.
So, I brought the juice to a boil and then added the sugar. I brought it back to a boil again.
Then, I set a timer for about 20 minutes and stirred the boiling mixture fairly frequently.
One thing to remember is that the longer you boil the jelly the more gelled it will get. I think I could have boiled the jelly a little longer but 20 minutes really was just about right.
I ladled the jelly into boiling hot jars, added lids and rings, and then I just let them sit on the counter on top of a towel.
This is the old fashioned open-kettle method that I usually don’t use. The recommended method would be 5-10 minutes in a water bath canner.
However, all of my lids sealed and the jelly is delicious. 
Here’s a tutorial I wrote last year for making grape jelly that might be helpful.
Now, about that weed patch garden of mine.
My Garden This Week (8-8-13)
Would you believe that my little 6-8 inch tall stunted green pepper plants produced about 5 green peppers today? I couldn’t believe it.
Other than that there isn’t much to say about my main garden spot this week. I’m hopeful for some more sweet corn and maybe a few tomatoes.
Our blackberries have been the best thing growing in our garden this year. I am still getting at least a gallon every time I pick. One thing I am going to try is to make some fruit leather. I am also freezing some juice in ice cube trays for smoothies.
My back garden spot looks even worse than my main garden. I am very hopeful that those potato towers are full of potatoes. It won’t be long until I can find out.
Amongst all of the weeds I did pick 3 pumpkins and 7 butternut squash this evening. It was like finding buried treasure. 😉
How is your garden growing this week?
