Instagram Saturday

Since it was only 252 degrees outside, I decided that it would be a good day to make jelly.  Marionberry jelly.  Not Marion Barry, the crack smoking former mayor of Washington D.C.  Marionberries are pretty much an Oregon thing. Read the link.

Anyhoo.  Here is my day, in Instagram photos:

Gather your ingredients.  Pectin, Fruit, Sugar, and jars.  There is no sugar in this picture because I had no sugar even though I had just returned from the grocery store.  I also needed more pectin, but didn't realize that until I was right in the middle of everything.  Thank goodness for kids that can drive.  The Girl saved me.

I cannot stress this strongly enough.  READ THE DIRECTIONS.  I've been making jam for about 15 years now and I still make myself read the directions because as much as I think I might remember what to do, I don't. 

Here's another tip:  If you can get someone else to do it with you, the whole process goes much smoother.  Particularly if you are making several batches.  I think I made 6.

To simplify, I cut out only the parts of the directions that apply to what I am making and tape it to the cupboard door.  Otherwise, you run the risk of reading the wrong section and you end up with fruit syrup rather than jelly or jam. 

There are no directions for marionberries so I use the recipe for blackberries.  They are almost the same.

Mmmmmm. Marionberries.  I have a friend who has a connection at a fruit processing place and he gets me a deal on marionberries, strawberries, and blueberries.  In the late summer, I'll go and pick blackberries because they are everywhere and they are free, but my arms and legs will look like I was dropped in a box of feral cats when I'm done.

So, the recipe says to heat them up and mash them, but I just run them through the food processor.  Saves time and gets the same result.

Next is the straining.  This takes FOR EVER.  So, to speed up the process, I run the berries through the food mill and then through a strainer and THEN through the jelly bag.  The food mill and the strainer will remove most of the pulp and seeds.  If I were making Jam, I wouldn't care and I would probably be done by now.

Pour three cups of the juice into a pot.

Add some pectin and stir it in until the pectin is dissolved.

Bring this mixture to a full rolling boil (a boil that does not stop when stirred).

It's s good idea to use a nice deep pot because when the rolling boil is going, the juice will splatter and it's just a little hotter that lava when it hits your arm.

Add a boatload of sugar.  Seriously, there is so much sugar in this recipe, but I've tried the low sugar and fake sugar recipes and they taste extra sweet.  Grossly sweet. Like your teeth might fall out sweet.  Just suck it up and use the real sugar. It's not like you're eating a jar a day of this stuff.

Ooops, I forgot to get a picture of myself ladling the jelly into jars.  I will refer you back to be comment about lava and you may understand why I try to get that part done as quickly as possible and it's hard to take pictures with blisters on your fingers.

Put the jars into a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  My canner is so big it takes forever to get to a boil, so I sat and listened to the radio and crocheted while I waited.  Multi-tasker!  I really wish I could just sit and do nothing, but the guilt of doing nothing productive overcomes me.

Bingo, you have jelly.  You need to wait for all of the lids to seal.  See how those closest to you have a little bump?  That needs to suck down and then you should let them sit for 24 hours, at least.  This started out as 15 pounds of berries and is now 19 pints of jelly.  Not bad. 

I did not let them sit for 24 hours.  I opened one of the jars that I wasn't able to fill completely and tasted the jelly on Wheat Thins last night.  It was delicious.

Did I mention that all of this (with the exception of the straining) was accomplished in our fifth-wheel trailer?  Clover kept an eye out for jelly bandits while I worked.  Actually, she has a nice view into the neighbor's yard from that window and she can see what Oliver and Flash, our basset hound neighbors, are up to.

It's inevitable that the day you want to can anything, is the hottest day of the summer, so I usually do most of the canning outside so as not to heat up the house.  This time, I decided to use the fifth-wheel where I wouldn't get a sunburn.

So there you go.  If you have the choice, make jam rather than jelly.  Brown Eyed Man doesn't care for seeds so I make jelly.  He has the best wife ever.

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