Jelly Making Season

The red currants were picked for jelly.  Jelly making is a two step process.  In the first step, the berries are made into juice.  Next the juice is preserved with sugar.  The following recipes will produce excellent jelly.  The basic jelly recipe comes from the Martha Stewart Cookbook-Collected Recipes for Everyday.  The Second recipe is from Christine Ferber’s Mes Confitures-The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber.  Ferber is an award winning jam maker. She makes excellent jams and jellies.

Basic Jelly Recipe (Stewart) – ***

(Makes approximately 2 to 21/2 pints)

• 4 cups whole berries or stemmed and seeded fruit (note that Ferber suggests removing all stems)
• Sugar

Mash the berries and cook with a small amount of water (about 1/2 cup) until very soft.  When cooking fruit, use enough water to just cover and cook until very soft.  Pour into a jelly bag (a fine linen dishcloth or cheesecloth works just as well if you do not have a jelly bag) and suspend the jelly bag over a large bowl.  Let the juice drip from the berries or fruit, without squeezing or pressing.  This will produce the clearest jelly.

To each cup of juice, add 1 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil and, keeping the temperature constant at a full roiling boil, skim off any scum.  Cook until the jelly coats a metal spoon or until a teaspoon dropped only a saucer stays in place.  Pour into hot, sterilized 1/2 pint jars and seal.

Red Currant Jelly (Ferber) – ****

2 3/4 pounds [1.2 kg] red currants

3 3/4 cups [800 g] granulated sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Rinse the red currants in cold water; drain them and stem them.  In a preserving pan, mix the fruit, sugar, and lemon juice.  Bring to a simmer, and then pour this mixture into a ceramic bowl.  Cover with a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, put the mixture through a food mill (fine disk) to separate the seeds and skins.  Discard the seeds and skins.

In a preserving pan, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring gently.  Continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Skim carefully.  Return to a boil.  Check the set.  Pour the jam into jars immediately and seal.

Take the time to stem the currants carefully, because the bits of stem will give a bitter taste to your juice.

 

New Braeburn apple tree doing well.

One of the original apple trees had to be replaced.  The original apple tree had developed canker and was not doing well.  In its place a Braeburn apple tree was planted.  The new tree has several apples  growing on it.

The community garden has 6 apple trees.  The names of the other apple varieties are not known.  The unknown varieties will ripen at the end of September.  Produce sales will continue into the fall.

Great produce sale in the rain – Big thanks to all the great helpers!

An enthusiastic and hardworking team of harvesters and sellers helped make the Saturday produce sale a success.  Approximately $65.00 of blueberries, raspberries, kale, beets, onions, lettuce and herbs were sold.

Volunteers are eager to start harvesting the red currants that are growing in the garden.  Although, the currants look ripe they need time to fully ripen.  The currants should be ready in the next week or so.  Once the currants are picked the fruit will be made into jelly.  In the meantime folks are welcome to sample the currants.