Weekend Jelly Making Adventures of the Little Red Hen

Red Currant Bush-

Member of the gooseberry family

Today I'm the little red hen. No one wanted to help me. But you know..they will be the first ones telling me that they want jelly when it's all said and done.

I spent most of the morning after breakfast picking 5 pounds of currants by myself since no one, not even my assistant, Head of Cheap Child Labor wanted to go into the mini-orchard with me. They would have been able to at least eat some of these while they picked, since there is a bumper crop of these this year too. Due to the cooler and wetter than normal spring and early summer, these are especially abundant on the bush. In fact half of these were still not ripe while the other half was a few days away from being overripe. So away I plucked. I managed to get a few green ones in the harvest but over all it was a good one. In another week, gangsta birdies permitting there should be enough available for a second harvest. Today I will be using pectin for both batches, a natural plant derivative which is used as gelling agent for jelly.





In about 3 hours I had five pounds.. The tricky part of picking these is picking without squishing the hell out of them.


People spend hundreds of dollars on kitchen gadgets every year. I don't. I buy whats on sale. As a result I sometimes get what I pay for, which is crap. This time was one of those times that I found out I had crap for a kitchen gadget. The food mill I bought last year after the one I owned died crapped out on me today. So, it was one of those times to improvise, which I have a habit of doing when it comes to getting stuff done and I am really too cheap to buy another piece of crap and don't feel like being bothered to ask someone to borrow theirs.

Sometimes one's best ingenuity moments are those thought of off-the-cuff. I'm sure though that my "country ancestors" would have and have done the same thing here.

Pretty much dead crappy kitchen gadget- Food mill. Crapped out in 1 minute of usage due to to seeds clogging the hell out of it. Took 5 minutes to put together and 2 minutes to take apart in frustration.
Job still left unfinished.









Little red hen kitchen gadget (courtesy of the country ancestors!)- 2 pound granite pestle, Fine screened sifter/strainer/thingamajiggy,
2 seconds to put together
Job done in 5 minutes!




And it was accomplished without any additional arm or back strain. This should also work well when I start my cherry jelly this evening. As you can see, with the summer comes the fruit. I get injured enough climbing and falling from trees and ladders and getting tangled in the thorned brambles that house the raspberries and blackberries. No one said that there was no pain involved in homesteading. At least I can console myself with excellent homemade goodies. Helps me heal faster.
Now, red currant jelly is the only jelly that I make using white cane sugar (and lots of it!), 7 cups to be exact. Got to have cane sugar.. But you know; honestly it does not taste good any other way. I'm not a big proponent of sugar anyway but, I love red current jelly and since there are no other liquid pectin recipes that use less sugar for this, this way will have to do. Anyway, it's divine!

One thing about processing fruit for jams and jellies is that once you get a momentum going, it's hard to stop. Once again the cherry tree was picked through by both the birds, me and my assistants. (This time I had help from the Cheap Child Labor Department after a rousing and motivating pep talk.). I'm pretty much ahead of the birds. This is my third time this week picking through and tomorrow morning we will be hitting it up again for some more.

Today however I will be making cherry jelly instead of preserves. I had found some pectin stored that I had left over from last year that I will use for the low sugar version of this delicious jelly.

Tart cherries and little red hen food mill

This is the resulting juice from the cherries going through the mill. This is a much simpler process as far as time needed to make a batch of jelly. Since pectin is being used one does not have to stand over it constantly stirring for a long period of time. But, you still must be careful since once it starts boiling, once you add the pectin and sugar you must move really quickly to get it into sterilized and ready jars.

Completed jars of jellies
left side- red current jelly,
right side- tart cherry jelly

The sight above is a fitting way to end a very busy and productive day. As the sun was starting to go behind the mini-orchard I could not help but to notice the bright translucency of the jellies and the anticipation of eventually opening them for eating. They will not be fully gelled though until tomorrow.

In the meantime, I need to clean my kitchen for the third time today before I start dinner.

Until next time, may all your gardening adventures be fruitful ones!