Hedgerow Jelly

 Recipe for: HEDGEROW JELLY 

Ingredients: 

• 1 kg crab apples, or cooking apples
• 1 kg mixed hedgerow berries (e.g. sloes, bullaces, hips, haws, blackberries, elder-berries, rowan berries)
• 900 g granulated sugar 

Method: 

1. pick over the fruits, removing stalks & leafy bits, rinsing as necessary
2. don’t peel or core the apples – just chop roughly
3. place all fruit in a heavy pan with 1.2 litres of water
4. bring to the boil, then simmer until all the fruit is soft & pulpy.  Remove from heat.
5. turn the contents of the pan through a scalded jelly bag or muslin cloth & leave to drip overnight
6. do not rush this bit – don’t squeeze the liquid through the bag or the jelly will be cloudy
7. the next day, measure the juice – you will probably have about 1.2 litres
8. put the juice into a clean pan and bring up to the boil
9. add the sugar – 450g of it for every 600 ml of fruit liquid, stirring until dissolved
10. boil rapidly, without stirring, for 9-10 minutes until setting point is reached 
11. skim off any scum with a shallow spoon, then pot & seal into sterilised jars
12. date & label the jars 

What else you need to know: 

1. keeping the skin, cores & stones is a good source of pectin, which helps the jam to set