Hedgerow Jelly (Autumn in a Jar)

If you have kids and, like mine, they love to collect everything and anything they spot while out walking (shells, stones, feathers, broken blue and white pottery, coins, bottle tops etc. etc. etc.) then you might enjoy making this with them.

On our last walk we collected all sorts of edible Autumnal treasure - crab apples, sloes, rose hips, rowan berries, black berries, haws... but what to do with it all? Hedgerow Jelly, that's what.

We found this recipe, which worked brilliantly, and really you can be fairly flexible with what you put in, depending on what you find.  Always be careful to check that what you have picked is actually edible though, and not deadly nightshade berries for example. Make sure you wash everything thoroughly before starting.

As long as the sugar to juice ratio is 1 pound : 1 pint, you should be ok. And we totally cheated and squeezed the muslin straining bag (which looked like something out of a terrible slasher movie as the thick, red, viscous liquid oozed over our hands). Yes our jelly is a little cloudy, but we got twice as much, which is more important than perfection in my jam making school.

Then when it was done and poured into jars, we made labels (Isla's was so nice I copied hers).

It tastes very nice on porridge, crumpets and pancakes and would probably be very nice with game too, as it is quite sharp and sweet.