Jelly bandwagon

I've totally jumped on the jelly bandwagon. Don't even think this is a weird welcome back post by the way. It's not. Uhum.

So, back to the jelly. Everyone with a pair of eyes and access to the countryside will have noticed how bountiful the crop of wild berries and fruit have been this autumn (because yes, it truly is autumn now, there's no doubt about that! Long gone are the flip flops worn with pride at the start of the month!). Anyway, I digress. The fruit. Amazing wasn't it? Well I got tempted by all the resourceful blogs out there posting about making use of them.

So off we went on a Sunday morning to collect some crab apples. I like the look of them and I like their name. We don't even have a proper name for them in French, just something along the lines of "wild apples". How rubbish is that hey?! So there, I felt a need to go and get some of my own, and fill a little bag. I didn't want much, I'd never made jelly before after all.

Let's just say this: you will now have to tie my hands back to stop me from making jelly. It's so amazingly easy!! Much less faff in some ways than making jam, because you don't have to peel/ core the fruit (anyone who's made damson jam and taken the time to get rid of all the stones will know what I mean). Just bang it in a pan, add some water, boil for a while, put through a muslin cloth overnight, add sugar and boil (exact recipe was taken from Preserves by H. F-W.).

The flavour is really interesting. Not overly sweet or sharp, but quite different to anything I'd tasted before. I'm a convert. If you haven't got round to it yet, there's still time, those crab apples were begging for a jam-jar-home.