This an excellent recipe which can be adapted to accommodate almost any mixed hedge (and its fruit). Please remember to check that something is safe (if you are not sure) before cooking and eating it….. With the exception of Elderberries (you can buy Elder trees separately from us at Sambucus nigra), all the plants that produce the berries in this recipe are likely to be in a pack of our Conservation Hedge Mix hedging.
Ingredients
On average these will yield about 2kg of jelly
3lbs (1.4kg) crab apples, windfall apples or cooking apples
2lbs (900g) in total of blackberries, elderberries & sloes as available
2lbs (900g) in total of rowan berries, haws & rose hips as available
Juice of 1 lemon
Sugar
Instructions
Wash the apples, and if you are using cooking apples chop them roughly.
Wash and drain the blackberries, elderberries & sloes.
Wash and drain the rowan berries, haws & rose hips.
Put all the fruit except the rowan berry batch in a large, heavy- based pan with all bar a tablespoon of the lemon juice and add cold water to the level of the fruit.
In a separate pan put the rowan berry batch and the remaining lemon juice and cover with water.
Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until all the fruit is tender and well broken down – the rowan berry batch will take longer to soften.
Strain both pan fulls through a scalded jelly bag for at least 4 hours. Do not squeeze the bag.
Measure the strained juice and weigh out 1lb (450g) sugar for each pint (575/600ml) of juice.
Pour the juice back into the pan and heat very gently. Add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved.
Bring to the boil and cook rapidly until setting point is reached.
Skim, pot and seal in the usual way.
Enjoy
Hedgerow Jelly Recipe by
Charles Simon is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available if you contact us.
