My Dad would have been proud

My Dad (who died aged 93 two years ago) would have been very proud of my accomplishment this week.  He was a jam and jelly maker (and eater) par excellence, and no year passed without the family brambling expedition by bicycle to collect enough fruit for a year’s supply of bramble jelly.  Additionally, Dad and I were fond of apple jelly – and a friend of mine had a huge crab apple tree in her garden.  These were the oval red crab apples that make the most delicate and fragrant pink jelly.

So I collected a load of mixed apples from our garden (a mix is the best), including some of the red crabs.

I roughly chopped them and boiled them up to a pulp with enough water to cover them.  Then I squeezed them through a canvas tea towel – you will see it said that this makes the juice go cloudy.  In my estimation it doesn’t, and anyway – some people may have the patience to wait for hours for it to drip through, but I certainly do not.

Then I boiled the juice with sugar until it got to setting point – 104C  You can do this without a jam thermometer but basically  – don’t it is more trouble than it is worth.  And don’t try to boil too much juice (more than say 4 pints) at a time because it makes it difficult to get it hot enough if you use too much.

This was some of the finished product – I need to get some fancy jars for it – but as you will see it is a beautiful pink and not cloudy at all.

Dad would have been proud.  And also that I am doing the woodworking course as that was another thing he liked.