Green apple jelly. I’ve made apple jelly before using Honeycrisp – the results of which I love – and I wanted to see how it came out with another variety - Greensleeves. These apples are green in color, on the sweet side, and with that traditional “green apple” flavor. I cut the sugar in half, thinking the apples were plenty sweet on their own. From four pounds of fruit I got 2.5 half-pints of rose-colored ambrosia. The apple flavor really came through after reducing the jelly down by about 80%.
The NYT link below should be a gift link (no paywall).
I’ve been intrigued by your description of the flavor of this variety since you posted about it the other day. I’d never heard of it before.
The jelly sounds amazing.
Do you ever dry apple slices? They were ubiquitous around here when I was a kid, and I still buy little bags of them at the farmers market occasionally .
I can’t account for the color. Skins are left on during cooking. I get that the jelly from Honeycrisp came out rose-pink. I expected the jelly from the Greensleeves to come out green, or perhaps yellowish, but it didn’t. It came out about the same color as the reddish Honeycrisp just slightly cloudier. The cloudiness I attribute to the Greensleeves being a less firm apple, and it broke down a bit more in the cooking process. The flavor of the two jellies is quite distinct.
In this photo, Honeycrisp on the left and Greensleeves on the right.
I do dehydrate apple slices. I love them - they’re one of my favorite snacks. I did a full dryer load (about 20 trays) of mixed apples (Pristine (tart) and Williams Pride (sweet)) earlier this year, resulting in 4 well-packed quarts of dried apple slices. I’m working myself up to do another load with the green apples - I think they’d be an awesome dried apple.
Pickled peppers, mostly sweet Italian pepperoncini with a few serranoes added for heat. I didn’t process in the water bath, preferring to make fridge pickles for extra crunch. I’ve had these hold up for two years refrigerated but am just as certain they’ll be gone by the end of next summer.
I’ve done a lot recently: autumn fruit ( apple, pear and plum), pear and cranberry chutney, another batch of maple vanilla peach ( hope that it turns out… the peaches were pretty hard!) and pear chocolate ( from Preserving by the pint). Will do a bit more this week-end, then likely put the canner down in the storage locker for the winter!
We’re just about at that same point. I’m pretty sure today was the last canning job. If it stays dry, then tomorrow will be the last day for loading the food dehyrdrator. After that, everything gets tucked away until next year.
The only thing I missed out on this year were blackberries - dang it! Just no good picking anywhere, and I couldn’t see myself paying $6 a half-pint for something which typically grows like weeds around here.
Yep, I get that! my father used to pick vast quantities when he visited his parents on the West Coast, and he’d drive them back to Calgary ( and later Winnipeg). My cousins called him “Uncle Forage”
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ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
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I will send you some runny amateur foraged jam if you like
Low sugar elderberry jelly from my frozen summer harvest today. Or maybe you’d call it seedless jam, since I used a food mill on the berries to extract juice and pulp, what little of it there is on an elderberry. Went 14 for 14 on the seals!
Love elderberry 'preserves. My mother slaved over the hot stove to make the best from our bountiful tree. She gave away most of the jars for holiday treats. Someday I will make my own.
How do you like to use elderberry preserves, besides on toast? I have a jar I haven’t opened.
By the way, how long does a commercial passion fruit curd keep in the fridge. I opened it about 3 months ago. Looks normal but I wasn’t sure if it should be thrown out sooner than jam because of the egg yolk content.
I would taste the passion fruit curd first, but I think it should be just fine. If it seems to have lost moisture, I’d just whisk in a little water to thin.
As far as your elderberry preserves go, I could see them as a topping for desserts - cheesecake, ice cream, layered into tarts, and such like that. Also, think they would make a pretty delectable stuffed French Toast, or perhaps melted down slightly and warmed for pancake/waffle syrup. I often mix my wild preserves or syrups with a bit of maple syrup, with excellent results. I thought maybe the maple would overwhelm, but interestingly it doesn’t. Still, start with just a little, and if you like it, go from there. I heat the 2 together - yum.
