“Clark, that’s the gift that keeps on giving.” No truer words have ever described a Jelly of the Month Club.
Yet, upon my annual family viewing of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, a thought occurred to me that had not in the decades I’ve watched this movie. The idea of a jelly for every month seems quite excessive. Right? After all the best jelly is certainly strawberry, but even that takes me months to eat a single jar. What deranged lunatic would need all that jelly? Perhaps I don’t eat as much jelly compared to others.
Wild Jelly
Illinois Extension is a great resource for those wanting to learn about preserving food and canning, including making jams and jellies. However, that is not the world I live in. I deal with plants, so when canning questions come into the office, I send them to someone else. However, a recent call about making jelly stopped at my desk. How do you grow plants to make wild jelly?
The best way to grow plants for wild jelly is to figure out what wild jelly is in the first place. Turns out wild jelly is an umbrella term that indicates the materials collected for the jelly were growing wild or considered unconventional ingredients. You can narrow this term down by inserting whatever fruit or plant part you are using for the jelly into the name. Therefore, wild crabapple jelly is jelly made from crabapples.
Jelly-maker beware - Plants for making wild jelly
How do you grow plants for wild jelly? First, you need to plan what type of jelly you would prefer and whether is it safe to make jelly from certain ingredients. The caller I worked with had a few floral types and native fruit types of jelly. Investigating all the different kinds of wild jelly flavors and comparing them to what research-based recipes are available can narrow down your list of what is safe to use in a jelly recipe. Using herb and flower-based ingredients makes it very difficult to maintain the proper pH and presents the possibility of introducing pathogens that could make humans sick, such as botulism. Recently, more information about these risks has surfaced and many reputable online sources have pulled their herb and flower recipes.
This reinforces the importance of using only research-based recipes and following them exactly as written. Botulism is nothing to mess with. While it seems like you can make jelly out of anything, if you can’t find a recipe from a reputable source, it is best to not make it.
While this blog post never listed recipes, it did list plants you could use to make wild jellies. However, because I could not find any research-based recipes, those plants have been removed from the post.
But all is not lost, there are still ways to enjoy fresh (refrigerated) flower or herb jellies. Check out this Dandelion Jelly publication from University of Wyoming Extension which describes the risks of canned dandelion jelly and provides an alternative to fresh dandelion jelly that is refrigerated or frozen.
There are many research-based recipes for fruits you can grow in your own backyard such as blackberry, crabapple, or elderberry. You can find those on reputable sites such as:
- The National Center for Home Food Preservation
- Ball Mason Jars ®
- Mrs. Wages ®
- And other Extension websites
Good Growing Tip of the Week: In the United States, jams are different from jellies. Jam is crushed fruit pieces cooked in pectin. Jellies are fruit juices cooked in pectin.
Resources on making jellies and jams
- Making Jams and Jellies
- Selling your jelly of the month? You'll need to know about the new Cottage Food Laws
- Recorded webinar to Fill Your Pantry with Jams and Jellies
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Chris Enroth is a horticulture educator with University of Illinois Extension, serving Henderson, McDonough, Knox, and Warren counties since 2012. Chris provides horticulture programming with an emphasis on the home gardener, landscape maintenance personnel, and commercial landscapers. Additional responsibilities include coordinating local county Master Gardener and Master Naturalist volunteers - providing their training, continuing education, advanced training, seasonal events, and organizing community outreach programs for horticulture and conservation assistance/education. In his spare time, Chris enjoys the outdoors, lounging in the garden among the flowers (weeds to most).