Mint Jelly

 Ahhh! Fresh mint, the gift that keeps on giving everywhere in the garden.  It’s persistent… What better way to curb it than turning it into mint jelly.  Fresh mint jelly, perfect for gift giving or serving with your favourite lamb roast.  

The last time in tried buying it in a store, the only jar of “mint” jelly contained no mint, just “flavouring”,  Go figure.  Once you try this mint jelly, you will never want to be without it.  Thanks to Canadian Living for this recipe.

To make approximately 5 250 ml jars.

Ingredients

2 cups  lightly packed fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

1 pkg    Powdered fruit pectin

4 cups   Sugar

Directions

In a saucepan, combine mint with 3 1/2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil over high heat, gently mashing with a wooden spoon.  Remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes.

Pour the mint mixture into a damp jelly bag suspended over a large glass measuring bowl.  Let drip without squeezing the bag, until the mint infusion measures 3 cups, about 2 hours.

In a large pot, stir together the mint infusions, vinegar and pectin.  Bring to boil over high heat, stirring often.  Gradually stir in the sugar, return to full rolling boil over high heat, stirring often.  Boil hard, stirring constantly for one minute,

Remove from heat.  Stir and skim off any foam for 5 minutes.  Fill hot 250 ml jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe the jar rims clean, place clean lids on the jars and tighten.  Place in a steam canner for 10 minutes (when the dial reached the green line).  Remove the lid carefully, leave the jars in the uncovered canner for another five minutes.

I AM PLAYING:  I had a few extra ingredients in the kitchen: candied lemon peel, a fresh lime and a hot pepper.  Oh a bottle of tequila flavoured with hyacinth and grapefruit. So, added the candied peel from a whole lemon, thinly sliced lime and hot pepper. These were added after the final boil.   The tequila was added to make the mint infusion come to 3 1/2 cups at the same time as the vinegar a pectin. 

Strawberry Honey Butter

 Time to begin canning season 2025.  First up is an amazing strawberry honey butter from the Ball Canning book.  The ingredients are all local, within minutes of home: Strawberries are grown at Kiwan Farms and the honey is from the Henri Dignard Farm in Embrun, just a short distance from Ottawa. 

This butter is sweetened with 3/4 cup of honey and the same amount of sugar.  It’s perfect on biscuits or breads…

Makes approximately 3 250ml jars.

Ingredients

3 lbs         washed and hulled ripe strawberries

3/4 cup     Honey

3/4 cup     Sugar

1 tbsp       Lemon juice

2 tsp         Vanilla

1/4 tsp      Salt

Directions

Purée strawberries in the bowl of a food processor.  Combine strawberry purée with the remaining ingredients in a deep pot set over medium heat.  Bring the mixture to a boil stirring frequently to prevent scorching.  Lower the heat and simmer until the mixture is very thick, about 60 - 90 minutes, stirring frequently.  The strawberry butter is ready when it holds its shape on a spoon.

Ladle the hot butter into hot clean jars, leaving a 1/3 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles, wipe the jar rims and place the lid on the jars.  Place jars in the steam canner and process for 10 minutes.  At the end of the 10 minutes, carefully remove the lid on the pot, turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the canner for about 5-10 minutes.

** I made two batches instead of doubling this recipe.  If you double, you risk over cooking the strawberry purée.  

Enjoy!

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Blueberry Raspberry Jam

 One of my favourites!  This is on my annual rotation of jams.  You can play with the proportions- so go half blueberry and half raspberry or 25% of one and 75% of the other- depends of your taste and how much of each you have on hand.  This recipe does not require pectin, so the amount of sugar is much lower- I like that.

To make 3 - 4 500 ml jars.

Ingredients

9 cups     Crushed berries (about -5 lbs)  (suggest 4.5 cups raspberries and 4.5 cups blueberries)

6 cups     Sugar

Directions

Wash berries under running water and drain.  Coarsely crush the berries one layer at a time using s potato masher.  Measure nine cups of berries.

Combine the crushed berries and sugar in a large saucepan.  Bring the mixture slowly to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Increase the heat to medium-high and cook rapidly to gelling point (220 degrees).  Stir to prevent striking.  Remove from heat.  Skim off foam if necessary.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Clean the jar rim.  Center the lid on the jar and adjust the band to fingertip tight.  Place the jar in the steam canner.  Repeat for all jars.  Process for 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat, then leave the jars in the canner for an additional 5-10 minutes.