Allotments 4 All

I made some blackberry jelly and had used cloves and Cinnamon when the jelly set we had a tester pot I must sat the spices made in lovely beats all my other jam's Aim not to adventurous with jam/jelly's but will be more often,  It was like mulled wine!

Sounds good, I have not made jelly yet, is it a bit of a faff?

When I make jellies, I usually add spices (cloves, cinnamon stick, allspice berries) - whether it is gooseberry or crab apple (my favourite), or plum, or a mix of all of these.  it just adds something.  If you have the means of straining the fruit pulp, it isn't a faff.  You just cook the fruit with water until really pulpy, then strain for  at least a couple of hours.  Measure the juice, add sugar 1 lb to  each pint, and  bring to boil as usual until setting point is reached.  I do sometimes add a lemon to help setting.

Two days ago we were walking high in the mountains near us, and were thrilled to find a couple of red-berried elder bushes (they are far from easy to find) so gathered a kilo, brought them home (also weighing our back pack with half a kilo of sheep's cheese from a mountain shepherd, and a half a kilo of myrtilles, bilberries!).  Then made some jelly as above, spiced.  Haven't done that before, as we've never found the berries when really ripe.  They grow in quite different shaped bunches from the usual elderberries.  They are in a tight scarlet bunch, more like a bunch of grapes.

Its just like Peanut said ,when I first did this I' no "jelly bag" so I got a thick cotton pillow slip and scalded it with a kettle of boiling hot water ,and when I'd put the pulped Berry's into the slip, I put a teaplate/scarcer on top of the pulp with a tin of beans or something just for the weight, and tied a knot and I had a hook that I hung from a pulled out kitchen drawer and left it 12/24dripping and don't be tempted to squeeze the slip for more juice this make your jelly cloudy! and the rest it like Peanut said. Have a go !

Someone-may be on here or the telly suggested just using the flour sieve instead of a jelly bag.  Seemed to work ok for me!

I've always used a fine sieve for jelly. I don't mind it cloudy and I hate throwing away the pulp and seeds. The sieve keeps out the seeds but lets the finer pulp through.

I've been making spiced blackcurrant jelly for several years with a stick of cinnamon and some cloves in the fruit for the boiling phase.   These days I add star anise to the mix and that's fab too.

I seem always to have too much for the jelly bag strainer contraption I bought so just use a muslin cloth in a colander and that works fine.   The seeds and stalks and odd bits of leaf end up on the compost heap.