I love picking berries! Yes I do.
On Saturday I spent a couple hours picking enough chokecherries to make about 21 jars of jelly, many of which I will give away.
It was sunny and warm with a tinge of coolness in the air. Everything is still very lush and green but the trees are showing early signs of what’s to come. They look stressed, bug-eaten, and with some yellow leaves peeking out here and there. This is my favourite time of year … it’s still summer, but a bit cooler, and there’s so many wonderful fruits and vegetables available.
So after two hours of picking, one hour of washing and sorting, and four hours of cooking, here’s my reward.
I thought I would include the recipe I use. It’s straight from the Certo package and I never stray from the directions. Chokecherry jelly can be quite tricky. It can either not set at all, or become too hard. I seem to have luck if I do exactly as the recipe states.
- 3 cups prepared juice
- 6 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 pouches Certo Liquid Pectin
- To make the juice combine 12 cups chokecherries with 3 cups water in a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Pour into a colander lined with 3 layers of cheesecloth. Bring edges of cheesecloth together gently (careful it is HOT, so hot that I use rubber gloves and even then it is HOT) and let the juice drip. You can squeeze the bag gently but try not to ... you only need 3 cups of juice.
- In a large saucepan stir together juice and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil hard 1 minute then at once remove from heat and add pectin. Stir and skim any froth for 5 minutes.
- Pour into sterilized jars and seal with sterilized lids.
Enjoy!
I think your reward also are these images, love those last two especially, awesomeness indeed. I have never had this type of berry or jam, must taste wonderful. Love the images Barb.
it looks yummy!
Oh yum, I’ll bring the bagels, you put on the coffee!!
This sure looks yummy, Barb!
Lots of work I’m sure, but so worth it.
Delicious! I love your beautiful shots, especially all the bokeh in the last one!
Your jam looks simply gorgeous..
Picking berries sounds like fun, the jam part a little tricky. :) Your images of the jam and berries are beautiful. I love the light wood background and the spilled jam.
Delicious! I love all kind of jams, but I had never heard of chokecherries before. I’d love to try some. :)
well barb, i’ve never even heard of chokecherries before either. but it looks wonderful! oh and i saw your series on a project gallery…i totally need to come back check that out. i have a wordpress blog too and was thinking about sprucing up some of my archives,but this sounds way easier than the plan i had in mind. :)
Nothing like homemade jams and jellies. I used to eat homemade chokecherry jelly made by my mother and her friends as I was growing up in Montreal. Then a few years ago I started making grape jelly from our own grapes and grapevines. Now that we’ve moved my grapevine is not yielding enough yet to make jelly this year but it will in the future. So maybe I’ll just go to the farmer’s market and get some fruit….
I made my first batch of chokecherry jelly from the bush I planted in my yard the year before.
(Chokecherries grow very well in Northwest Oregon).
The jelly was delicious! Very similar to blackberry jam, and excellent on toast or a croissant!
I just harvested this year’s crop and am preparing to male another batch. Close friends and family love it as well, it makes a nice gift.
I made my first batch of chokecherry jelly from the bush I planted in my yard the year before.
(Chokecherries grow very well in Northwest Oregon).
The jelly was delicious! Very similar to blackberry jam, and excellent on toast or a croissant!
I just harvested this year’s crop and am preparing to make another batch. Close friends and family love it as well, it makes a nice gift.
Thanks for posting this great recipe!
Thanks for stopping by Michael! glad you liked it!
Hi, My mother made chokecherry jelly annually from the time I was 10 years old until she died when she was 72. She labored over it intensively and prided hersef in the fact that it was very clear red, and very yummy. She washed the berries then strained them through a collander. after they were very clean she would cook them and spoon off any foam. Then she would put the whole cooked mass into a pillow case and drain them throughly. She never squeezed the pillow case because that would smash the berries and let the pulp through the pillow case which would make the jelly cloudy. The pillow case was hangedbut up near the ceiling with a bowl underneath it. It dripped like this for a minimum of 24 hours. The jelly was made by the recipe above but my mother monitored it for setting up.
i just picked a whole lot of berries and will try to make some again (I tried only marginally successfully) several years ago. i am determined to make it work this year.
Tips from mom were to make sure to add lemon juice in amounts about one quarter to one half half more than the recipe called for. Taste the jelly before you add the lemon and use the higher amount if the jelly seem cloyingly sweet.
Thank you I have not made chokecherry jelly for at least 15 years. I always rely on the recipe being in the Certo box. It is not in there anymore. Go figure. I have found many other recipes but this one is my tried and true one. Thanks for posting it…it always turns out.
Carol
A great tip cor this and any jam or jelly, and 1/2 tsp. Butter at beginning and you will have pretty much no foam
This is the recipe I use but find it jells too much, you can slice it instead of it being spoonable . How can I fix this?
I was going to use only 1 pkg of cert but afraid it won’t set enough.
Following, would also like this answered
Hi Althea,
As I wrote in my post in August of 2014:
“I thought I would include the recipe I use. It’s straight from the Certo package and I never stray from the directions. Chokecherry jelly can be quite tricky. It can either not set at all, or become too hard. I seem to have luck if I do exactly as the recipe states.”
I’ve had the same thing happen to me .. when it doesn’t set at all, I use it as syrup. When it’s too hard, I simply use it as it. The Certo Company doesn’t have any suggestions on how to redo jam that’s too hard.
Just made this exactly as written, and the jelly is excellent! Would be nice if the recipe included “makes XYZ number of jars” so those of us making it know how many jars to prepare, but other than that, very easy to follow. Thank you so much!
Do I use the boiling water that I cooked the chokecherries in for the jelly or just the squeezed out juice?
Hi Wanda, combine 12 cups chokecherries and 3 cups water, cook, let drip through cheesecloth (squeeze just a bit if you want) and that’s what you use for the jelly. You need a total of 3 cups.