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into_the_woods

making jam and jelly with ornamental shrubs

Into_the_woods
19 years ago

I've read that the fruit of shrubs such as Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum opulus or V. trilobum); Sea Buckthorn; Silver Buffaloberry can be used for making jam or jelly. Has anyone used these fruits for that purpose? Would you share recipes? I should add that I'm a purist about this, and won't use commercial pectin such as Certo or Sure-jell.

I have used elderberry, cornelian cherry, and mahonia to make jelly,and they are excellent.

TIA

Into the Woods

Comments (8)

  • larry_gene
    19 years ago

    I have also done elderberry (blue and red) and barberry jelly, they are excellent.

    My attempt at Sea Buckthorn (seaberry) jelly had good body but I did not like the flavor, even though I drink seaberry juice by the gallon! I did not care for a commercial variety (Russian) either, my wife ate it! We will be making seaberry ice cream soon with juice from a new crop.

    When making jam/jelly, I use the commercial pectin rather than boiling the snot out of the fruit--perhaps you use crabapples or other natural source of pectin?

  • Into_the_woods
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Hi Larry Gene,

    Thanks for your answer. About the seaberry jelly - what didn't you like about the flavor compared to the juice that you like so much - was it too sweet?

    That's the problem I have with using commercial pectin. The recipes often call for 7 or 8 cups of sugar for 4 or 5 cups of juice and the sweetness overwhelms the fruit's flavor IMHO.

    I make my own pectin extract from sour apples or the white pith just under the rind on citrus fruit. Or I blend a high pectin fruit with one that's lower in pectin. Cranberry with raspberry for example. Or crabapples cooked together with the other fruit.

    I just gathered 3 quarts of cornelian cherries on Tuesday - took all of 30 minutes, if that. Cooked them and collected the juice, and will be making some tasty jelly. That's one that jells easily.

    Thanks again.

    Into the Woods

  • marklee
    19 years ago

    Larry Gene,
    What kind of barberries do you use for your jelly?
    -Mark Lee, Seattle

  • larry_gene
    19 years ago

    _woods--I think my seaberry jelly was actually good for spreadability and it represented the fruit flavor accurately. My wife ate it and some syrup also. It's just a flavor that I didn't appreciate on food you normally put jam/syrup on--just my quirk.

    Seaberry juice has little or no natural pectin judging by the results of an alcohol test for clumping.

    marklee--I have used Oregon Grape (the upright variety, but it shouldn't matter). More recently I've used the fruit (juice) of Berberis darwinii (Darwin barberry) and find it to have a flavor akin to black currant. Plus, if the fruit dries, shrivels and falls from the bush, it tastes like little sweet raisins.

  • Into_the_woods
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Not all jelly or jam is good on toast. Cranberry juice is nice to drink, the jelly/ jam/ what-have-you is a standby with turkey, but putting cranberry jelly on an English muffin - just seems too tart/ sharp.

    I used a Japanese species of mahonia, Mahonia bealii to make a delicious jelly. Failures include sumac - too bitter, and cactus pear - unimpressive. While rose hip jam/ fruit butter is great, I find rose petal jelly innocuously sweet. The difficult thing with roses is finding enough unsprayed, untreated flowers.

  • maryjopnes
    17 years ago

    do highbush cranberries have a lot of pectin in them or would it be wise to put some apples in with them.

  • karlavilla
    17 years ago

    Is Autumn Olive the same as Russian Olive? I want to make some jelly but I don't want to pick the wrong thing.

  • nicktexas
    15 years ago

    Larry Gene,
    Where did you find the berberis darwinii fruit? Also, do you know where one can get arbutus unedo (strawberry tree) fruit?
    Nick

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