Black Raspberry Jelly

After collecting wild black raspberries from our property and freezing them for the past two years I finally had enough to make black raspberry jelly. Yippee!




Making the jelly is labor-intensive and messy. Here are the steps to making the jelly:

1. Collect berries whilst doing Silly Walks from Monty Python's the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch to keep the bugs and spiderwebs (and -eek- spiders) that spread magically across the trails off of you. Also remember to wear long sleeved shirts and pants unless you like getting zillions of scratches all over your body. (I'd forgotten about this step. Oops.)
2. In order to make the jelly you need about two gallons of berries. I got a hand full of berries every time I went picking so just imagine how many trips out into the spider infested forest I had to make!
3. Find a black raspberry jelly recipe and make sure you have EVERYTHING you need before you get started. Wee bit of a pain to have to drive to the store for that, "oops I forgot..."
4. MASH the berries! I mashed mine using an old potato masher.
5. Here comes the super messy part: Strain the berry goop through a metal mesh strainer. I'm sure there are better ways to do this but I'm too lazy to research or buy the proper tools. Hey, it works. Be sure to have plenty of homebrewed beer on hand (wine would work in a pinch). It really does help.
6. Carefully measure the precious black raspberry juice. Also measure out the sugar you'll need into a separate bowl. I think there is more sugar in this particular recipe than juice. BUT HEY! It tastes great!
7. Cook the juice in a giant pot with powdered pectin. Add sugar when it comes to boiling. Actually, you'll be boiling too if it's as hot there as it was in our house!
8. Do a super messy job getting the boiling HOT jelly into the clean jars. Try not to burn yourself. (also skim the foam off the top of each AND clean the rims VERY WELL before putting on the lids)
9. Seal the jars using a water bath canner. I feel so smart- we set up ours OUTSIDE. Brilliant, I know.
10. Let the jars cool and then you'll have beautiful, yummy tasting, homemade black raspberry jelly! Let your little girls and husband Oooo and Aahhh over it!

Leftover black raspberry goop & seeds.