We’ll be making jelly this fall.

The canning cupboard is officially stocked for the winter.

Lemon Drop Pepper Jelly.  A riff off of this red pepper jelly recipe.

The canning cupboard.  

Fruit Share's session at the Growing Local conference

One of the awesome sessions we attended at this year’s Growing Local conference was a jam making workshop put on by Fruit Share.  I’ve always been a bit confused about the pectin-sugar relationship, so I was stoked to get this awesome Pectin Chart created by Getty Stewart. 

If you have a chance, check out the Fruit Share website for some great information on all things related to fruit.

We still have a ton of dried cayenne peppers from last summer, so Kory and I decided to make some spicy pepper jelly.  We used a recipe from My Pantry Shelf  as a starting point.  Originally we were going to just substitute dried cayennes for the fresh habaneros, but then Kory puréed the bell peppers in a blender instead of mincing them (there was apparently some confusion) so we opted out of the bell peppers all together.  The jelly turned out deliciously spicy and sweet, and we now have a nice base for some red pepper soup.

We’re going to need some more shelves.

(top left to right) - Cayenne pepper sauce, peach and habanero hot sauce, peach and walnut conserve, trail apple jelly, dried cayenne peppers

(bottom left to right) - Dill pickles, deli-sliced pickles, pickled beans, pickled banana peppers, spicy pickled beans, apple butter.

We made some jelly with the crab apples from Mom and Dad’s yard.  

Definitely not the quickest process, but Canadian Living assures me that it’s well worth it.