Yesterday I got it in my head that I wanted to try making clover jelly, so Laural and I went out and picked all the clover we could find in our yard. While we were outside and I was sitting on the steps removing the stems from the flowers, I took a look at all the lovely spearmint we had growing and decided to give spearmint jelly a try as well. After starting the infusions last night, today was jelly day. After a quick trip to town to get sugar and Laural's glasses fixed - I don't know how that girl manages to lose nose guards so often - we came home, had lunch and I put Micah down for a nap and Laural in her room for quiet time so I could get to work on the jelly. Wouldn't you know that Micah decided to have a scream fest and refused to nap. So plan b was to put the gate up in the living room and hope that they would play nice while I worked in the kitchen. Well, that kind of worked but there was still a lot of "Mom! Micah is doing _____!" followed by an angry scream from Micah as big sister (aka. mother hen) would attempt to stop him from whatever he was doing. In between yelling back to the kids, I managed to get the batch of clover jelly made, but decided to put off the spearmint until after bedtime. The clover turned out so very good! It has such a delicate flavor - almost like honey. I took a little in to the room for the kids to try and they loved it. It was sweet, so of course they loved it.
My first batch of clover jelly! I wish the color came out better in photos. It's actually more of a pink color.
I tried to get a better pic of a single jar but it still looks more amber than pink.
After the kids went to bed, I got to work on the spearmint jelly. It only took about 40 minutes from the time I started straining to the time I took it out of the water bath. It also turned out beautifully. The flavor is mildly minty. Very good!
The color of these is more of an amber with a hint of green. A lot of people put food coloring in their mint jelly to make it green but I think that putting artificial color in kind of defeats the purpose of having natural jelly.
Just in case anyone would like to know how I made these, here are my recipes.
White Clover Jelly
4 cups Clover Flowers
4 cups boiling water
5 cups sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 package powdered fruit pectin
Spearmint Jelly
4 cups spearmint leaves, torn up
4 cups boiling water
5 cups sugar
1 package powdered fruit pectin
Both jellies were made the same way:
1. Make the infusion by pouring 4 cups of boiling water over the flowers or leaves. Let them steep overnight.
2. Strain the infusions. Add water if needed to make 4 full cups of infusion. Place in 6 to 8 qt pot.
3. Add pectin to infusion. Bring to a rolling boil.
4. Stir in sugar all at once. Bring back to rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Skim foam if desired.
5. Quickly ladle into prepared jars. Wipe rims, put lids & rings on.
6. Place in canner (with 1 or 2 inches water over tops). Process for 5 minutes.
7. Remove from water bath and let cool.
