I often speak of the simple little things that add joy to life. We tend to think that bigger is better and capitalism has programmed us to want more, more, more when sometimes less is more. Great beauty can be found in simplicity.
One of those beautiful, joyful little things is a gift of food, especially if that food is homemade or grown with a big dose of love.
A couple of weeks ago, Maryhelen Peterson of Fossil gave me a jar of her homemade elderflower jelly.
Since I had not eaten a floral jelly before, I invited myself over for a visit and peppered her with questions. Maryhelen told me she was first introduced to this jelly when she visited Germany a few years ago. The jelly is very popular there and almost unheard of here. She likes to give away baskets filled with a loaf of homemade bread and a jar of jelly or jam.
The jelly she gave me was in a pretty jar and beautifully labeled with some gothic looking lettering which she made on her Cricut machine.
Elderberry shrubs are indigenous here and bloom in late May and June and the white flowers grow in umbrella shaped clumps that are about four inches across.
Maryhelen made an infusion with the flowers or in her words, “a juice”, and then from there it’s just a jelly recipe. To make the infusion, take four cups of packed-down elderflowers (stems and leaves removed) and cover them with four cups of boiling water; let sit for about a day. You can use a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth to strain the liquid.
Maryhelen said that washing the flowers was a bit time consuming, since there were little bugs hiding in them. That reminded me of last summer when earwigs inhabited the cauliflowers we grew and the best way to remove them was to fully submerge the heads in water. The bugs drowned and then floated to the top.
Elderflower Jelly
4 cups elderflower infusion
2 tablespoons lemon juice
One box pectin
2 cups sugar
Boil the elderflower infusion, lemon juice and pectin for a full minute before stirring in the sugar (if you add the sugar and the pectin together, it won’t set up). Add the sugar and boil for one minute. Pour into jelly jars and let cool.
If you want to give your homemade elderflower jelly as a gift or you’d prefer to store it at room temperature, then can the jars in a water bath canner. Because this jelly has such a delicate flavor, I found the flavor shines through best on plain white bread, and it’s heavenly on biscuits with lots of butter.
Thank you, Maryhelen for telling us about this unusual treat.
Reader Comments(0)