A time of change, or rather, the constant changes of nature get to put on an end of year show with Windfalls, harvests and a ticker tape parade of leaves bidding goodbye to the Summer.
Autumn jelly is one way to bottle the vibe.
I've used 3lbs of Crabapples, 6oz of Blackberries & one slightly under-ripe pear. All of which combined to produce a delicious raspberry coloured jelly.
This recipe was not random but serendipious. My little crabapple tree produced exactly 3lbs of fruit; a walk on Bray head resulted in 6oz of Blackberries foraged into a small carrier bag found in the car. And the Pear...
There's a small pear tree on the balcony and it usually has a small harvest. In fact last year we made some fruit-cheese with the crop. We had no expectations of fruit this year because of the weather in late Spring had striped away all the setting fruits.
However one pear, the one used in this recipe, was sheltered and low hanging and survived the onslaught. We didn't even notice it was there until well into the Summer and were sitting down to have a lunch on the balcony. It seem fitting to add it to our Autumn Jelly.
There are full instructions on Apple jelly on our Youtube channel and the Crabapples are prepared in the same way.
I cooked up the Blackberries with the cut up Pear and a stick of cinnamon in a separate sauspan with enough water to make it the fruit float.
When it was softend to a pulp, I mixed it with the cooked up crabapples before straining through a jelly bag.