Having sold out of our first ever professionally produced batch of hedgerow jelly, it seemed apt to share the extremely vague recipe of this not at all difficult to make preserve: basically whatever you can find + sugar.
Doesn’t get much easier than that. If whatever you find includes wild apples or haws, you don’t even need to buy any pectin- even better! Extremely satisfying to make, even better to consume.
Every batch will be different, every year different ratios. Don’t want to put rosehips in? Don’t. No haws where you are? Doubtful, but fine. Not a good season for plums? There’s always next year…
Makes: really depends on how much fruit you have- and how many jars!
Prep: no more than an hour- chopping time included
Lasts: more than 12 months unopened, maybe 3 months once opened
Ingredients
- Foraged fruit- washed and weighed- any combination of:
- Blackberries
- Bullaces
- Cherry plums
- Crabapples
- Damsons
- Elderberries
- Haws
- Plums (there are soooo many types)
- Rosehips
- Sloes
- Wild apples
- Granulated sugar (if you have 1kg of fruit, use 600g- you can scale it up or down)
- Half a lemon or a tablespoon or two of lemon juice (per kg of fruit)
- Water (if you’ve got a kg of fruit, use about a litre- you can scale it up or down)
Equipment
- A chopping board
- A sharp knife
- 2 big saucepans (or one saucepan and one big measuring jug)
- A clean wooden spoon
- A potato masher (optional but makes life easier)
- A wide-necked funnel
- A small plate (placed in the freezer before you start)
- Sterilised jars and lids
Method
- Wash your fruit then chop larger bits into more manageable chunks.
- Chuck all of it into the saucepan with the water.
- Bring it to the boil.
- Mash the fruit up.
- Sieve out the pulp, making sure to get as much of the liquid out as you can.
- Return the liquid to the saucepan and add the sugar.
- Bring back to the boil, stirring to make sure the sugar dissolves.
- Boil for a couple of minutes- during this time, get your plate from the freezer.
- Drop a drip onto the frozen plate and tip it. If it runs, keep boiling. If it sets, you’re done.
- Leave to cool a little then pour into jars.
Enjoy your delicious, unique hedgerow jelly on toast with butter, instead of jam in a cream tea or with a slice or two of rich, decadent homemade smoked duck prosciutto.
