Art, and Mixed Fruit Jelly

 

Tea, toast and marmalade - Artist Lucy Almey Bird

It's that time of year again for me, time to dig out all the fruit peelings, cores and random bits from the freezer where they have been added to for months, and make up a batch of Compost Heap Jelly ... only this year I have renamed it Mixed Fruit Jelly as there was so much good fruit in there too that would never have ended up on the compost heap.

I assembled all the bits well over a week ago and chopped some extras up.

They simmered away nicely on the hob ...

... then I discovered a tub of extra blueberries in the freezer so these were added and I kept it all puttering away for quite a bit longer.

After a night of dripping away through a jelly bag and into a large bowl, the resulting liquid was stored in the fridge ... for well over a week, it was just too hot to be stood at the hob boiling up any sort of jam or jelly.

With the weather having cooled considerably now I got it out this morning and boiled up the beautifully coloured jelly.

Three and a half jars of beautiful tasty Mixed Fruit Jelly.  Alan is very happy with his two jars, he loves this stuff, no matter what the colour and what the flavour.  I think it just reminds him of our smallholding days when we had jars and jars of jewel coloured preserves lined up in the cupboard.

Sue xx