SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
annie1992_gw

Ghost Peppers and Autumn Olive

annie1992
10 years ago

I've often said that I could make jelly out of anything, so I decided that the cold weather would make it a very good time to can something.

Elery's son visited from California and brought us some ghost peppers that he grew there:

Too serious for me, I'm a heat wuss, so I decided to mix the peppers with some raspberries from the freezer and make jelly...

I was afraid it wouldn't set, it took overnight, but eventually came to a nice (although a bit soft) consistency.

I finally got up the nerve to taste it, and it was hot. Not mouth-scorchingly, make-the-enamel-on-your-teeth-bubble, bring-tears-to-your-eyes hot, but hot. Hotter than the habanero gold. I have 8 jars, that should last a while, LOL.

It might be a good match for last fall's project, the Autumn Olive jelly. The blasted stuff grows everywhere and for some reason I got this wild idea to make jam. After all, they're free, they're abundant, they're edible. Yeah.....

They're tiny:

A bite revealed that they taste like cranberries, so that's good, right? I picked. And picked. 3 hours netted me a small bucket of berries, and then I decided it would be "enough".

And I made jam.

I washed, picked over, crushed and boiled, poured the berries into a jelly bag. It was an odd milky color...

Yes, indeedy. Four half pints, and only 3 hours of picking, an hour of washing and picking sticks and leaves out, an overnight hanging in a jelly bag for juice, and about an hour for making the jam. Not so efficient, but at least I did it.

And it turned out kind of red, not milky. Very strange. The jam is almost astringent in spite of copious amounts of sugar. I understand that it will probably separate, but it hasn't yet and it's been about 4 months. We'll see how long it keeps, I'll have to open a jar soon.

Annie

Comments (5)