Making jelly from local fruit is part of living a homemade life. Why buy jelly made from across the country when jelly can be made from any fruit in your area.
We planted a cherry tree this year, but it only produced three cherries and the birds got those, so I picked cherries from both my parent's and my brother's trees. These are sour cherries, but they make the best jelly.
While picking I put in a few unripe cherries so that I could use less purchased pectin.
Late last fall I bought this jelly bag contraption. I have made jelly without anything like this for years and this product is not necessary, but the jelly bag did make it a quick and smooth process. It takes very little time to water bath process jars of jelly and it saves freezer or refrigerator storage space.
I also found these squatty half-pint jars on sale late last fall, I love the way they look and filled with red cherry jelly they make a pretty gift.
