Wild Wine Berry Jelly/Jam

Our family has been living on our "farm" for about ten years now. Every summer we drive past these berries and always wondered if they were edible. We researched and discovered last week that in fact they are! These berries are known as wine berries and really remind me of a red raspberry. They are a little tart, but great for pies or jelly. These berries usually grow in wooded areas or along roadsides. They look very similar to a blackberry or red raspberry plant. They have a white color on the underside of their leaves and are an invasive species. The plant puts out a shoot and where each shoot touches the ground, another cane (stem) will then develop.

Our family goes through lots of jelly, so I decided to make some with these berries. The first batch was with the whole berry (mashed). Since there are SO many seeds, we didn't like the way that jam turned out. The second batch we decided to just use the juice from the berries. It takes a little time to drain them and takes quite a bit of berries for enough juice (4 cups) for one batch of jelly. We used the same recipe that we use for Red Raspberry Jelly. The jelly turned out great!

First, prepare your jars and lids. Make sure they are clean and dry.

Next, start your water for boiling the jars. I just use a large pot with a lid, lined with jar rings in the bottom (as a rack).

 

Then, wash your berries and drain (unless you are just using the juice) then you would drain juice with cheese cloth or towel to collect only the juice (straining the seeds and berry pulp).

 

This is the way we collected the juice (just let it sit and drain), then we'd press and drain more.

This one the mashed berry for jam.

 
 

Bring berries/juice to boil along with butter and box of pectin until it comes to a full rolling boil (that doesn't stop when stirred).
Then add sugar and return to full boil for exactly one minute. Remove from heat, ladle into jars, wipe rims of the jars, and place the lids on. Boil the jars for 5 minutes. Let set for at least 24hrs and you have your jam or jelly! YUMMY!!!!

Recipe:
4 cups Wine Berry juice or berries
1 box SURE-Jell Fruit Pectin
1 tsp. butter or margarine (this keeps it from foaming)
6 cups sugar









 I also made a pie, and we picked plenty more to freeze. The kids LOVE them and they are a nice
summer treat! Be sure to check before eating wild berries to be sure they are safe and not poisonous!