Jelly Land

I moved into jelly land this week.

Yup, I plunked myself down right in the middle of stacks of jars, mounds of sugar and bottles of alcohol.  No, the alcohol was not to console me because it is the dead of winter and fresh produce is hard to come by, it was all part of the jelly plan.

The great evil plan to create my own jelly empire was put into action this week by registering as a business.  A small move, but an important one.  That is when I lost all sanity and moved to jelly land.

I have spent the past 3 days making jelly.  It is surprisingly easy to become a crazy jelly lady and crazy jelly lady is surprisingly like crazy cat lady. Tall Dark and Handsome had to tell Crazy Jelly Lady not to pull out flats of jelly for people to eat every time someone walks through the door.  And our friends are oh so kind when I show up with yet more jelly for whatever get-together we are having.

I am going to try to take a vacation from jelly land this week to give you more recipes, but I am totally addicted to jelly.

A few things I can share with you after a trip to Jelly Land:

• Even the most reliable recipe is not always reliable
• Canning supplies can be surprisingly hard to find in the dead of winter
• Not all pectin is created equal
• Using butter will keep the foam down (I was skeptical)
• My dog likes jelly foam just as much as I do
• Just because the shelf looks strong doesn’t mean it will hold all those jars
• Good jelly is pretty jelly