Making Apple Jelly

Making Apple Jelly at Averill Farm

Written and photographed by Winter Caplanson

The first thing you’ll notice about a sparkling jar of Averill Farm Apple Jelly is that it, in contrast to its drab, tan supermarket cousin, is the color of pink grapefruit. The juice from reddest of their farm-grown apples bestows this charming blush-tone. Right now that’s Redfree, Paula Red, and Early Mac.

Averill Farm preserves are made by hand, in small batches, the old-fashioned way. It is, in fact, a very old place. Eleven generations of Averills have called this Washington Depot farm home since the land was purchased in 1746 from Chief Waramaug. There is a family cemetery, a complex of weathered barns, and a stone farmhouse where the oldest apple trees mark a time when every farm kept a small orchard.

For many years it was a dairy farm. Today, the 260-acre property is primarily a fruit orchard, producing more than 100 varieties of apples, pears, and quince sold both as picked fruit and pick-your-own. Early apples come around the

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beginning of August and are sold at farmers’ markets. The PYO season begins mid-August when the orchard stand opens.

In the stand, Averill Farm sells their own unpasteurized cider, apple cider donuts, cookies, tea breads, hard cider, cider syrup, cider vinegar, cut flowers, honey from their hives, and their famous preserves. They also sell pies made with their fruit, and local pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, mums, maple syrup, honey, cheddar cheese, garlic, potatoes, some tomatoes, and soap.

The making of preserves happens throughout the season using their own raspberries and fruits from nearby farms. Averill Farm’s famous Apple Butter and Apple Jelly are last up, and fall visitors to the farm can’t get enough.

The first thing you'll notice about asparkling jar of Averill Farm Apple Jelly is thatit, in contrast to its drab, tan supermarketcousin, is the color of pink grapefruit.

Effects of Connecticut’s drought mean that apples are sizing up smaller, but their flavor is more intense. This year’s apple jelly is exceptional. To make apple jelly that is clear and bright, the farm-pressed juice is strained repeatedly. Averill Farm’s recipe calls for twice as much fruit as sugar, imparting more fruit flavor and less overwhelming sugary sweetness than most commercial preserves.

Pomona’s Universal Pectin is the key ingredient in their low-sugar method. This 100% pure citrus pectin is extracted from the dried peel of lemon,

lime, and orange. To thicken, it’s activated by calcium, naturally present or added, instead of sugar, as most pectin brands are. Pomona’s Pectin is able to jell fresh, frozen, or canned fruit or juice with low amounts of any sweetener, including granulated white sugar, honey, agave, concentrated fruit sweetener, maple syrup, frozen juice concentrate, stevia, or even artificial sweeteners. It can also be used to thicken fruit syrup or homemade yogurt, and to make jelled fruit candy.

The PYO season at Averill Farm is underway now, and the farm stand, well-stocked with Apple Jelly, is open seven days a week, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., or until dusk (after the time change) through Thanksgiving.

Want to try your hand at making apple jelly? Averill Farm recommends the recipes found on the Pomona's Universal Pectin website. A recipe sheet that comes with your purchase of Pomona’s Pectin includes basic recipes and directions for making preserves including strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, peach, orange marmalade, crabapple, Concord grape, hot pepper jelly, and more.

After mastering the basics, you may want to step up your game. The Get Creative page of the Pomona Pectin site gives you guidelines for customizing a recipe. Alcohol can be added to a jam recipe at ¼ c. alcohol per 4 c. mashed fruit or juice, for example, if you reduce the amount of mashed fruit or juice by ¼ c. It’s also okay to add 1 tsp. of dried spice to a recipe. Their cookbook, Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin, is available on Amazon.

Although there are recipes for refrigerator preserves, canning your jars of preserves in a water bath canner will make them shelf-stable. The good news is that this is not a difficult process to learn and the entire waterbath canning setup will cost you only about $40.

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Here's a recipe to get you started with your own autumn apple jelly making tradition:

Apple-Rosemary Jelly

Yield: 4 to 5 c.

Before You Begin :

Prepare calcium water: combine ½ tsp. calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona's Pectin) with ½ c. water in a small, clear jar witha lid. Shake well. Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.

Ingredients :

4 c. apple cider or apple juice

4 tsp. dried rosemary4 c. strained cider/juice2 tsp. calcium water

4 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar ½ c. honey, room temperature, or 1 c. sugar 4 tsp. Pomona’s Pectin powder

Directions :

1. Bring the apple cider/juice and rosemary to a boil then turn off heat and steep for 30 minutes.

2. Strain out the rosemary.

3. Wash jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in canner, fill canner 2/3 full with water and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and keep jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small sauce pan; cover and heat to a low boil. Turn off heat and keep lids in hot water until ready to use.

4. Measure strained cider/juice into sauce pan.5. Add calcium water and apple cider vinegar and stir well.

6. Measure sugar or room temperature honey into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sweetener. Set aside.

7. Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-sweetener mixture, stirring vigorously for one to two minutes to dissolve the pectin while the jelly comes back up to a boil. Once the jelly returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.

8. Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on two-piece lids. Place filled jars in boiling water up to their covers. Boil 10 minutes (add one minute more for every 1,000’ above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down.

9. Eat within one year. Once opened, the jelly should be consumed within three weeks.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Pomona's Universal Pectin, Workstead Industries, LLC.

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