I have written before about the serviceberry season that we enjoy every year in Georgia from late May into June.
The fruit of the amelanchier tree, these bright red-purple berries are known by many names, so what we know as serviceberries are called such things as sarvisberries, juneberries or saskatoon berries in other parts of North America.
This year has seen a particularly abundant supply, with far more berries than last year. Couple that with the fact that I spotted a few more trees locally to pick from and we have ended up with a good supply of berries to play with.
In previous years I have made serviceberry syrup as well as a refreshing serviceberry shrub. Both of those are also on the agenda for this year but the plentiful supply means I can turn my hand to other things too, notably serviceberry jelly.
To make the jelly I had to extract the juice from the berries which is pretty easy to do. I followed the instructions in this handy serviceberry guide published by the co-op extension service at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It also includes some other interesting serviceberry recipe ideas.
The jelly was pretty easy to make and I now have quite a few jars of bright, sweet, delicious jelly to remind me of the fleeting serviceberry season for the rest of the year.
Serviceberry Jelly
3.5 cups serviceberry juice
2 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp pectin (I used Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin)
5 cups granulated sugar
Pour the serviceberry juice and lemon juice in a large stainless steel pan and stir to combine.
Add the pectin to the pan and stir until dissolved.
Bring the pan to a rolling boil over high heat.
Add the sugar, then return to a rolling boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute until sugar dissolves.
Remove from the heat and skim off any foam from the top.
Pour the jam into sterilised jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace and then process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. If you need to know more about water bath canning there is a good introductory guide on the Ball canning website.