UNUSUAL FRUIT I SAW IN AUNTS FARM.

Apple Jelly is done!
Today I saw a beautiful, red look like apples in my aunt Mary's farm.
My aunt called it Dolgo Apples.
My aunt said that these little beauties are tart and crisp with lots of pectin, so they are perfect for making jelly.

First we pick the whole tree - which keeps getting bigger every year, making this process take a little longer. Then we bag them in those green produce bags - which actually DO keep things fresher longer - and put them in the fridge. They can be stored in the fridge a week or two, but start to rot after that (we learned the hard way).

The next step is to wash them and pour them into big pots whole.
They are too small to cut up and core.
Add a little water and cook them down until they are a nice, juicy applesauce.
This year we did the process in stages due to time constraints, but it worked out great.
We refrigerated the big pots to cool the sauce, then on another night we squeezed the juice through a jelly bag.

Since we like to actually squeeze the bags as opposed to just letting them drip, which gives you a cloudy juice instead of clear, it's been much easier letting them cool completely first.

We poured the juice in gallon jars - 3 gallons this year!
They were stored in the fridge until we had time to make the jelly.
Today was the day! Finally! I did strain the juice quickly to remove the apple sludge that had settled at the bottom of the jars.
I was left with 33 cups of juice - two big pots.
I added organic sugar, a little less than what most recipes call for because we don't like it so sweet and the apples have enough pectin to help it firm up.
Sugar helps preform that function more in fruits that don't have as much pectin.

My aunts recipe calls for lemon juice, to 'brighten' the flavor and keep it from being too syrupy sweet.
My aunt didnt have any so she used lime juice and it tastes delicious!
For all the years I've been doing this, none of the recommended tests to tell if it is the right jelly consistency you want, work for me.
It doesn't firm up on a spoon in the fridge, and when it finally does, we have cooked it too long and the jelly is too firm for my taste and doesn't spread well.
It doesn't 'sheet' off the spoon while boiling no matter how many times I do it and stare at that damn spoon to try to tell a difference from the time before.
So far it has been a bit of a guessing game. I've decided time is the only way to tell.

About 35 minutes of boiling is what it took a full pot this time.
I noticed it was turning to jelly on the handles of the spoons.
Not on a plate or spoon in the fridge, but the handles while cooking! So I said it was ready and jarred it up.
We'll see tomorrow just how it turned out.
At least I know it will taste good no matter what!

Ready to serve.
Now its ready to resell in the nearest market in their place.
Selling it for about 4$ a jar..
Hope buyers will enjoy eating it.

Thank to my aunt for my enjoying visit.

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