This spring has supplied a bounty of fresh fruits for jelly making and preserves. The cherry and apricot trees in our yard have been loaded. We’ve picked mulberries and currents, and the wild plums are coming on. I’ve made frozen strawberry jam earlier in the spring and looking forward to making grape and elderberry jelly as they are plentiful this year also. This all around bountiful harvest of fruit rarely happens in northwest Oklahoma and we are taking full advantage of it!
Oklahoma Sand Plum Jam
Each summer clusters of sand plum bushes dot the Oklahoma landscape. On those bushes hang the tastiest jelly making fruit ever created by the Good Lord…and each summer you can find a good majority of Oklahoma cooks stirring up batches of Sand Plum Jelly stocking their pantries for the winter months.
I’ve yet to find a sand plum jelly recipe on the back of a pectin box. I use the following recipe and it seems to always turn out…I don’t believe you could ruin a batch if you tried though. Sometimes my doesn’t set up just right, but I use it as syrup on pancakes.
7 1/2 cups sugar
5 1/2 cups juice/ jam
1 box pectin
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
dash salt
butter for skimming foam
Prepare jam according to recipe on the pectin box.
Add a small amount of butter right before adding to jars, this separates the foam and allows for skimming.