Josh Kilmer-Purcell's Blog, page 94

Gartending: Dropping Shucks

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Klaus just returned from Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. He made quite a splash down at the cocktail lounge named Cure. Located in the newly renovated UPTOWN section of town, this vibrant cocktail bar has recently been called by influential publication named Foodista the Best Cocktail bar in America.

Klaus was a popular guy at the bar. Neal Bodenheimer the owner of Cure actually scooped up the little gnome and introduced him to the friendly bartenders and wait staff. Klaus has quite a following. Everyone wanted to buy him drinks. It was said that Klaus had his own media badge!

Klaus was especially fond of Brugal Rum. The new Extra Dry caught his attention and he filled his chest flask full of a very special punch that I just created using aromatic that spoke clearly of the heat and the humidity that says New Orleans in the summer!

Rum based cocktails somehow work better in the heat and the humidity that say New Orleans. The plethora of fresh herbs, especially mint and basil mixed with fresh fruit juices and the Extra Dry Rum make for a mind-eraser of a most pleasant kind.

Tales of the Cocktail is a yearly event run by Ann Tuennerman and her husband Paul along with a veritable army of volunteers and supporters. She was kind enough to grant me a media pass this year. This year, Klaus came along for the experience that only can be called Tales.

The Dropping Shucks Cocktail is named for New Orleans’ own Louis Armstrong. It is based on a classic cocktail named the Hurricane but without the horrible end results.

 

Dropping Shucks

Each recipe makes two nice strong cocktails

 

Ingredients

2 shots of Brugal Extra Dry Rum

Juice of 2 limes

Juice of 1 orange

Bitter End Curry Bitters

Royal Rose Strawberry Fennel Syrup

Tomr’s Tonic Syrup

Perrier Sparkling Natural Mineral Water

 

Preparation

In a mixing cup, fill ¼ with ice

Add the Brugal Extra Dry Rum

Add the fruit juices

Add 2 Tablespoons of Royal Rose Strawberry Fennel Syrup

Add 2 Tablespoons of Tomr’s Tonic Syrup

Add 4 Drops of the Bitter End Curry Bitters

Shake and strain into a tall cocktail glass

Finish with the Perrier Sparkling Natural Mineral Water and a chunk of lime

 

 

Beekman 1802 Iced Tea

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We’ve tried many times to capture “summertime” in a glass, but nothing comes closer than a refreshing iced tea on a hot, sunny day.  Josh’s mom was a purist—ice, tea, and some lemon juice.  From the south, Brent’s family made tea that was syrupy sweet.

When two world’s collided at Beekman Farm, the result was something in between.  A little sweet, a little citrus-y, truly unique.

 

Beekman 1802 Iced Tea

(makes approximately 1/2 gallon and can be stored in the refrigerator for a week)

 

Ingredients

4 bags of your favorite tea (we use Earl Grey)

3 sticks cinnamon (about 2 inches long)

1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

5 leaves of fresh mint

1/2 cup of orange juice

 

Instructions

Place 6-1/2 cups of water in a saucepan and add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, and nutmeg.

Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to low and add mint. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and add tea bags. Let steep for 3-5 minutes (depending on desired strength).

Pour through a strainer.

Let liquid cool to room temperature, add orange juice and then pour mixture into a container to refrigerate.

Serve over ice in a tall glass garnishing with a thin slice of orange or extra mint leaves.

 

Share your family’s recipe for iced tea in the comments section below

 

 

5 Beautiful Things

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This new feature is designed to inspire you to look at the world around you, to take note of the season at hand and to capture it – in memory or on film – for posterity. I will be choosing five photos each week for Beekman1802.com with this aim in mind. We’re calling the feature, The Five Most Beautiful Things In The World This Week

 

Bringing The Outdoors In

“Nature laughs in flowers.” That famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of my favorites, and its truth is never more evident when the sight of a beautiful flower garden brings a smile to one’s face. (It seems nature’s laughter is infectious!) One of the easiest ways to brighten an interior space is to bring some of the outdoors in by creating flower arrangements. Just about every room in the house can benefit from a grouping of cut flowers, artfully arranged in a vessel of your choice.

Cutting and arranging flowers is an art that has been practiced for hundreds of years by cultures around the world. From the spiritual art of ikebana in Japan (a flower arranging technique from the 7th Century) to the Roman urns and vases unearthed in the ruins of their ancient cities, the evidence is clear: flowers have always seduced us.

One of my favorite ways to arrange flowers is free-form. As much as I appreciate a beautifully-executed formal arrangement, full of symmetry and balance, the essence of free-form speaks to the natural exuberance of flowers and their giddy effect on human beings: simply letting your imagination and your instincts guide the placement of the flowers in the vase or vessel to achieve something spirited and free, something that speaks to the heart, something that was created by the one-and-only you!

Below are images of country flowers arranged free-form. I hope they make you smile!

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Photos:

1. floragrubb.com

2. fromtherightbank.com

3. saltharbor.squarespace.com

4. stylemepretty.com

5. meggielynne.tumblr.com

 

Andrew Ritchie is the creator of Martha Moments, a blog devoted to Martha-Stewart related content and her community of supporters. He lives and works in Toronto, Canada, and has been a longtime friend of Brent & Josh, Beekman 1802 and Sharon Springs. Each week he’ll scour the world (wide web) to find the 5 most beautiful things to inspire you. Follow Andrew on Pinterest.

 

Roasted Garlic

Bring on the flavor!

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Roasting garlic is one of the simplest, yet most flavorful methods to prepare this potent bulb. Click on the photos above to learn how we roast ours.

Most of the produce we grow in the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Garden are varieties that William Beekman would have grown himself. But there’s one plant we cultivate that the honorable judge likely would have reviled: garlic. This “stinking rose” was considered too strong and malodorous for culinary use by most Northern Europeans and their descendants (Beekman was of Dutch descent.) It wasn’t until waves of southern European immigrants began arriving in America – most notably, Italians, of course – that garlic slowly became a common ingredient in American kitchens and gardens.

Garlic is planted in autumn in our growing zone, and is harvested the following summer. We love roasting newly harvested garlic when the bulbs are nice, fat, and juicy. After 45 minutes to an hour in the oven, they caramelize into a smooth, spreadable paste. Some of our favorite uses for roasted garlic are:

• A a spread on toasted bread, either alone or with Blaak Drizzle, or honey.

• Whisked together with olive oil and lemon zest as a glaze for roasted chicken.

• Stirred into chicken stock and used as risotto broth.

• Stuffed in figs, cherry tomatoes, or pickled cherry peppers as appetizers.

• Combined with crumbled bacon and stirred into mashed potatoes.

What do you use roasted garlic for? Let us know in the comment section below.

 

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Glimmerglass

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About 17 miles due west of Sharon Springs and 8 miles north of Cooperstown, at the northern end of Otsego Lake, a striking structure overlooks Otsego Lake. In this building – the Alice Busch Opera Theater – one can experience world-class opera and musical theater. This is the home of the internationally acclaimed Glimmerglass Festival, named after the lake called Glimmerglass in James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. The 19th-century writer, who lived most of his life in Cooperstown, took inspiration from Otsego Lake for his fictional body of water.

The company, originally known as the Glimmerglass Opera, was created in 1975 by Cooperstown residents with a dream of bringing opera to the region. It held its first productions – Puccini’s La bohème – at the Cooperstown High School auditorium. The 900-seat Alice Busch Opera Theater opened in 1987 with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Built on 43 acres of former farmland donated by Thomas Goodyear and his mother Jeanette Bissell Goodyear, it is the first new American opera house constructed since 1966.

The Glimmerglass Festival offers four productions each summer, performed in rotating repertory; more than 80 productions have been staged in the company’s history. In the course of the first 17 seasons, all productions were performed in English. Since 1992, they have mostly been presented in their original languages with English supertitles. The company has become known for commissioning new works to present along with the classics. The Glimmerglass Festival also offers special performances, concerts, and lectures at various venues in the area.

In 1988, the company initiated the Young Artists Program. Those fortunate enough to be selected for their budding talent receive instruction in various aspects of opera and musical theater, including singing, acting, diction, auditioning, production, and managing a career. Many of the Young Artists are housed in Cherry Valley, 10 miles to the east of the theater. In fact, while strolling down Main Street in Cherry Valley in June, July, or August, one might very well hear beautiful singing – a Young Artist practicing.

Francesca Zambello has been the Artistic and General Director since September 2010. Having worked in opera in cities around the world, she is also an artistic advisor to the Washington National Opera and the San Francisco Opera. Under her tenure, the name Glimmerglass Festival was adopted and the decision was made to mount one of the four annual productions in American musical theater.

The Glimmerglass Festival’s 2012 productions include Verdi’s Aida; the French baroque opera Armide; Lost in the Stars, based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country; and the classic American musical The Music Man, performed as intended with a full orchestra.

The Glimmerglass Festival is a great draw to the greater Sharon Springs area. It not only has helped the local economy, but also has added a magical element to the region’s cultural fabric.

 

 

The History Boys are

Chris Campbell has made his permanent home in Cherry Valley, NY. The Campbell family dates back to 1739 in this town, situated about eight miles from Sharon Springs. Some family members were captured by Tories and Iroquois allies in the Cherry Valley Massacre of 1778 during the American Revolution and taken to Canada, released two years later in Albany as part of a prisoner exchange. Chris is a rare book and map collector and has had a lifelong interest in history, especially relating to upstate New York and colonial land patents. He was the founder and first chairman of the Cherry Valley Planning Board and has worked as a surveyor and realtor as well as a researcher for the Otsego County map department. His hobbies include Ham radio.

 

Carl Waldman, also living in Cherry Valley, is a former archivist for the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown. He is he author of a number of reference books published by Facts On File, including Atlas of the North American Indian and Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, both originally published in the 1980s and both in their third editions. He is the co-author of Encyclopedia of Exploration (2005) and Encyclopedia of European Peoples (2006). Carl has also done screenwriting about Native Americans, including an episode of Miami Vice entitled “Indian Wars” and the Legend of Two-Path, a drama about the Native American side of Raleigh’s Lost Colony, shown at Festival Park on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. His hobbies include music and he works with young people in the Performance and Production Workshops at the Cherry Valley Old School.

 

The Chatter for August

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We’ve lobbied really hard for Garrison Keillor to give up life in Lake Wobegone and move to Sharon Springs,  but thus far he has not answered our letters or returned our calls.

Sharon Springs has beautiful people and above-average children, too, so on to Plan B.

What is a small town village without a small town paper to keep track of what everyone is doing?

Leila Durkin, proprietor of The Village Hall Gallery, is now editor of our own little paper.

Each month you can check back here for a new issue and follow the lives of the real village people.  If you pay a real visit, you  may even want to submit a story idea of your own!

You may not live in small town, but at least you can pretend.

The  August 2012  issue of the Chatter is below

 

 

 

Self-Sowing Second Crops

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“Going to seed,” isn’t necessarily always a bad thing. (Click on any image to begin slide show.)

We love spring planting. After a long winter of being cooped up indoors, drooling over seed catalogs, there’s nothing better than staying outside from sun-up to sunset preparing and planting the new year’s garden.

But even we’ll admit that when it comes to planting a second or third round of seeds for late season harvests, we stoop to the soil with a little less enthusiasm. The garden in mid-summer provides enough chores between weeding, watering, harvesting and preserving that adding the task of re-seeding seems a little less seductive. Luckily, there are several spring garden crops that are more than happy to do the work themselves.

The trick is in the timing. Most lettuces and other fast-growing spring leaf crops hate the summer. Once the days and nights are consistently above 70 F their thoughts turn to death. Well, actually they turn to sex, then dying. Lettuces and herbs send up a central stalk that eventually flowers. This is called bolting, and most leaf crops become too bitter to eat once the flower stalk has formed. But from these flowers come seeds. And, if this all happens quickly enough, these seeds will fall to the ground and sprout a new crop that will be ready for harvesting before the first hard frosts come.

There are other benefits to not pulling up plants the moment they begin to bolt. If you’ve harvested most of your spring crop of a particular vegetable, but a fall crop isn’t scheduled to be replanted for several weeks or months, the bed will wind up sitting there empty and forlorn. (It’s true. Garden beds have real issues with depression.) Even worse yet, you’ll have to keep weeding an empty bed. (And that will depress you.) Even aesthetically, a bed full of flowers is much nicer to look at than waiting dirt. Remember, that we’re not advocating skipping the spring harvest altogether. Letting just a few radishes, lettuce heads, pea vines go to seed will result in hundreds of new seeds, and hopefully seedlings. You can harvest 99% of your spring crops and what’s left behind will provide more than enough seeds for autumn.

But not all crops will re-seed in time to provide a second-coming. With the exception of radishes, there usually isn’t enough time for most root crops like turnips, beets, and carrots to bolt, flower, re-seed and mature before the snow starts swirling. And some summers don’t get hot enough for these varieties to bolt at all.  At least not in our growing zone. The reliable re-seeders for us are radishes, peas, lettuces, arugula, spinach, dill, cilantro and sometimes fava beans. Which crops will reseed and provide a second harvest for you? There’s no way you’ll know if you don’t experiment. (Also, seeds from many hybrids will grow plants that have reverted to their original ancestral varieties. To be certain to get a second crop of the same variety, always plant heirloom varieties.)

Let us know if you allow any crops to re-sow in the comment section below, and tell us where you live.

Gartending: Davy Jones’ Locker

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It’s true that thunderstorms do one of two things to the wise gardener-gnome. Klaus looks upon a summer thunderstorm as a welcome relief from the heat and humidity, but also as part of one of his sports- slug collecting. We all know Klaus as the “soused-gnome” but did you know that Klaus was a world-class slug wrangler? Sure he is. How does Klaus wrangle slugs and keep them from chewing the tender lettuces and cucumbers???

 

With beer of course! Slugs love beer! They cannot resist it. They go in to the beer bath for a drink then they drown! It’s the perfect end to their slimy existence and the lettuces live for another day.

 

In effect they go for a swim in Davy Jones’s Locker.

 

That leads me to our next cocktail. It is a beer cocktail- inspired by the Brazilians who know a thing or two about beachside parties. It is refreshing, bold and effervescent. It drips onto your tongue and fizzes away- slaking your thirst and stimulating sips and splashes of citrus flavors, some metallic and crystalline, others soft and creamy. This cocktail is memorable in the fact that it tastes like a summer-vacation trip to Ipanema Beach in Brazil. No other cocktail is as vibrant on your memory as your first beer cocktail.

I’ve taken the classic Brazilian Beer cocktail and twisted it up a bit “Klaus-Style.” The addition of your own garden fresh cucumbers, stone and citrus fruit simple syrup and sugar cane based Cachaça gives this drink a uniquely Brazilian feel. Of course like any good beer cocktail, I use a crisply aromatic spiced, wheat beer.

 

In this case I love to use New York’s own, Ommegang Witte Ale. The citrus and spice augmented Belgian Style Ale is my choice (and Klaus’s of course) for this beer cocktail named the Davy Jones’s Locker.  The ingredients for this cocktail are ones that you may have in your pantry already or in your garden, escaping from the slugs. Davy Jones’s Locker is served in a tall rocks glass, if you add ice to the beer it will foam like crazy so have the ice in the glass before you add the beer!

 

Davy Jone’s Locker

 

Ingredients:

Makes four sensuously dreamy cocktails

1 home grown cucumber, skinned, de-seeded and sliced into coins

Simple syrup of Roses- from Royal Rose muddled with crushed orange, tangerine, lime, lemon and peaches and cucumber coins

Fresh Basil rolled into cigars and sliced on the bias

4 shots of the best Cachaça you can buy. I used Sao Cachaça in my cocktail because it is certified Organic and quite delicious!

 

Preparation:

To a Boston Shaker add several chunks of orange, lemon, lime, tangerine and peaches

Add 4 tablespoons of Royal Rose Simple Syrup of Roses

Muddle the fruits and the Royal Rose syrup together

Add 4 Shots of Sao Cachaça

Add the basil threads

Add ice and shake, shake, shake your booty

Strain into tall glasses filled with ice made with the Mavea “inspired water” pitcher (Buy one at Williams-Sonoma)

Top with about two shots Ommegang Witte Ale and garnish with a lime slice or two

 

Have one of these and walking the plank won’t seem like such a bad idea!

Gartending: Davy Jone’s Locker

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It’s true that thunderstorms do one of two things to the wise gardener-gnome. Klaus looks upon a summer thunderstorm as a welcome relief from the heat and humidity, but also as part of one of his sports- slug collecting. We all know Klaus as the “soused-gnome” but did you know that Klaus was a world-class slug wrangler? Sure he is. How does Klaus wrangle slugs and keep them from chewing the tender lettuces and cucumbers???

 

With beer of course! Slugs love beer! They cannot resist it. They go in to the beer bath for a drink then they drown! It’s the perfect end to their slimy existence and the lettuces live for another day.

 

In effect they go for a swim in Davy Jones’s Locker.

 

That leads me to our next cocktail. It is a beer cocktail- inspired by the Brazilians who know a thing or two about beachside parties. It is refreshing, bold and effervescent. It drips onto your tongue and fizzes away- slaking your thirst and stimulating sips and splashes of citrus flavors, some metallic and crystalline, others soft and creamy. This cocktail is memorable in the fact that it tastes like a summer-vacation trip to Ipanema Beach in Brazil. No other cocktail is as vibrant on your memory as your first beer cocktail.

I’ve taken the classic Brazilian Beer cocktail and twisted it up a bit “Klaus-Style.” The addition of your own garden fresh cucumbers, stone and citrus fruit simple syrup and sugar cane based Cachaça gives this drink a uniquely Brazilian feel. Of course like any good beer cocktail, I use a crisply aromatic spiced, wheat beer.

 

In this case I love to use New York’s own, Ommegang Witte Ale. The citrus and spice augmented Belgian Style Ale is my choice (and Klaus’s of course) for this beer cocktail named the Davy Jones’s Locker.  The ingredients for this cocktail are ones that you may have in your pantry already or in your garden, escaping from the slugs. Davy Jones’s Locker is served in a tall rocks glass, if you add ice to the beer it will foam like crazy so have the ice in the glass before you add the beer!

 

Davy Jone’s Locker

 

Ingredients:

Makes four sensuously dreamy cocktails

1 home grown cucumber, skinned, de-seeded and sliced into coins

Simple syrup of Roses- from Royal Rose muddled with crushed orange, tangerine, lime, lemon and peaches and cucumber coins

Fresh Basil rolled into cigars and sliced on the bias

4 shots of the best Cachaça you can buy. I used Sao Cachaça in my cocktail because it is certified Organic and quite delicious!

 

Preparation:

To a Boston Shaker add several chunks of orange, lemon, lime, tangerine and peaches

Add 4 tablespoons of Royal Rose Simple Syrup of Roses

Muddle the fruits and the Royal Rose syrup together

Add 4 Shots of Sao Cachaça

Add the basil threads

Add ice and shake, shake, shake your booty

Strain into tall glasses filled with ice made with the Mavea “inspired water” pitcher (Buy one at Williams-Sonoma)

Top with about two shots Ommegang Witte Ale and garnish with a lime slice or two

 

Have one of these and walking the plank won’t seem like such a bad idea!

Red Currant Jelly

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What does the color red taste like?

For centuries, most Westerners would have probably answered “red currant jelly.” While red currants might be difficult to find in your local grocery store today, they were once a staple fruit in their native origin, Western Europe. Their relative ease of cultivation, and resistance to disease and pests probably accounts for the fruit’s ubiquity in European culinary history, with uses ranging from savory meat accompaniment, to chilled soups, to colorful pastry glazes.

In France, the clarity of a homemaker’s currant jelly was long considered an indicator of her wifely skills. In fact the french are so enamored with this tart berry that a small town in Northeast France has been producing what might be the world’s most expensive jam since 1344.  La confiture de Groseilles de Bar le Duc  is a jam made in the village of Bar le Duc from red currants that have been de-seeded by hand using a goose feather quill. Yes, you read that right. Workers remove a dozen or more tiny seeds from each individual red currant berry using the sharpened tip of a goose feather. Why? So that the skin and flesh of the currant remains undamaged and pretty when suspended in jam. But pretty doesn’t come cheap. (Don’t we all know?) A mere three ounces of this specialty jam retails for more than $40 in the U.S.

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While currants – and their relative, the gooseberry – were also popular in early American cuisine, they rather abruptly disappeared from U.S. kitchens in the early 20th century. At the time currant bushes were identified as hosts of “White Pine Blister Rust Fungus,” which while not harmful to the currant bush itself, is as deadly to White Pine trees as its name implies. With millions of dollars worth of lumber at risk, cultivation of currants was declared illegal by the U.S. government, and during the Great Depression over 11,000 workers were hired by the Federal government to comb American forests, pulling up any wild gooseberry and currant bushes that were discovered.

With a fungus that could travel up to 350 miles from its host, this effort had little effect on eradicating the disease. By 1966 the government eased restrictions, allowing individual states to decide if currant cultivation could be reinstated. Several states still have laws prohibiting the sale of currant bushes on the books.

Here at Beekman 1802 Farm, we don’t make a lot of fussy jellies. We prefer its quicker, unfussy sibling – jam. However, we do put up several jars of red currant jelly when we have a good crop. It’s the standard jelly for glazing fruit tarts (the resulting slight red tint makes most fruit look even prettier,) and we also use it all winter long as a bright accompaniment to hearty roast meats.  Perhaps one of our favorite uses is adding a tablespoon to brown pan gravies – it enriches the color and gives it a more complex flavor.

Plus we like to keep a jewel-like jar of red currant jelly on our window sill in secret hope that one day someone will notice and declare us good french homemakers.

Click on any image below to begin a slideshow of our jelly making process.

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Red Currant Jelly

This is a pretty standard currant jelly recipe that you’ll find everywhere on the web. There are also some that don’t contain pectin, since currants are already high in natural pectin. But we like to hedge our bets when we’re putting in this much time and effort, so we use the pectin version.

Suggested Equipment: Jelly bag and Stand, (you may use an old pillowcase as substitute) and Water Bath Canner.

Ingredients

10 cups red currants

2 cups water

8 cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon butter

1 pouch Liquid Pectin

Wash currants. Don’t worry if there are stems attached. Many old recipes actually encourage the inclusion of some stems. Pour currants into large, non-reactive saucepan (stainless steel,) add water, and bring to boil. Turn down heat to simmer and boil for 5 minutes, mashing berries occasionally with potato masher.

Pour mashed mixture into jelly bag and stand, positioned over a deep bowl to catch juice. (Pre-dampen jelly bag for best results.) If using old pillowcase or other similar cloth, hang from cupboard handle over bowl in sink. Whatever the set-up, be sure the cloth is finely woven. The tighter the weave, the clearer the juice.

Let juice drip for at least 3 hours. We prefer overnight. DO NOT SQUEEZE BAG, or small particles will be forced through cloth and make your jelly cloudy.

Sterilize 10 half-pint jelly jars with lids and rings in dishwasher. Or simmer jars in water bath canner. Do not boil sealing lids. You may not need all 10 jars, but it’s best to have them ready.

Place a few dish saucers in the freezer. (These will be used to test done-ness of jelly.)

You should be left with about 6 cups of juice after straining. Don’t worry if you have a little more or less. Up to a cup in either direction is fine. Pour juice in large non-reactive pot. Add all of the sugar and butter (the butter keeps foaming down.) Bring it all to full boil, stirring often. When mixture is boiling to the point that you can’t stir away the bubbling, add the pectin. Stir vigorously for one minute longer, then remove from heat. If there is any foam formed, skim it off.

Quickly drop a spoonful of the hot jelly mixture onto chilled saucer. Let cool for 1 minute. Run your finger though puddle. Is it still liquid? Or does it wrinkle? If it wrinkles, it’s ready to be poured into jars. If not, return jelly mixture to heat and boil for one more minute. Test again.

Once hot jelly passes the “wrinkle test,” quickly pour hot mixture into sterilized jars. Fill until 1/4 inch headspace remains in jars. Wipe rims of jars with clean damp paper towel, removing any drips. Rims must be very clean in order for seal to take.

Place lids on jars and screw on bands snugly. Do not over-tighten. Place jars in rack and lower into water bath canner. Cover with until until jars are submerged at least one inch. Bring to a boil. Once water is at rolling boil, set timer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove jars and allow to cool. The lids will “pop” once sealed. (If any do not seal, place in refrigerator and use first. They will still be fine for several months.)

Resist the urge to open a jar for testing until 48 hours have passed. Jelly sometimes takes that long to set completely.

Don’t have access to fresh red currants? You can have frozen berries shipped to you from Northwest Wild Foods that will work just as well for jelly.