I had only intended on doing one experimental batch of jaboticaba jelly today. That experiment was putting the jaboticaba through a juicer (as I had seen on You Tube) then using the juice to make the jelly! It seemed like a much easier & faster process than the other jelly making recipes & videos I was finding. NOT! The Green Garden Guy very specifically said he was using a centrifugal juicer; I was using the cold press Ninja juicer that Evan had sent for Sarah last May. It clogged up almost immediately when I was using the intermediate filter which allows for "some pulp". Tomorrow I might try Jungle Joel's way to make jaboticaba juice & make jam with the resulting juice. Experiment #1 = FAIL.
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It starts to juice.
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But immediately becomes clogged.
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That pulp is clogging the pulp output end.
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This is the input end.
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Just a small part of what was causing the clog.
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The pulp that actually made it out.
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For Experiment #2, I did it the way that most of the things I saw on Google said to make jaboticaba jelly. It starts with putting the washed fruit in a pot; most then add water enough to cover the fruit, some do not. To 5 cups of jaboticaba (or 26.5 ounces, the amount of fruit I put in each bag) I added 3 cups of water which covered the fruit in the pot. I brought it to a boil, then mashed it with Grandma's old potato masher. Then I strained it to remove the skins, big chunks of pulp, seeds, & stems; that was a lot of work that clogged up the strainer & left me with a lot of organic stuff. I returned the 4 cups of juice to the pot, added 4 cups of sugar 😮, & brought the whole thing to a boil. From here it was waiting & watching for the point when the concoction becomes thick enough to become jelly; it took about 2 hours.
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Eureka! I found Grandma's potato masher!
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Four cups juice from 5 cups jaboticaba.
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Juice & sugar starts boiling.
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Juice & sugar after about 2 hours of boiling.
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I read that one of the ways to tell if you have reached that jelly point is to put a few drops of the liquid on a plate that you have been keeping in the freezer. My 1st test was expected to fail since the plate had only been in the freezer like 5 minutes; who keeps a plate in the freezer? Subsequent tests were better. But I could also see a difference in the consistency of the slurry as it boiled; towards the end I would have to take it off the heat so it would not boil over & make a really big mess on the stove! When it reached the jelly stage, I ladled it in to hot clean jars; I got 3&1/2 - 8 ounce jars. It had taken me almost 4 hours to get to this point; so about 1 hour per jar... I will never complain about the cost of artisan, small batch jams & jellies ever again. (Not that I have before.)
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(L to R) 10-minute & 20-minute test drops.
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I test every 10 minutes to see the change in consistency.
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But wait! We're not done yet! I added the lids & rings & set the 4 jars in a hot water bath; making sure all the jars were totally immersed in hot water. Once the bath came back up to boiling, I turned it down to a simmer & set the timer for 10 minutes. I removed the jars & set them on the counter to cool overnight. They were still quite liquid when I removed them from the hot water bath; I heard the lids pop as the vacuum created by the cooling sealed each jar. Experiment #2 = CONDITIONAL PASS. (I have to check tomorrow if they really did become jelly. If not, then I have a lot of syrup for pancakes, ice cream, & whatever else you want to pour fruit syrup over.)
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Filled jars waiting for lids & rings.
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Processed jars; sorry, forgot to take a water bath photo.
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Before I left to run errands this morning, I made a box for the rags that Trudy brought by yesterday when she came to harvest the panax for her goats. I used an old soy milk box that has a convenient opening that I can pull the rags out of whenever I need one!
I did not personally have equipment for making jelly & jam or the supplies for making them & I did not remember seeing any in Grandma's kitchen things even though I know she made jams & jellies. So I made a trip to Sunshine for the canning jars & whatever other equipment I could find there. The circuit today also included Takata to pick up sugar & whatever else Sunshine might not have that was needed. I was not able to get all the supplies at either place, but I got the most important part - the canning jars.
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This is the mural on the Nakahara Grocery Store building across the street from Sunshine.
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The Roomba only did the east half of the house today. Twice. Since I was going to be very busy in the kitchen with the jelly making I decided to be okay with that for today; I did not want it to be underfoot while I was trying to concentrate on the jelly making.
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It said it was done cleaning & was going home.
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But it only did the east half. (North is at top.)
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I made it try again. Unsuccessfully.
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On the 3rd try, it had to pause. This looked promising.
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It started up again about 10:30 & went to the kitchen again. Auē!
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It includes the recharging time in the cleaning history.
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But it still only did the east half. (North at top.)
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The weather here today was quite wet from the beginning of the day. It drizzled most of the day but there were a couple of dry periods.
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Six minutes before sunrise.
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Light drizzle at 7:49 a.m.
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Rain shower at 9:17 a.m.
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Drizzling as I start my errands at 9:26 a.m.
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Got back just in time for the downpour at 10:35 a.m.
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More precipitation at 2:47 p.m.
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It continued until 5:34 p.m. & later in to the night.
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During one of the short less wet periods I went over to Jessie's house to borrow a bag of sugar; fortunately she bakes & picks up supplies when they are on sale. I had been at Takata this morning getting supplies for the jelly experiments but totally forgot the sugar! Auē!
I was so tired by the end of the day, I was glad that Trudy stopped by during the lull in the weather. She dropped off some beef stew she made last night; she gave some to me as she was headed over to Glenn's house to deliver some to him. That's what I had for dinner.
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It was the only container she had.
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I had half of it tonight.
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I also decided to feed the cats all at once instead over a 2 hour period for both the morning & evening feedings. They are getting used to enough to me I don't feel like I need to reinforce to them that I am the one providing the food to them as much as I did in the beginning. I have even been able to get Holoi to take strips of turkey from my hand.
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Olomea at the 7:01 a.m. feeding.
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Olomea & Holoi at the 5:52 p.m. feeding.
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And finally, I decided to finish making the Shaker Lemon Pie tomorrow instead of tonight. Stay tuned to see how that experiment turns out!
As I mentioned earlier, I used Grandma's old potato masher to mash
the jaboticaba & get all the juices out. I had originally tried to
find my potato masher which is more efficient at mashing things but
could not find it. This evening, since I still had one of the bins sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor (#100), I decided to remove a few things from it each evening & wash them up before I put them away on the shelves. Here are the things I unpacked tonight.
Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Anakē Daisy! She is 93 years young today! She had lunch with Anakē Florence, Scott, & Wakana.
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(L to R) Nā anakē Florence & Daisy. (Photo by Wakana)
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(L to R) Wakana, Anakē Florence, & Anakē Daisy. (Photo by Wakana)
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Birthday Girl Daisy with sister Florence.
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Eight years ago Xander arrived in Hawaiʻi. Although he never made it to Hawaiʻi Island, he was able to spend 4 years in a warm, sunny place. For 2 of those years I was not here full-time so Mom & Dad spoiled him rotten! He got ice cream almost every night when they had their ice cream.
