Spiced Crab Apple Jelly Recipe

 

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. It's harvest season. The berries, the mushrooms, all those other things wild and cultivated that my family picks and creates the jams, sauces, syrups and jellies we use through out the year and give to our friends. Also, I'm going to do something weird and give you the recipe before the back story.

This is actually a TECHNIQUE and a recipe both. The technique is for easily juicing the crab apples. 

Juicing the crab apples in an Instant Pot

This method will not be as clear as traditional juicing methods, more of a "cider" than a juice.

You will need: 

• 10 lbs of crab apples- ornamental are fine, we used ornamental for this batch
• water to cover
• strainer
• Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker

We have a Ninja pressure cooker that's large enough we did this in 2 batches, which wound up being 2 cups of water per batch to cover the apples. 

Prep apples by removing stems. For larger crab apples, you can cut them in half too. Seeds and skins will be discarded with the pulp, but can add natural pectin to the finished jelly. 

Bring up to pressure and cook for 8 minutes. Natural release. Using a bowl to catch the juice, strain out the solids. A mesh strainer will work, you can line it with cheese cloth if you want a clearer finished jelly. We just strained and smooshed it through. The pulp and the discarded stems all went into our compost heap. 

Juice can be frozen to keep to process into jelly later. Also if you really, really like sour, go ahead and try it. It is sour though. 

Jelly Recipe (makes 12 half pints with a little leftover)

You will need:

• 9 cups of juice. Measure out your juice, add water to make 9 cups if necessary
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
• 11 cups of sugar
• pinch each allspice, cinnamon and either mace or nutmeg (we used mace, I'm very fond of that vintage spice) 
• 2 packages of pectin- we used powdered Sure-Jell

Mix crab apple juice, lemon juice, and sugar in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add in spices. Stir, heat slowly to mix completely and dissolve sugar completely. Stir in 2 packages of pectin. Bring to a rolling boil (a boil that can't be stirred down) and boil for exactly 1 minute. 

Skim of foam and put into prepared jars with a half inch headroom. Water bath process for 10 minutes.  

Crab apples are pretty new in our harvesting. Last year at a virtual plant symposium, someone told me approximately where her Dad had planted crab apple trees decades ago. My daughter went out exploring and found them and also found out that other people weren't picking them. Over the course of the next few weeks, she and her brother picked about 30 lbs of them. They were dried, used in pie, used for jellies and apple butter. 

Those trees aren't ready yet. But a friend of our offered to let TG and William pick at her house and they got 16 lbs total! We gave some to a friend, and used the rest to make this jelly. 

It's delicious. This would be amazing with moose, caribou, or if you're down south, venison. It's also a natural for pork. The sweet, tart, spiced combination is a natural with sharp cheese too. 

Coloring page- chess board

 

Oh it's been a while. Sorry. This has been a good summer for my garden and I've been spending a lot of time out there. 

Anyway, here's a new coloring page. The big blank spot at the bottom of the chess board is so it can be personalized as you wish as a sign for a bedroom or whatever you'd like to do with it. 

Click the images below for larger versions to print and color. 

Chess board coloring page small jpg version:

Chess board coloring page large transparent png version:

Stick Figure Saturday- Dance Hard

 

It's Stick Figure Saturday again! Simple coloring pages with a lot of room to play with techniques, backgrounds and colors. I hope you enjoy this week's installment. 

Click the images below for larger versions to save/print/color! 

Stick figure dance coloring- small jpg

Stick figure dance coloring page- large transparent png

Stick Figure Saturday- Stick Cat!!

 

It's Stick Figure Saturday!!! Sorry I missed last week. Life got in the way. 

Today's is a cat, because I found out that this year is going to be the 40th anniversary of "Built for Speed" by the Stray Cats and it just made me smile thinking of it. It's such a fun album. 

I hope you're enjoying this series. Any suggestions for future installments? I'd love to know. 

Click the images below for larger versions to save/print/color

Stick figure cat coloring page- small jpg:

Stick figure cat coloring page- large transparent png:

Stick Figure Saturday- Angel of the Morning coloring page

 

Good morning! It's time for a brand new Stick Figure Saturday coloring page!

This one was inspired by my love for coffee obviously.  

I hope you enjoy it. Click the images below for larger images to save, print and color.

Small jpg version of Angel of the Morning coloring page:

Large transparent png version of Angel of the Morning coloring page:

Stick Figure Saturday- Planting seeds

 

It's Stick Figure Saturday again!!! That day where I post a simple stick figure coloring page with lots of room to play with shading and different techniques. 

Since I've been getting seeds started for my garden, I thought that would be fun. I hope you enjoy it. Click the images below for larger versions to save/print/color. 

Small jpg version stick figure planting seeds-

Large transparent png version stick figure planting seeds-

Stick Figure Saturday: Bee Yourself

 

Welcome to the second Stick Figure Saturday! This series came out of the idea that sometimes simple is very good and gives a lot of room to practice shading, doodling or different materials. 

This week's design to print and color was inspired by the way my family forages and how much we love the bees in our garden. 

Click the images below for larger images to print and color. 

Stick figure Bee- small jpg:

Stick figure Bee- large transparent png:

Dragonfly Coloring Page

 This dragonfly is part of a recent Spoonflower challenge that is voting right now. You can vote for your favorite Y2K inspired design here. 

This was done before my computer had issues recently. Stick Figure Saturday will be back next week! 

And you can download, print and color this coloring page by clicking the images below for larger versions. 

Small jpg version:

Large transparent png version: 

Auntie Toni's Valentine Coloring Page

 

This is for everyone to print and color and enjoy and I really hope you do. 

But it's also specifically for my Auntie Toni. Because Auntie Toni is a wonderful, loving woman who has been encouraging me for years just to be myself. Because I've been lucky enough to have family who said that just being the best me is enough, and who lived that truth for themselves and let me see their joy, love, laughter and the wisdom that came with it. That strength, resiliency and support has been the reason this page exists, why I was willing to dare to share my art and crafts. 

Click the images below for larger versions to print and color. 

Valentine coloring page - small jpg version: 

Valentine coloring page- large transparent png version: 

Stick Figure Saturday Debut!

 

It's been a while since I did a themed set of coloring pages. A few weeks ago I thought about starting a simple series. Something with a lot of big spaces that could be used to practice shading techniques. I decided on stick figures. 

I hope you like them! This is the debut. "Star light star bright"

Click the images below for large versions to print and color. 

Wish on a star- small jpg version: 

Wish on a star- large transparent png version: 

Let Your Light Shine Coloring Page

 

Today's coloring page was inspired by a lot of friends and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

Let your light shine!!! 

Click the images below for a large version to print and color. 

Let Your Light Shine- small jpg version

Let Your Light Shine- large transparent PNG version