Dilly Lily Apple Jelly

green apple

When critters come calling and birds begin to peck your produce how do you protect your fresh growing food?  One way is to bring it in early.  Tomatoes, for example, can be ripened on windowsills when the bunnies begin to get thirsty and bite into the juicy red goodness hanging on the vine.

Apples brought in early can be used in an even better way, to make jellies. The tartness of a green apple, makes it not just higher in pectin but a perfect punch up for a dill weed jelly.

dill flowers
the feathery leaves were used in this recipe

Did she say Dill Jelly?
Why yes, I did.

In this case a dill weed (leaves), daylily, and green apple jelly that balances on the sweeter side of sour for an unexpected bit of loveliness that I call Dilly Lily Apple Jelly (partly because it's a fairly accurate name but mostly because it's fun to say). You'll need:

5 cups Sugar
1 package Sure-Jell (pectin)

4 cups of Green Apple Juice (puree)

• made by chopping about 2 cups of apple into a sauce pan, covering with water and bringing to a boil. Once boiling remove from heat and puree. It can be refrigerated before or after straining out the skins and lumps, and will keep overnight if everything else isn't ready yet.

2 1/2 cups of Dill Weed Infusion

• made by pouring two cups of boiling water over  3/4 cup fresh dill leaves and allowing to sit/steep for at least 3 hours before use.

2 cups of Daylily Water

• made by pouring boiling water over the diced up (green stem parts removed) bits of about 7 large daylilies and allowing that to sit in an air tight container for about 36 hours until it is sort of thick and then strain out the petals. Aside from the fact that it will be a pinkish hue it should look exactly like someone put Thick-It in a glass of water.

use the old fashioned orange daylilies
and confirm that your cultivars are in fact edible, not all of them are

Follow instructions with pectin packet for cooking and putting up the jelly.

• made, basically, by combining 1/3 cup sugar and pectin with liquid and bringing it to a boil. 
• Have the rest of the sugar measured out and waiting to dump in all at once when you get to a boil because you are stirring non-stop with a long handled wooden spoon. 
• bring it back to a rolling boil for one minute (ish) until it tests
• remove from heat and jar in prepared sterile jars. 
• Refrigerate or use waterbath canner to seal for shelf storage.

If you're not sure about your daylilies, Green Apple Dill Jelly is also a big hit, just leave out the 2 cups of daylily water and reduce the sugar 1 cup.