Redbud Apple Jelly

Spring has certainly sprung here.  Flowers are in full bloom...including the beautiful Redbud trees.

I have a friend that has a whole hedgerow of Redbud trees and was invited to pick all the flowers I needed.

Redbuds contain antioxidants, are easy to pick, and make beautiful jelly.  Their flavor is kindof like a mild grape with a little "green" flavor.  To add a bit more punch to the flavor I decided to add a bit of apple juice.  It worked out very well!

I will mention to you, you want to pick the flowers at the peak of bloom.  Even if you won't have time to make jelly for a few days, that's fine...but pick them at their peak.

We picked these on Tuesday, and I just kept them in a twist-tie bag in the fridge until I could get to them today.  There's about 1/2 gallon of flowers...

Rinse them and strain them well to remove any dirt or hitchhikers....

In a large stainless steel pot with 4 cups of water, and I added lemon juice.

I would have preferred to add fresh-squeezed lemon juice...a lemon's worth....but I didn't have any and wasn't making a special trip to the store for it.

So I added 2 capfuls of bottled lemon juice...

Bring the water and lemon juice just to a boil....and add the flowers.  Put a lid on the pot and turn the heat down to a low simmer.  Steep for 20 minutes, then drain.  I'll feed the steeped flowers to the pigs...

Strain the juice through a cheesecloth, then return the juice to the pan.  Bring to a boil and reduce it by about a third...

This left me with about 2 1/2 cups of the redbud infusion, I added enough unsweetened apple juice to make 4 cups.  Add 1 package of powdered pectin and bring to a boil.  Add 5 1/2 cups of sugar, stirring it in slowly.....and bring it to a rapid boil that can not be stirred down.

Boil for 2 minutes, then ladle into jars.

I processed the jars for 5 minutes in a BWB.

The flavor is wonderful....like lightly perfumed apples.

And the color is pretty too!