BeautyBerry Jelly Recipe

The backyard bush

Make your own jelly with the backyard bush. Beautyberry is a bush commonly found in your very own backyard. They are found in the U.S.A., Australia, and parts of Asia. So if you live in one of these areas you may just find it in your backyard. My beautyberry bush is flowering right now (Early-mid June.) Soon in mid-late fall I will be reaping the rewards of the berry production of this bush. I first found this bush a couple of years ago, and it caught my eye with it’s beautiful bright purple berries. The have large clumps, with large green leaves on opposing sides of the stem. These bushes must have a great pollination technique because once you see one bush there will be many more to come. If you are looking to grow beautyberry in your yard, check out Today’s Homeowner’s post on how to grow it in you yard. Also, check out Fine Gardening’s video on how to prune this amazing bush.

Before eating or touching my beautyberry bush, I did what any forager should do and I researched it, identified it through many online resources, and field guides. Please make sure to do this also the pictures here and this blog post is not enough to identify these berries. Eating the wrong berry could be deadly! So please, please do your own research. See disclaimer. While I was doing my research on these beautiful berries, I found out that many people swear by using the leaves as a mosquito deterrent. Last year, the mosquitos got really bad. Bad as in it didn’t seem to matter what kind of bug spray you used it didn’t help. I started having my boys grab a beautyberry leaf off of the bush and rub it on their skin. It helped with mosquitos. I will say I used it too, while I was reorganizing the shed one day, and it helped keep the mosquitos away really well but it definitely did not help with the pesky gnats!

Part of my research included extensive reading up on how people thought that this berry is poisonous. That is not what I found in my research. However, I did find that some people get an upset stomach from eating these berries. Everybody is different and process food differently. Think of someone you know who is lactose intolerant for example not everyone has a lactose intolerance. This may be the reason some people get upset tummies when eating beautyberry. They may just have an intolerance. Maybe their bodies are not prepared to digest it or they are allergic. Please use caution when first trying the berry!

Beautyberry Jelly recipe

Cook/prepare/care for food properly! Do proper research and consult a physician before foraging and/or consuming anything. Please see disclaimer.

Wash the berries and remove any stems, leaves or bugs.

Place berries in a pan, and crush them with a potato masher.

Add in the water, and boil for 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

Strain, keeping the liquid. I use a fine metal strainer. You need something very fine to strain out very small particles. You could also use a cheesecloth.

Place 3 cups of the liquid back in the pan add the sure jell, and the sugar.

Boil this mixture for two minutes.

Skim off foam.

Ingredients:

6 cups of Beautyberries
8 cups of water
1 envelope of sure jell
4 ½ cups of sugar

If your berries are not very tart you will want to add some lemon juice. You can use bottled or fresh. You will need about 3 tbsp of juice.

Directions:

Wash the berries and remove any stems, leaves or bugs.
Place berries in a pan, and crush them with a potato masher.
Add in the water, and boil for 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
Strain, keeping the liquid. I use a fine metal strainer. You need something very fine to strain out very small particles. You could also use a cheesecloth.
Place 3 cups of the liquid back in the pan add the sure jell, and the sugar.
Boil this mixture for two minutes.
Skim off foam.

Is your jelly not setting up? Sometimes this happens to the best of us. First, you really want to give it some time to set. At first it may seem a little syrupy. This is totally normal. Give them a couple of days to cool and settle, then check the consistency. Check out more ways to troubleshoot jelly, if you are still having problems.

Then you are done. I place my beautyberry jelly in the water bath canner for 10 minutes.

My kids love my homemade jams and jellies. We add them to our biscuits, toast, and pancakes. We are trying this year to not eat cereal. It is expensive and full of bad ingredients.

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