Mayhaw Jelly Juice

I was looking through my “future blog posts” folder & realized I never share it before! One day I was talking about figuring out what to blog about & my dad suggested posting about mayhaw jelly. I was quite certain at the time that I had already posted about it, but no, no I have not. Sorry Dad! Anyway, these pictures are all from April 2018 & for some reason I took them all in portrait mode. Either way I hope y’all enjoy the post! : )

Mayhaw Tree

Now I know some of y’all are thinking – what the heck is a mayhaw Kristie? Well, it’s a little red berry that grows on a tree that has big thorns on the limbs. They like to grow in wet areas, so the hot, humid, swampy south is usually where you’ll find them. The berries ripen between April & May, which is partly where the name comes from. The tree the berries grow on is called a hawthorne tree, so I’m guessing that’s where the second part comes from. You don’t pick the berries, they fall off when they’re ripe. That’s why there’s plastic under the trees….

Plus, since they tend to grow where it’s wet it just makes them easier to get to. You can also shake the tree to help them come off. That’s Dad, shakin’ it up! : D

Now most people crawl around or sit on a stool to pick up the berries. Dad figured out it was easier on the knees if he blew all the berries into one area…

These berries are small, about the size of a blueberry, so it takes a minute to fill up a gallon bucket. That’s about what it takes to make a batch of jelly.

I had to do a close up because I felt like the orange bucket was making the berries look paler than they are…

It would be great if we had smell-o-vision too! These berries smell amazing!

Mayhaw Jelly Juice

While the berries do have an amazing smell, they don’t really taste that good. They have a bitter/sour taste with very little sweetness.

The inside has lots of seeds & very little meat. Despite the bitter taste of the berry, they do make a delicious jelly!

After washing & picking out stems, I put them into a big canning pot & covered them with about an inch of water. You have to bring them to a rolling boil then turn it down a bit to keep it from boiling out of the pot. The berries float on the top until they have cooked down more.

You can see that they will start to loose their nice red color…

You basically boil them until they turn a pail yellow color…

Once they’re done, I turn off the pot & let it sit to cool. You can see the berries have sunk to the bottom of the pot & the water is a nice reddish pink color.

I pour out the liquid a little at a time through a larger strainer, collecting the juice in a bowl below it. The berries will lose nearly all of their color during the boiling process. I still smash them in the strainer to get out all of the juice.

When the bowl is full, I take that and pour it through a mesh strainer, stacked on a funnel, sitting inside a clean milk jug. This removes most of the smaller debris in the juice. It’s also a bit of a balancing act & there are probably better ways to do this! : D

I leave a little space at the top because I will put this directly into the deep freezer.

I’ll keep it there until I’m ready to make a batch of jelly. Which tends to happen once the weather cools off & I need gifts to hand out, ha ha! Well, I hope y’all enjoyed learning about mayhaws & what it takes to get that delicious mayhaw jelly. It’s a real southern delicacy & highly recommend trying some if you’re in the area! : )

Other posts you might like:

• Peach Cobbler Pound Cake
• Oatmeal Pecan Pie