If you have never made hedgerow jelly before, or failed in the past, let me share this easy and reliable recipe with you for Rowan and Crabapple Jelly.

You can substitute the Rowan with Sloe or Elderberry if you are too late for Rowans, and use cooking apples instead of crabapple if you don’t have them. This simple, delicious and easy to follow recipe will bring your Sunday lunch to life and is a delightful accompaniment to many meals.

Ingredients:

1.2kgs/2.5lbs Crabapples (or cooking apples)

1.2kgs/2.5lbs Rowan berries (or sloes)

Juice of one lemon

Approximately 1.5lbs Sugar although this will vary on the amount of liquid your fruit produces

Water

All you need is a stainless steel preserving pan, ladle and approx 12 jam jars (or 6 medium Kilners), plus a square of muslin or cheesecloth and strong cotton string.

Wash the fruit and de-stalk, chop the apples roughly.

Put fruit in a preserving pan and cover generously with water.

Simmer for 20 minutes till fruit is soft.

Strain the liquid through the muslin, hang the bag over a bowl to catch the drips for a few hours, reserving the juice as this is the important part!

Next measure the liquid, then add the juice of one lemon.

Place the liquid in the preserving pan with 450g of sugar to every 600ml of water (1lb sugar to 1 pint of water).

Put a sauce in the fridge ready to test your set, and your clean jam jars in the oven on a low heat ready to bottle the jelly.

Next is the most important part…

Gently heat the pan till all the sugar is dissolved – only then bring to the boil (this prevents crystallisation later)

Once you have a really rolling boil set a timer for 10 minutes.

after the boil, turn the pan off and test your set on the chilled plate – a blob of jelly returned to the fridge for a couple of minutes should wrinkle and form a skin when pushed along the plate.

Now you are ready to jar, label and seal with a wax disc and tight lids.

Variations are to add woody herbs such as rosemary in the first simmer, try using sloes or redcurrant or all crabapple- this works well with the red crabapples for colour.