Making Apple Jelly From an Urban Tree

This is about as local as food gets; I got permission from my neighbours to pick enough of the apples that grow in their front yard to make jelly. It's an easy but time-consuming process.

Chop up the apples, leaving skins and cores on if you like, and not worrying too much about bruises or insect damage. For every full pound of apples, put ¾ cup of water in a pot, with half a cinnamon stick, two or three cloves and a thumb's worth of sliced ginger. Feel free to vary the spices. I used four pounds of apples; you get about five small- to medium-sized apples per pound.

Bring the water, apples and spices to the boil and then turn the heat way down and let the mixture simmer until the apples have broken down. Then you hang the hot pulp over a bowl in cheesecloth or a wide-weave dish towel and let the juice drip into a bowl. (Tip: wet the cloth with water first so it doesn't soak up a lot of valuable juice.)

The dripping process can literally take all night; allow eight to twelve hours. However, you must resist the urge to squeeze the cloth bag to hurry it up; this will make the jelly cloudy. When you think it's done, measure the liquid, and add 1 pound of sugar for every 2½ cups of juice. Combine them in a pot and boil gently until setting point is reached, then pour into sterilized jars and process to seal them, as described in my post about making raspberry jam.

You can eat apple jelly on toast; it's also lovely as a condiment with sharp cheddar cheese or roast lamb.