Alaska / Recipes

Fireweed Jelly

We may not be harvesting tomatoes or corn or green beans, but Alaska has its own harvest. Right now the wild huckleberries are starting, and we have a lot of ripe watermelon berries along our lane. The cranberries will be ripening in about a month and the fireweed is in full swing.
Fireweed got its name because it is one of the first things to grow after a forest fire. It grows prolifically along the road and we have a lot in our meadow and along the lane. It is a beautiful purple color and makes awesome jelly that tastes quite a bit like grape jelly.
The fun part about making fireweed jelly is that it actually requires you to go out and pick a bunch of flowers. I love picking flowers and I think it’s pretty wonderful to put “pick armfuls of beautiful flowers” on my to-do list.

Watermelon berries in a patch of Fireweed.

Low bush cranberries

How to make Fireweed Jelly

Pick off enough fireweed blossoms to make around eight cups. Put in a sauce pan with 2-3 cups of water. Boil until all the color is gone from the petals and then strain the juice into a container. The juice will be dark purple.

Put 2 1/2 cups of fireweed juice in a pan.

Add 1 teaspoon butter and 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Add 1 1.75 oz box Surejell and bring to a rolling boil.

Boil one minute.

Add 3 cups sugar and bring to a boil again, stirring constantly.

Boil one minute.

Remove from heat and pour into jars. Put lids and rings on and water bath ten minutes.

1 thought on “Fireweed Jelly

  1. I’ve never heard of the likes of fireweed jelly. Wow! There’s so much variety in this good old earth.

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