Florida Fall

To live in Florida means fall arrives without the fanfare of changing leaves and cold temps. It’s a subtle change; the days becoming shorter, the sweet gum trees drop their ‘witches burr’ (seed pods), and the southern oaks drop once green leaves; there’s no grand color change – green -> brown -> fall. Temps become less surface-of-the-sun, which makes time spent outside more enjoyable, even allowing one to wear a sweater at night. It’s a subtle change that requires one to pay attention.

The land gives other tells; the golden rod blooms and the beauty berry fruit ripens. Perfect for making some yum yum for later.

This is the American Beautyberry, and it grows everywhere. The fruit has a slight bitterness, good to eat, and the leaves make an effective bug spray, safe for the skin.

Today, I picked leaves to dry for making bug spray, the berries for jelly. It’s kind of late in the season, so many of the remaining berries I left on the bush, same could be said of the leaves.

After a good wash & sort, I was left with 2 cups of berries. Into the pot with about 3 cups of water (I didn’t measure, my apologies), brought to a boil.

To this boil, I added a box of pectin, to the next boil was added 2 1/4 cups sugar, and the final boil went on for 1 min before labeling into three saved jelly jars. Normally, I’d put these in a hot water canner but am missing the requisit jars, lids, and bands; these will live in the refrigerator. Sometimes, being a jar gnome has it advantages.

You know I couldn’t wait to taste and this jelly is delightful. Check out that color! Cannot wait to smear some of this across a bit of toast.

Now it’s your turn – what are you foraging?