Sweet Pepper Jelly

There’s a story behind these little jars of jelly that I’d never made before. Here goes.

Last fall, I saved the seeds from a sweet pepper to see if I could get them to germinate in the spring. Well, they did—all 42 of them.

I never thought they’d germinate that well. The problem is, I have a hard time discarding seedlings that have germinated. So I transplanted all of them into pots. By mid-May, I had pepper plants growing in the raised beds, in Jimmy’s urban gardens and too close together in a converted flower bed on the east side of the house.

The plants were all hat, no cowboy until early August. Then all of a sudden we had peppers of all sizes, and I started looking for new ways to preserve them.

I found the recipe for this jelly in the Ball Blue Book. Although it’s a two-day process, it sounded interesting. So I tried it, putting it in little half-ounce jars.

I should have put it in pints and made twice as much because Jimmy LOVES it. This stuff is great on crackers. Jimmy likes it on Ritz “Everything” crackers. I’m betting it’s good on cheese and crackers, with cream cheese, on a charcuterie board, you name it.

Let me know your thoughts and how you like it.

Ingredients: fresh sweet peppers, apple cider vinegar, apple juice, sugar, salt,

natural fruit pectin, tiny bit of green food coloring