Queen Anne's Lace Jelly

It all started with my youngest sister.  She mentioned that someone she knew used to make jelly out of those flowers that grow all over the place around here.  Jelly?  Out of what is essentially a weed?  Interesting...  The idea blossomed (pardon the pun) and I knew I was going to have to give it a try.

First I gathered the flower heads and poured boiling water over them.  They were set aside to steep and make an infusion.  Some recipes call to let it steep for 5 hours or overnight. Some say for at least 15 minutes. I let mine go for about an hour.

At this point you strain the liquid to remove all the flower heads and any other stray, um.. anything... that might be floating.

  Pour into a stainless steel pot and for each 2 1/2 cups of infusion - add the juice of one lemon and a packet of powdered pectin.

Bring to a boil and add 3 cups of sugar for every 2 1/2 cups of infusion.  Boil hard for 1 minute.

Skim it, pour it into sterilized jelly jars, and seal.

And VOILA!! 

I was concerned that my jelly wouldn't set up at first, but it seems to have jelled nicely once left to sit overnight.  My second small worry is that everything I read that mentioned a color talked about pink.  I even saw a picture.  Mine isn't a shade I would call pink.  I did see reference in a few places to adding pink color if desired, so maybe that's the key is that it's typically food colored.  I'm secretly hoping that's it and not that I screwed something up.

Next up:  Wine Jelly!!