Mulberry Jelly

3 3⁄4 cups juice (takes 1 full ice cream bucket – 5 quarts – of berries)

1⁄2 cup lemon juice

1 package pectin

5 1⁄2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon butter

Wash berries and cook slowly over low heat until they are basically mush. Put through a colander (I use a metal cone-shaped one), smashing them with a wooden pestle. Then take the juice and run it through a fine sieve to remove the seeds.

Measure out 3 3⁄4 cups juice, then add lemon juice and pectin; bring to full rolling boil. Add sugar and butter. Return to rolling boil and stir for 5 minutes. This is longer than normal according to the pectin directions, but there is something about mulberries that requires more boiling time. Strangely, this boiling time can be decreased by 1 to 2 minutes at the end of the season. The berries from the first two weeks of harvest require more boiling.

Ladle hot mixture into jars and seal; process in a boiling-water bath for 5 minutes. I let it set up a minimum of two weeks. There have been times it took months to set up.