Soda Pop Jelly ~ "Pop Test"

The nail polish on my nails is no longer there.  I'm back to the garden and more preserving again.  It will be a treat when I get the next break, but wood splitting is about to take over too.

Hubby and I were at the Farmer's market a while back, and he told me he wanted to buy "Root beer" jelly.  I looked at him and cringed.  I really should be roasting more pie pumpkins, pulling more out of the garden, and so forth.  I knew he wanted me to make it vs. him buy it, so I did.  

Well, I decided that if I made this, that there would be a consolation prize for me.  Hm.  Maybe a new purse perhaps?  I'll have to think on that and get back with Hubby on that "prize" but I needed to make the jelly first. 

The first challenge was . . .
to find a "pop" that was made with real ingredients as possible.  Most soda pop is manufactured with high fructose syrup or inverted cane sugar (contains fructose). 

I found  two brands (one orange found in the the Mexican food section of a local grocery store, and one root beer made in the US) that contain pure cane sugar.  Aside from making our own root beer, this was the next best thing to use.  I used a recipe I found online using 3 cups sugar, one 12 oz. bottle of root beer and liquid pectin.  There are several, but do read the reviews on all canning recipes before you try making one.  If you are a regular jelly maker, this one is super easy to make.

You should have seen Hubby when he saw "Frostie" root beer on the table.

"OH! You can't buy that and not give me one!  he scolded me, "My dad used to take me to get one every day after school!" 

Since this is what I call a "specialty" jelly, I canned it in 4 oz. jars vs. half pints.   The recipe yields 7 - 4 oz. jars (or 3 1/2 - half pints.  There is no nutritional value in it like there is with fruit jams, so I thought the smaller jars would be nice for gifting this Christmas.  

This morning, two girls tasted the root beer jelly, along with myself.  It contains the flavor, and you really can taste the root beer in it.  There were a few "okays" and one "I don't like it."   We still need to taste the orange pop jelly and then on a PB & J sandwich to give it that test.

Recently, we did a "pop test" on our homegrown popcorn.  A few kernels popped a little bit, but not completely.  It needs to dry more on the stalk, and then I have idea to dry it more in the sun later if needed.  As you can see some corn cobs are small is size, but it did grow.  We planted a non-gmo/black popcorn.

I got three more quart bags of carrots in the freezer, and have more to dig up.  I had to do some weeding to find them yesterday (oh dear me, I have let the weeds take over again).