Wild Foraging: Beauty Berry Jelly

This post contains Affiliate Links.

     For years, I told my son, "Don't eat the purple berries! They will kill you!" For years, I believed, "If you could eat it, it would be in the store." Right? 
     Fast foward a few years later, I was over on Foraging Texas when I stumbled upon his page American Beauty Berry. Well, as it turns out, you CAN eat the purple berries! We have several bushes on our property. However, by themselves, they are not so great and they really don't have very much nutritional value. Not poisonous, but not really a great find for foraging. Boo. Then I heard about Beauty Berry Jelly. Most that have tried it say it has an intriguing, yet delicious taste to it. Zoey and I decided we were going to make some. 
     

     
     Finding the brightly colored berries was easy. Picking them was pretty easy as well. You just slide your hand down a branch and pop them off right into your bowl. When they are on the branches, their looks like a whole lot of berries. However, even after we stripped nearly all of the bushes in our yard, we were not sure if there was going to be enough to make the jelly with. We were going to try anyways. 

"Hey Zoey, let me get a picture of you and the berries before we go inside."

      Yes, she looks like her daddy, but this kid is sooo me! :D 

     First the berries had to be picked through and washed thoroughly. We ended up getting leaves, twigs and bugs in with them. I did not get a picture, but I figure you don't want to really see all that anyways. Then we looked for recipes to make our jelly. The best one we found was at Hogtown Home Grown. I did not have Low Sugar Pectin or Raw Sugar so we followed the directions on the back of the package of Sure-Jell that we did have and used regular sugar.  We followed her instructions except for that. 

This is what the berries look like after being boiled. 

Zoey mashed them.

By this point we have boiled down the mixture, added the sugar, lemon, Sure-Jell and we are now ready to start loading our jars. 

      We filled 6 of the 8 oz. Jelly Jars and 3 of the little 4 oz. Jelly Jars. There was also a little left over that we nibbled on.  So how does it taste? It is really hard to describe. Definitely not your ordinary grape jelly! It has a more... sophisticated.. taste to it? AND IT IS AMAZING! It has replaced our favorite jellies on everything from PB&J to buttered biscuits. 

We can't wait to make it again this August!   

Get the recipe Here:

Learn More About American Beauty Berry Here:

Please use extreme caution when foraging for wild edibles. Do your own research. We are not responsible for any misidentifying of plants you make while on your own. Never eat anything you are not sure of.

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

A Foraging We Will Go!

This post contains Affiliate Links, but most of them are not. 

'Every thing we need to survive is in nature. Knowledge and effort are the only other thing required.'

-Sean O'Hair (A friend in UNITY) 

So What Exactly Is Foraging?

'Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce.^[1] Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment where the animal lives.' -Wikipedia

     A very important and often neglected skill for survival is foraging. Being able to find edible food in the wild will be a must in a SHTF scenario. I want to be able to provide for my family in any situation, and for my children to also be able to find food for themselves! Times are already tough. Foraging is a wealth of FREE food found in your area just waiting to be picked! 
     In today's times, people think you are nuts if you forage for food. Why when there is a grocery store on every corner? It was not always this way. For thousands of years people foraged for their food. It was not until grocery stores became so popular that people stopped looking in their gardens and in their yards for their daily meals. So why has this time old tradition become lost? Well think on this, when grocery stores opened they did not carry items you could find in your yard. Why would they sell something you could gather for free? As time went on and people became so dependent on shopping at grocery stores alone, they began to forget about the items in their yards. Convenience replaced what we used to do naturally. 
     While on our quest for self sufficiency and eating more natural, we discovered Wild Crafting and Foraging. (Those are affiliate links to help you understand what I am talking about, they are also on my 'wish list') We are also learning about healing herbs and how to be healthy naturally. In February, we will start taking herbal/medicinal classes at StarDragonFly Herbal Company. They are in a town about 20 minutes from us. Zoey and I visited one day when my mom had an appointment in the same town. I wish I had gotten pictures. The little shop is absolutely amazing! I will get photos next time for sure! We are excited to start learning with them! Our family friend from Time to Thyme sells some of her wonderful soaps and products in there. I squealed when I found them beautifully displayed on a table. 

Here are a few of our favorite wild foraging plants in our area.
(Okay, there is only 1 right now but there will be more soon!) Wild Onions

Here are some pictures of some of the plants we have found on our property..

Day Lillies 

Wild Violets

Honey Suckle

Dew Berries

White Clover 

Canna Lillies

Lichen

Heal's All

Henbit

Sheppard's Purse

 We have found a few others as well. At my mom's, I found these in her yard. Working on identifying them. Do you know what they could possibly be? 

Some sort of plantain or dock?

Great sites to learn about foraging, herbs, wildcrafting and useful recipes:
(I have not been paid or compensated for endorsing these sites.)

http://learningherbs.com/

http://herbalacademyofne.com/

http://www.foragingtexas.com/

http://melissaknorris.com

http://survivalathome.com

http://gnowfglins.com

http://survivalsherpa.wordpress.com

http://learningandyearning.com

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.