I am not much a gardener but that doesn't stop me year after year from planting a few things. This year I did mostly herbs and tried tomatoes again, I did manage to get a few red peppers, but mostly an abundance of thyme. For what ever reason the thyme took off and I had more than I new what to do with. I like thyme a lot but you don't need very much to roast a chicken or add to a bouquet garni so I had an abundance of thyme and not as many ideas as to what to do with it. I tossed around the Idea of a thyme sorbet but am not sure how I would pull that off. Last year my grandmother had given me a jar of basil jelly, so I thought, why not try a thyme jelly.
I went out to pick the thyme that I was going to need but had no Idea how much I was going to need to make up the two cups of packed leaves the recipe called for. I knew I had plenty of thyme, I just wasn't sure how much to cut. So I cut about a one gallon bucket full and started to pick the leaves off the stems, this was the most difficult part of the process. It took almost an hour of picking before I was able to get the required two cups of leaves. It was at this time that I realized that I hadn't even checked to see if I had jars, so I had to run out to the garage and thankfully I had a few jam jars left over from last year.
The jelly was very easy to make and I had a little extra thyme left over, so I made some thyme honey butter and some corn bread to enjoy with my jam. The thyme honey buttter is very easy to make, it is just 1 stick of butter, 3 tablespoons buckwheat honey and one tablespoon fresh thyme leaves. It is really tasty and the buckwheat honey and the thyme really compliment each other magnificently. I am really looking froward to trying the jelly in as many ways as I can. I was thinking about using it as a glaze for a pork roast. We will have to see if that works out.
Thyme Jelly
2 cups packed thyme leaves
1 3/4 cups frozen apple juice concentrate
1 3/4 cups water
1 box Sure Jell
few drops green food coloring
5 cups sugar
Bring thyme, apple juice and water to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let steep a few hours. Strain and reserve 3 cups liquid. Discard leaves.
Mix infusion and pectin, stir and bring to rolling boil, add sugar, stir and bring to rolling boil, boil 1 min. Pour into sterilized jars, process 10 min in boiling water bath. Makes 6 half-pints.
