We have long had beauty berry bushes in our yard. They are a native species to Florida and pretty easy to grow. Callicarpa americana is their scientific name.
I knew they were not poisonous and a year or so ago I saw friends mentioning on facebook that they were making jelly from them. This year lots of people on my Florida Urban Homesteading facebook group were making jelly from them so I decided to give it a try.
It is pretty easy to spot the clusters of bright purple berries.
I used one of the recipes from this book: Florida's Incredible Edibles by Richard Deuerling that I had purchased for my daughter last summer. She took a wilderness survival camp at the Tallahassee Natural History Museum and wanted to learn more about wild edible plants.
The recipe called for one and half quart of washed berries. I was able to gather that quickly from just three of our bushes.
But as you boil them something happens, they turn this brown color.
The extraction looks like tea when you are done with it and you really wonder how this jelly will turn out.
Then something magical starts to happen when you mix in the sugar and pectin.
It turns a pinkish purple color.
And you end up with a very attractive jelly.
